Does Ganglion only support BLED112 dongle? [resolved]

kimheehokimheeho korea
edited April 2021 in OpenBCI_GUI

I purchased a USB Bluetooth dongle and connected it to the PC, but the Bluetooth device is not recognized.
There is the name BLED112 Dongle in the control program. Should I
use only this product?
Is it not possible to use it in any other way?

Comments

  • retiututretiutut Louisiana, USA
    edited April 2021

    It's almost impossible to account for hardware that can not be tested. The GUI specifically checks for the BLED112 dongle product name from the dongle that is sold in the shop.

  • retiututretiutut Louisiana, USA

    Before in the GUI, it would list all COM ports. But for many users there are 5+ ports on their OS, and it made it difficult for users to get connected for the first time, or they had to scroll in a Cp5 MenuList to see the correct option.

  • retiututretiutut Louisiana, USA

    @kimheeho If you really need this, I can help you change some code in the GUI and make a custom version for your use.

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    I understand that likely ALL other usb Bluetooth dongles interface to the OS through the Bluetooth OS stack. In other words, these dongles use a specific API geared to Bluetooth functions,

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/windows.devices.bluetooth

    The BLED112 on the other hand, is a serial port (COM) device, which does NOT use the above API. It has its own command / response set based on serial IO.

    In the ancient past, the first Ganglion release supported the 'CSR' dongles, Cambridge Software Radio, which used the Windows Bluetooth API. However the installation requirements (using Zadig etc.) were onerous and problematic for many users. As well on Mac hardware lacking built in Bluetooth, the CSR dongle approach was not workable. Hence the BLED112 offered an excellent way out of this dilemma.

    Regards, William

  • retiututretiutut Louisiana, USA

    William is correct that it would have to be some brand/kind of "BLED112" USB device to have any chance of working.

  • @retiutut said:
    @kimheeho If you really need this, I can help you change some code in the GUI and make a custom version for your use.

    How do I get help with this?

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    @kimheeho, please re-read the comments above. The BLED112 is the only dongle that will work with Ganglion.

    See this thread for a link where you can buy the BLED112 directly from a distributor in Korea.

    https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/2052/should-i-buy-bluetooth-dongle-on-this-web-or-can-i-use-another-one

  • I purchased the BLED112 dongle and inserted it into the PC.
    The GUI program does not search for BLED112, and the device manager displays it normally.
    What is the problem?

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    @kimheeho, hi.

    I merged your update into this existing thread.

    The GUI program does not search for BLED112, and the device manager displays it normally.

    Your snapshot of the Device Manager, seems to be showing Korean text. Do you actually see "BLED112" there? If this Korean purchased BLED112 does not identify itself in the same way as US purchased BLED112 devices, then it's possible that the GUI can not see it.

    Richard @retiutut, can the GUI be forced to select the BLED112 from a manual operation? I thought previous GUI versions allowed selection from a list.

    Regards, William

  • retiututretiutut Louisiana, USA
    edited April 2021

    We limited the list to dongles that had a specific product name. Many users would see a list of 5+ serial ports, and this made them have to scroll and search for the correct port. GUI will need to be modified to use anything besides official dongles for Cyton+Ganglion from https://shop.openbci.com.

    Looks like I have already typed this information here. :sweat_smile:

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    Richard, Kim says he has purchased a BLED112 from the Korean distributor, link I supplied to him:

    https://kr.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Silicon-Labs-Bluegiga/BLED112-V1?qs=2bnkQPT%2BPaf%2BBQ6Sw8mJqQ==

    I'm surprised it is not identifying itself as BLED112, but instead shows a bunch of Korean letters in the Device Manager screen he posted above. It's possible he got the wrong dongle by mistake.

    @kimheeho, can you confirm that the tiny letters on the metal part of the dongle show 'Model: BLED112' ? On the one I have this is printed just below the 'top' portion which reads 'bluegiga'. Near the bottom is the 'CE' certification mark.

    William

  • retiututretiutut Louisiana, USA
    edited April 2021

    Steps:

    If it doesn't work after these steps, then the device is not compatible with the lowest level of BLED112 communication in BrainFlow.

    Alternatively, you could try using BrainFlow Python and specify the port name for the dongle there.

    For these reasons, we recommend users select the dongle from the Shop when purchasing a Ganglion, as we have fully tested and debugged this device https://shop.openbci.com/collections/frontpage/products/ganglion-dongle.

    This likely all the info you need to make the changes to the GUI for your needs.

    Take Care,
    RW

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA

    Richard, thanks. I'm beginning to doubt that Kim actually purchased from the BLED112 distributor link I gave him on April 4. I find it hard to believe that an American company (Silicon Labs / bluegiga) would alter their dongle to output a Korean text string as product ID. The Korean Mouser distributor link above shows the EXACT BLED112 product, same as sold in the US Mouser warehouse. PDF link on the Mouser Korean site is also entirely English.

    Hopefully Kim will comment here on what he has.

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