The following is a copy from my blog.
The OpenBCI Cyton and Ganglion boards are open hardware and maker-friendly biosensing systems. Although there are alternatives, such as Bitalino and OpenEEG and some companies and/or projects are currently working on new hardware (see e.g. EEG.io), the OpenBCI boards are in my opinion at this moment still the best.
The maker-friendlyness of the OpenBCI boards is somehow also a disadvantage: the OpenBCI systems come as bare PCB boards with a Dupont-style header. OpenBCI (the company) focusses on using it in combination with dry electrodes mounted in a 3D printed headset. I personally don’t value dry electrodes that much; I don’t see the problem with a little bit of gel in the participants hair, and I don’t like the pressure needed on dry electrodes to provide a decent signal. Electrodes with gel or Ten20 paste usually provide better and more robust signal quality. However, it depends on the situation: dry (or saline, like the Emotiv Epoc) electrodes are great if you quickly want to swap the EEG system from one participant to the other.
For the 1+1=3 performances using the EEGsynth setup, we not only use EEG recorded from the scalp, but also EMG recorded from muscle and ECG recordings from the heart. The standard in research and clinical applications is to use touch-proof connectors, technically known as DIN 42802 connectors. These are available in many versions, such as cup electrodes for EEG and snap electrodes for EGC and EMG.
The Dupont-style headers are ubiquitous in the Arduino scene, therefore I previously designed an 8-channel head-mounted system based on a sweat band with the amplifier mounted at the back. It is comfortable and works quite well during performances, but it is still a bit fragile, especially when replacing the battery (see below). Furthermore, after prolonged use the gold-plating of the electrodes wears off, and replacing the electrodes is a hassle. The advantage of touch-proof connector is that it is much easier to switch between different types (cup versus stick-on) and to replace worn-out electrodes. I guess this is also one of the motivations for OpenBCI also selling a Touch Proof Electrode Adapter. Connecting the adapter to the correct pins of the 11×2 header is not trivial, and results in a relatively fragile and bulky setup, i.e. not ideal in demonstrations/performances where I want stuff to be robust.
Another issue that I have with the OpenBCI boards is that they use a two-pin JST connector to connect the LiPo battery to the board. These JST connectors are not designed for frequent connect/disconnect cycles. To disconnect the battery for recharging, you have to pull the cable and I have accidentally pulled off the header from the cable more than once…
Based on these experiences I decided to make an enclosure for the OpenBCI boards that is robust in performance/demonstration settings, that uses touch-proof connectors so that it can be used with EEG/EMG/ECG equally well, that is compatible both with the Cyton and Ganglion, and that includes an easy to charge LiPo battery.
The 8-channel Cyton board exposes a lot of the flexibility of the ADS1299 analog frontend like common reference versus bipolar, and normal ground versus active bias, but I typically use it with a common reference and the normal ground. Consequently it needs 10 connectors (8x active, REF, GND). The Ganglion board has 4 channels and can be configured with jumpers for either unipolar and bipolar reference schemes. It hence needs 6 (4x active + common REF + GND) electrode connectors, or 9 (4x active + 4x bipolar REF + GND) electrode connectors. An enclosure design with 10 connectors (4x active, 4x bipolar REF, 1x common REF and 1x GND) therefore supports both reference schemes for the Ganglion.
The external dimensions of the enclosure are 100x100x30 mm. The height is needed for the 10 connectors, but also has the advantage that it should be possible to mount a WiFi shield on top of the board.
The internals of the enclosure are shown here. At the top you see a 850 mAh LiPo battery, connected to a LiPo charger/protector module with micro-USB connector. The on/off switch is this one and the LED is 5 mm diameter. I used a RGB LED, since that was the only that I had available, but I am only using a single color (green) connected through 470 Ohm resistor to the on/off switch. Both the OpenBCI board inside and the lid are secured with 2.5 mm screws. I purchased the touch-proof connectors from Medcat; these are actually the most expensive component of the enclosure.
Here you can see it with the OpenBCI board mounted, but still without the leads between the OpenBCI header and the touch-proof connectors.
The 3D design for the enclosure can be downloaded in STL format or as Fusion 360 project from ThingiVerse.
We can’t wait to give the new enclosures a try with the EEGsynth! The cable arrangement for EEG might be less ideal than with the current headband version. But the robustness of the housing, with no need to open it for charging, with no amplifier that falls off the velcro, housing the wifi shield inside, with easy replacing of the electrode leads and using snap electrodes, are all clear advantages. It will be especially useful for EMG and ECG in combination with the ganglion board.
2 replies on “New touch-proof enclosure for OpenBCI”
Dear Robert, have you tried to charge the battery and use the openbci at the same time without losing data quality? Is the protection circuit enought to prevent power supply noise from mucking with your signals? Thx!
I have not tried it, but in principle it might work with the LiPo charger. However, I would not do it: the reason that the OpenBCI (and many EEG systems) is battery operated and wireless (or connected with glass fibers) is to ensure that there is no galvanic connection between the subject and the mains voltage. Imagine the charger failing: that could result in 240V on the charger output, and hence on the OpenBCI board, and hence on the subject’s head. So I recommend not to connect it to a subject (or yourself) when charging.