I love seeing fun projects like this, but from what I can see in photos and the GitHub profile I think this would be more appropriate as an open-source hobby project than a $240 commercial product without schematics available.
The board is a minimal implementation of the ADS1299 chip, which is a highly integrated part for EEG measurements. The chip can be purchased for $50 or less in single quantities and your average electronics hobbyist could put together a basic Arduino Shield PCB around it in a weekend. It's a great chip. However, dealing with all of the complexities of low-level measurements is challenging. Getting good, clean signals and managing interference is a complex topic.
The GitHub repo has a lot of empty 'readme.txt' files and scraps of Python scripts, but the manual and documentation are both empty.
It can be wired to an Arduino if you like and it has every possible function of the EEG chip exposed. It also has a much more robust layout and more flexible connections. Getting good measurements of low voltage signals with a 24-bit ADC is complicated, so it's important to have a well designed, tested, and documented solution to use.
Would like to see the schematic and layout of the frontend board and a discussion on different design choices and tradeoffs. I designed something similar years ago (for Electrooculography, but it's the same principle) and getting a clean signal was by far the most challenging and interesting part of the project [0].
I'm not familiar enough with EEG to know whether the author's results are good enough to use it as a BCI, but it seems like they got it to work (with dry electrodes nonetheless). That's a win!
The Github repo says they're using the ADS1299, which is basically an all-in-one solution from TI for biopotential measurements. It's pretty popular, with lots of other examples to reference.
I'd assume they used the standard 5k series resistor/4.7nF filter capacitor arrangement the device recommends.
The above kit can be connected to an Arduino, of course. Or a Raspberry Pi, or your computer via the included USB board, or any other device you have in mind. You don't need to buy a specific board for your target device as long as you can connect the interface pins together.
I strongly recommend that anyone looking to use an ADS1299 EEG simply purchase the EVM from TI and use that instead. It's professionally designed and tested by the company that made the chip, and it's the same price or cheaper as these alternate boards.
This is going back a few years, but we used on our systems, AD620 In-Amp (Instrumentation Op-Amp) front-end IC, and a PIC 16F series micro, some filtering in between, for 2 channels. Even today, I think one could get to 2 or 4 channels with wet saline solution, with a low BOM (Board-of-Materials) cost.
I used to repair EEG systems, and work as an EEG tech.
I'm really excited for Latin America to develop their medical industry.
They don't have the legacy of corruption that US medical has. This means they are open to new techniques, have lower barriers to care, and ofc lower cost.
Given how many times US doctors are incorrect and are treated with multi-thousand dollar procedures... I have a fantasy of visiting multiple Latin American doctors, giving them my test results, and seeing what they think.
Or maybe AI will solve this entirely, and I only need to go to Latin America for things like surgery or pharma.
Whatever the case, I'm entirely over US Physicians as far as I can help it. The arrogance yet high misdiagnosis rate has pushed me into the Realist camp. There is no magic in US medical, just lots of money.
Why on earth Medical is structured to have a single point of failure(The lone doctor), is mind boggling. In Engineering, we have a manager, a senior manager, a director, a plant manager, and program manager all that need to approve something that isnt even life threatening.
Better hope your 1 doctor, who's a C student, legacy grad, got it right!
What is the market for these low-cost EEG devices? I've come across way more companies offering this than I'd expect. I assume all labs at R1 or R2 Universities use equipment from bigger manufacturers, which I think run over $10k for a full EEG setup (no cage).
Neurosky has been around almost 20 years. MindWave Mobile 2 is $130 USD and their offering for an EEG BCI. It has an SDK and they sell Windows-based instrumentation software.
This isn't a medical-grade EEG device at all. This is a hobby-level PCB to connect the ADS1299 chip to an Arduino. This isn't at the level of something you'd use for actual research or patients.
I think the market is people who want to experiment with EEG, but those people would be better served purchasing the ADS1299 evaluation kit from Texas Instruments (which is, coincidentally, the same price as this Arduino shield).
The board is a minimal implementation of the ADS1299 chip, which is a highly integrated part for EEG measurements. The chip can be purchased for $50 or less in single quantities and your average electronics hobbyist could put together a basic Arduino Shield PCB around it in a weekend. It's a great chip. However, dealing with all of the complexities of low-level measurements is challenging. Getting good, clean signals and managing interference is a complex topic.
The GitHub repo has a lot of empty 'readme.txt' files and scraps of Python scripts, but the manual and documentation are both empty.
If anyone wants to play with this EEG chip, you can buy the entire professionally-designed evaluation board with a companion USB motherboard for $240 (the price of this Arduino shield): https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments...
It can be wired to an Arduino if you like and it has every possible function of the EEG chip exposed. It also has a much more robust layout and more flexible connections. Getting good measurements of low voltage signals with a 24-bit ADC is complicated, so it's important to have a well designed, tested, and documented solution to use.