OpenBCI WiFi Shield NodeJS SDK
Make programming with OpenBCI reliable, easy, research grade and fun!
Welcome!
First and foremost, Welcome!
Thank you for visiting the OpenBCI WiFi Shield NodeJS SDK repository.
This document (the README file) is a hub to give you some information about the project. Jump straight to one of the sections below, or just scroll down to find out more.
- What are we doing? (And why?)
- Who are we?
- What do we need?
- How can you get involved?
- Get in touch
- Find out more
- Understand the jargon
What are we doing?
The problem
- Users continuously struggle to get prerequisites properly installed to get current OpenBCI Cyton and Ganglion, hours/days/weeks are wasted just trying to get the data.
- Bluetooth requires you to stay close to your computer, if you go to far, data is lost and the experiment is over.
- Bluetooth is too slow for transmitting research grade EEG, researchers want 1000Hz (samples per second), bluetooth with 8 channels is limted to 250Hz and with 16 channels limited to 125Hz.
- Bluetooth is unreliable when many other Bluetooth devices are around, demo device or use in busy real life experiment is not reliable. (think grand central station at rush hour)
- Bluetooth requires data to be sent to desktops in raw or compressed form, must use other node modules to parse complex byte streams, prevents from running in browser.
- OpenBCI Cyton (8 and 16 channel) with Bluetooth cannot go to any mobile device because of required Bluetooth-to-USB "Dongle". Must use USB port on Desktop/Laptop computers.
- Bluetooth on Ganglion requires low level drivers to use computers bluetooth hardware.
- The OpenBCI Cyton and Ganglion must transmit data to another computer over Bluetooth before going to the cloud for storage or analytics
- OpenBCI Cyton Dongle FTDI virtual comm port drivers have high latency by default which limits the rate at which new data is made available to your application to twice a second when it should get data as close to 250 times a second.
- Using Cyton or Ganglion NodeJS drivers requires the use of native C++ modules which continuously confuse developers of all levels.
So, if even the very best developers integrate the current easy to use Cyton and Ganglion NodeJS drivers, they are still burdened by the limitations of the physical hardware on the OpenBCI system.
The solution
The OpenBCI WiFi Shield NodeJS SDK will:
- Find, connect, sync, and configure (e.g. set sample rate) with OpenBCI WiFi Shield and Carrier board (Ganglion or Cyton or Cyton with Daisy) in a single function call
- Use TCP over WiFi to prevent packet loss
- Relies on zero native C++ modules
- Enable streaming of high speed (samples rates over 100Hz), low latency (by default, send data every 10ms), research grade EEG (no lost data) directly to any internet connected device (i.e. iPhone, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi 3)
- With WiFi Shield you can now use OpenBCI Ganglion and Cyton anywhere you have a good enough WiFi signal.
- Hotspots create a stable wireless transmission system even in crowded areas
Using WiFi physically solves limitations with the current state-of-the-art open source bio sensor. The goal for the WiFi Shield firmware was to create a one up data pipeline, where scientific data in JSON is sent instead of raw/compressed ADC counts (yuk!) to make programming with OpenBCI reliable, easy, research grade and fun!
Who are we?
The founder of the OpenBCI WiFi Shield NodeJS SDK is AJ Keller.
AJ is an invited member of the 4th cohort Open Leaders Cohort of the Mozilla Science Lab who brought together open science advocates from around the world to participate in the first Working Open Workshop in Berlin in February 2016. The training exercises (which are free and easy to reuse) focused on how to build and effectively engage communities so they can work together to develop tools and resources for the greater good.
What do we need?
You! In whatever way you can help.
We need expertise in programming, user experience, software sustainability, documentation and technical writing and project management.
We'd love your feedback along the way.
Our primary goal is to make programming with OpenBCI reliable, easy, research grade and fun, and we're excited to support the professional development of any and all of our contributors. If you're looking to learn to code, try out working collaboratively, or translate you skills to the digital domain, we're here to help.
Get involved
If you think you can help in any of the areas listed above (and we bet you can) or in any of the many areas that we haven't yet thought of (and here we're sure you can) then please check out our contributors' guidelines and our roadmap.
Please note that it's very important to us that we maintain a positive and supportive environment for everyone who wants to participate. When you join us we ask that you follow our code of conduct in all interactions both on and offline.
Contact us
If you want to report a problem or suggest an enhancement we'd love for you to open an issue at this github repository because then we can get right on it. But you can also contact AJ by email (pushtheworldllc AT gmail DOT com) or on twitter.
You can also hang out, ask questions and share stories in the OpenBCI NodeJS room on Gitter.
Find out more
You might be interested in:
- Purchase a WiFi Shield from OpenBCI
- A NodeJS example for WiFi Shield: getStreaming.js
And of course, you'll want to know our:
Thank you
Thank you so much (Danke schön! Merci beaucoup!) for visiting the project and we do hope that you'll join us on this amazing journey to make programming with OpenBCI fun and easy.
Documentation
Table of Contents:
Installation:
We assume you have NodeJS installed already, if you don't please download the latest stable version from NodeJS.
Then simply using the node package manager command line tool, enter:
npm install @openbci/wifi
TL;DR:
Get connected and start streaming right now with the example code.
const Wifi = require('@openbci/wifi');
let wifi = new Wifi({
debug: false,
verbose: true,
latency: 10000
});
wifi.on(k.OBCIEmitterSample, (sample) => {
for (let i = 0; i < wifi.getNumberOfChannels(); i++) {
console.log("Channel " + (i + 1) + ": " + sample.channelData[i].toFixed(8) + " Volts.");
// prints to the console
// "Channel 1: 0.00001987 Volts."
// "Channel 2: 0.00002255 Volts."
// ...
// "Channel 8: -0.00001875 Volts."
}
});
wifi.searchToStream({
sampleRate: 1000 // Custom sample rate
shieldName: 'OpenBCI-2C34', // Enter the unique name for your wifi shield
streamStart: true // Call to start streaming in this function
}).catch(console.log);
Developing:
Running:
npm install
Testing:
npm test
Contribute:
- Checkout contributors' guidelines
- Fork it!
- Branch off of
development
:git checkout development
- Create your feature branch:
git checkout -b my-new-feature
- Make changes
- If adding a feature, please add test coverage.
- Ensure tests all pass. (
npm test
) - Commit your changes:
git commit -m 'Add some feature'
- Push to the branch:
git push origin my-new-feature
- Submit a pull request. Make sure it is based off of the
development
branch when submitting! :D
License:
MIT
General Overview
Initialization
Initializing the board:
const Wifi = require('../../openBCIWifi');
const ourBoard = new Wifi();
Go checkout out the get streaming example!
For initializing with options, such as verbose print outs:
const Wifi = require('../../openBCIWifi');
const wifi = new Wifi({
verbose: true
});
or if you are using ES6:
import Wifi from '../../openBCIWifi';
import { constants } from '@openbci/utilities';
const wifi = new Wifi();
wifi.connect("OpenBCI-2114");
To debug, it's amazing, do:
const Wifi = require('../../openBCIWifi');
const wifi = new Wifi({
debug: true
});
Sample properties:
-
startByte
(Number
should be0xA0
) -
sampleNumber
(aNumber
between 0-255) -
channelData
(channel data indexed at 0 filled with floating pointNumbers
in Volts) ifsendCounts
is false -
channelDataCounts
(channel data indexed at 0 filled with floating pointNumbers
in Volts) ifsendCounts
is true -
accelData
(Array
with X, Y, Z accelerometer values when new data available) ifsendCounts
is false -
accelDataCounts
(Array
with X, Y, Z accelerometer values when new data available) Only present ifsendCounts
is true -
auxData
(Buffer
filled with either 2 bytes (if time synced) or 6 bytes (not time synced)) -
stopByte
(Number
should be0xCx
where x is 0-15 in hex) -
boardTime
(Number
the raw board time) -
timeStamp
(Number
theboardTime
plus the NTP calculated offset)
The power of this module is in using the sample emitter, to be provided with samples to do with as you wish.
To get a 'sample' event, you need to:
- Install the 'sample' event emitter
- Call
.searchToStream(_options_)
const Wifi = require('../../openBCIWifi');
let wifi = new Wifi({
debug: false,
verbose: true,
latency: 10000
});
wifi.on(k.OBCIEmitterSample, (sample) => {
for (let i = 0; i < wifi.getNumberOfChannels(); i++) {
console.log("Channel " + (i + 1) + ": " + sample.channelData[i].toFixed(8) + " Volts.");
// prints to the console
// "Channel 1: 0.00001987 Volts."
// "Channel 2: 0.00002255 Volts."
// ...
// "Channel 8: -0.00001875 Volts."
}
});
wifi.searchToStream({
sampleRate: 1000 // Custom sample rate
shieldName: 'OpenBCI-2C34', // Enter the unique name for your wifi shield
streamStart: true // Call to start streaming in this function
}).catch(console.log);
Close the connection with .streamStop()
and disconnect with .disconnect()
const Wifi = require('../../openBCIWifi');
const wifi = new Wifi();
wifi.streamStop().then(wifi.disconnect());
Classes
Typedefs
-
InitializationObject :
Object
Wifi
Kind: global class Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
-
Wifi
- new Wifi(options)
-
instance
-
.options :
InitializationObject
- ._accelArray
- .curOutputMode
-
.bufferRawDataPackets(rawDataPackets) ⇒
Array
-
.channelOff(channelNumber) ⇒
Promise.<T>
-
.channelOn(channelNumber) ⇒
Promise.<T>
|*
-
.channelSet(channelNumber, powerDown, gain, inputType, bias, srb2, srb1) ⇒
Promise
-
.impedanceSet(channelNumber, pInputApplied, nInputApplied) ⇒
Promise
-
.connect(o) ⇒
Promise
-
.disconnect() ⇒
Promise
-
.isConnected() ⇒
boolean
-
.isSearching() ⇒
boolean
-
.isStreaming() ⇒
boolean
-
.getBoardType() ⇒
*
-
.getFirmwareVersion() ⇒
String
-
.getIpAddress() ⇒
null
|String
-
.getLatency() ⇒
Number
-
.getMacAddress() ⇒
null
|String
-
.getNumberOfChannels() ⇒
Number
-
.getSampleRate() ⇒
Number
-
.getShieldName() ⇒
null
|String
-
.impedanceStart() ⇒
global.Promise
|Promise
-
.impedanceStop() ⇒
global.Promise
|Promise
-
.searchToStream(o) ⇒
Promise
-
.setSampleRate(sampleRate) ⇒
Promise
-
.syncSampleRate() ⇒
Promise
-
.searchStart() ⇒
Promise
-
.searchStop() ⇒
global.Promise
|Promise
-
.sdStop() ⇒
Promise
-
.syncRegisterSettings() ⇒
Promise.<T>
|*
-
.softReset() ⇒
Promise
-
.eraseWifiCredentials() ⇒
Promise
-
.streamStart() ⇒
Promise
-
.streamStop() ⇒
Promise
-
.syncInfo(o) ⇒
Promise.<TResult>
-
.write(data) ⇒
Promise
- .destroy()
-
.wifiGetLocalPort() ⇒
number
-
.wifiGetLocalPortUDP() ⇒
number
-
.wifiGetLocalPortTCP() ⇒
number
- .wifiInitServer()
-
.delete(path) ⇒
Promise
-
.get(path) ⇒
Promise
-
.post(path, payload) ⇒
Promise
-
.options :
- inner
new Wifi(options)
The initialization method to call first, before any other method.
Param | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
options | InitializationObject |
(optional) - Board optional configurations. |
InitializationObject
wifi.options : Kind: instance property of Wifi
wifi._accelArray
Private Properties (keep alphabetical)
Kind: instance property of Wifi
wifi.curOutputMode
Public Properties (keep alphabetical)
Kind: instance property of Wifi
Array
wifi.bufferRawDataPackets(rawDataPackets) ⇒ This function is for redundancy after a long packet send, the wifi firmware can resend the same packet again, using this till add redundancy on poor networks.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Param | Description |
---|---|
rawDataPackets | - |
Promise.<T>
wifi.channelOff(channelNumber) ⇒ Send a command to the board to turn a specified channel off
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Param |
---|
channelNumber |
Promise.<T>
| *
wifi.channelOn(channelNumber) ⇒ Send a command to the board to turn a specified channel on
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Param |
---|
channelNumber |
Promise
wifi.channelSet(channelNumber, powerDown, gain, inputType, bias, srb2, srb1) ⇒ To send a channel setting command to the board
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- resolves if sent, rejects on bad input or no board
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Param | Description |
---|---|
channelNumber | Number (1-16) |
powerDown | Bool (true -> OFF, false -> ON (default)) turns the channel on or off |
gain | Number (1,2,4,6,8,12,24(default)) sets the gain for the channel |
inputType | String (normal,shorted,biasMethod,mvdd,temp,testsig,biasDrp,biasDrn) selects the ADC channel input source |
bias | Bool (true -> Include in bias (default), false -> remove from bias) selects to include the channel input in bias generation |
srb2 | Bool (true -> Connect this input to SRB2 (default), false -> Disconnect this input from SRB2) Select to connect (true) this channel's P input to the SRB2 pin. This closes a switch between P input and SRB2 for the given channel, and allows the P input to also remain connected to the ADC. |
srb1 | Bool (true -> connect all N inputs to SRB1, false -> Disconnect all N inputs from SRB1 (default)) Select to connect (true) all channels' N inputs to SRB1. This effects all pins, and disconnects all N inputs from the ADC. |
Promise
wifi.impedanceSet(channelNumber, pInputApplied, nInputApplied) ⇒ To send an impedance setting command to the board
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- resolves if sent, rejects on bad input or no board
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Param | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
channelNumber | Number |
(1-16) |
pInputApplied | Boolean |
(true -> ON, false -> OFF (default)) |
nInputApplied | Boolean |
(true -> ON, false -> OFF (default)) |
Promise
wifi.connect(o) ⇒ The essential precursor method to be called initially to establish a ble connection to the OpenBCI ganglion board.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- If the board was able to connect.
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Param | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
o | Object |
|
o.burst | Boolean |
Set this option true to have UDP do burst mode 3x |
o.examineMode | Boolean |
Set this option true to connect to the WiFi Shield even if there is no board attached. |
o.ipAddress | String |
The ip address of the shield if you know it |
o.latency | Number |
If you want to set the latency of the system you can here too. |
o.protocol | String |
Either send the data over TCP or UDP. UDP seems better for either a bad router or slow router. Default is TCP |
o.sampleRate | The sample rate to set the board connected to the wifi shield | |
o.shieldName | String |
If supplied, will search for a shield by this name, if not supplied, will connect to the first shield found. |
o.streamStart | Boolean |
Set true if you want the board to start streaming. |
Promise
wifi.disconnect() ⇒ Closes the connection to the board. Waits for stop streaming command to be sent if currently streaming.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- - fulfilled by a successful close, rejected otherwise.
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
boolean
wifi.isConnected() ⇒ Checks if the driver is connected to a board.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: boolean
- - True if connected.
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
boolean
wifi.isSearching() ⇒ Checks if noble is currently scanning.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: boolean
- - True if streaming.
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
boolean
wifi.isStreaming() ⇒ Checks if the board is currently sending samples.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: boolean
- - True if streaming.
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
*
wifi.getBoardType() ⇒ Get the current board type
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
String
wifi.getFirmwareVersion() ⇒ Get the firmware version of connected and synced wifi shield.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: String
- The version number
Note: This is dependent on if you called connect
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
null
| String
wifi.getIpAddress() ⇒ Return the ip address of the attached WiFi Shield device.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Number
wifi.getLatency() ⇒ Return the latency to be set on the WiFi Shield.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
null
| String
wifi.getMacAddress() ⇒ Return the MAC address of the attached WiFi Shield device.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Number
wifi.getNumberOfChannels() ⇒ This function is used as a convenience method to determine how many channels the current board is using. Note: This is dependent on if your wifi shield is attached to another board and how many channels are there.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Number
- A number
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Number
wifi.getSampleRate() ⇒ Get the the current sample rate is. Note: This is dependent on if you configured the board correctly on setup options
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Number
- The sample rate
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
null
| String
wifi.getShieldName() ⇒ Return the shield name of the attached WiFi Shield device.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
global.Promise
| Promise
wifi.impedanceStart() ⇒ Call to start testing impedance.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
global.Promise
| Promise
wifi.impedanceStop() ⇒ Call to stop testing impedance.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Promise
wifi.searchToStream(o) ⇒ Used to search for an OpenBCI WiFi Shield. Will connect to the first one if no shieldName
is supplied.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- - Resolves after successful connection, rejects otherwise with Error.
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Param | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
o | Object |
(optional) |
o.sampleRate | The sample rate to set the board connected to the wifi shield | |
o.shieldName | String |
If supplied, will search for a shield by this name, if not supplied, will connect to the first shield found. |
o.streamStart | Boolean |
Set true if you want the board to start streaming. |
o.timeout | Number |
The time in milli seconds to wait for the system to try and auto find and connect to the shield. |
Promise
wifi.setSampleRate(sampleRate) ⇒ Set the sample rate of the remote OpenBCI shield
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Param | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
sampleRate | Number |
the sample rate you want to set to. |
Promise
wifi.syncSampleRate() ⇒ Returns the sample rate from the board
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Promise
wifi.searchStart() ⇒ List available peripherals so the user can choose a device when not automatically found.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- - If scan was started
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
global.Promise
| Promise
wifi.searchStop() ⇒ Called to end a search.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Promise
wifi.sdStop() ⇒ Sends the stop SD logging command to the board. If not streaming then eot
event will be emitted
with request response from the board.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- - Resolves when written
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Promise.<T>
| *
wifi.syncRegisterSettings() ⇒ Syncs the internal channel settings object with a cyton, this will take about over a second because there are delays between the register reads in the firmware.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise.<T>
| *
- Resolved once synced, rejects on error or 2 second timeout
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Promise
wifi.softReset() ⇒ Sends a soft reset command to the board
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- - Fulfilled if the command was sent to board.
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Promise
wifi.eraseWifiCredentials() ⇒ Tells the WiFi Shield to forget it's network credentials. This will cause the board to drop all connections.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- Resolves when WiFi Shield has been reset and the module disconnects.
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Promise
wifi.streamStart() ⇒ Sends a start streaming command to the board.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- indicating if the signal was able to be sent.
Note: You must have successfully connected to an OpenBCI board using the connect
method. Just because the signal was able to be sent to the board, does not
mean the board will start streaming.
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Promise
wifi.streamStop() ⇒ Sends a stop streaming command to the board.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- indicating if the signal was able to be sent.
Note: You must have successfully connected to an OpenBCI board using the connect
method. Just because the signal was able to be sent to the board, does not
mean the board stopped streaming.
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Promise.<TResult>
wifi.syncInfo(o) ⇒ Sync the info of this wifi module
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Param | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
o | Object |
|
o.examineMode | Boolean |
Set this option true to connect to the WiFi Shield even if there is no board attached. |
Promise
wifi.write(data) ⇒ Used to send data to the board.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- - fulfilled if command was able to be sent
Author: AJ Keller (@aj-ptw)
Param | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
data |
Array | Buffer | Number | String
|
The data to write out |
wifi.destroy()
Call this to shut down the servers.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
number
wifi.wifiGetLocalPort() ⇒ Get the local port number of either the TCP or UDP server. Based on options.protocol
being set to
either udp
or tcp
.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: number
- The port number that was dynamically assigned to this module on startup.
number
wifi.wifiGetLocalPortUDP() ⇒ Get the local port number of the UDP server.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: number
- The port number that was dynamically assigned to this module on startup.
number
wifi.wifiGetLocalPortTCP() ⇒ Get the local port number of the UDP server.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: number
- The port number that was dynamically assigned to this module on startup.
wifi.wifiInitServer()
Initialization function that will start the TCP server and bind the UDP port.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Promise
wifi.delete(path) ⇒ Send a delete message to the connected wifi shield.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- - Resolves if gets a response from the client/server, rejects with error
Param | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
path | String |
the path/route to send the delete message to |
Promise
wifi.get(path) ⇒ Send a GET message to the connected wifi shield.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- - Resolves if gets/with a response from the client/server, rejects with error
Param | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
path | String |
the path/route to send the GET message to |
Promise
wifi.post(path, payload) ⇒ Send a POST message to the connected wifi shield.
Kind: instance method of Wifi
Returns: Promise
- - Resolves if gets a response from the client/server, rejects with error
Param | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
path | String |
the path/route to send the POST message to |
payload | * |
can really be anything but should be a JSON object. |
Wifi~o
Configuring Options
Kind: inner property of Wifi
Object
InitializationObject : Kind: global typedef Properties
Name | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
attempts | Number |
The number of times to try and perform an SSDP search before quitting. (Default 10) |
burst | Boolean |
Only applies for UDP, but the wifi shield will send 3 of the same packets on UDP to increase the chance packets arrive to this module (Default false) |
debug | Boolean |
Print out a raw dump of bytes sent and received. (Default false ) |
latency | Number |
The latency, or amount of time between packet sends, of the WiFi shield. The time is in micro seconds! |
protocol | String |
Either send the data over TCP or UDP. UDP seems better for either a bad router or slow router. Default is TCP |
sampleRate | Number |
The sample rate to set the board to. (Default is zero) |
sendCounts | Boolean |
Send integer raw counts instead of scaled floats. (Default false ) |
verbose | Boolean |
Print out useful debugging events. (Default false ) |