Install Mac Audio Processing Software

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The OpenBCI GUI is OpenBCI's powerful software tool for visualizing, recording, and streaming data from the OpenBCI Boards. Data can be displayed in live-time, played back, saved to your computer in .txt format, as well as streamed in live-time to third-party software such as MATLAB.It can be launched as a standalone application or as a sketch from Processing (a Java-based programming language). In this guide, we will cover both scenarios.

Hardware/Driver Setup for OpenBCI_GUI and OpenBCIHub

Shown below are the three OpenBCI Boards that can be used with the OpenBCI GUI.

Ganglion on macOS

Turn on your computer's Bluetooth.

Alternatively, you can use a small USB Dongle.

Ganglion on Windows/Linux

The OpenBCI Ganglion uses Bluetooth LE (aka Bluetooth Smart, Bluetooth 4.0) and in order to use the Ganglion, you need a small USB Dongle.

Deprecated: The CSR Dongle is no longer supported. We recommend using the newer Ganglion Dongle.

WiFi Shield

There are no prerequisites for running the WiFi Shield with Cyton or Ganglion on macOS/Windows/Linux, move on to the installation section below.

Fix Linux Serial Port Permissions

This fix affects all communications between Ganglion/Cyton and your computer via serial ports.


Linux Users: Expand this dropdown for important details

Before trying to connect to any OpenBCI boards on Linux, you need to make sure you have permission to access the serial ports on your machine. Otherwise, you will get the error Failed to connect using /dev/ttyUSB0 or similar. This can be fixed by adding the user to the dialout group in Ubuntu. Here is a full explanation and fix. Here is the short version:

  1. First, verify if the user does belong to the 'dialout' group using the “id” command.
    - Type id -Gn <username> in terminal and check if it prints dialout as one of the options.
    - Replace with your Linux username. Example: id -Gn susieQ
  2. Next, add the user to the “dialout” supplementary group.
    - Type sudo usermod -a -G dialout <username> in terminal.
    - Example: sudo usermod -a -G dialout susieQ
  3. Restart Ubuntu
  4. Try 'id' command again
    - Repeat step one

Installing the OpenBCI GUI as a 'Standalone' Application

Download the Appropriate Application For Your OS

The fastest way is to download the standalone .exe/.app for your machine and operating system. To do this, head to the Downloads page of the OpenBCI website, and click the download link that correlates to your OS and machine.

Install OpenBCI_GUI On macOS

Drag and drop the OpenBCI_GUI application to you Applications folder.

Install OpenBCI_GUI On Windows

Move the OpenBCI_GUI directory anywhere you like.

Windows Users: How to run the GUI with High DPI Screens


If you have a high DPI screen and are running Windows 10, you may notice that the GUI is hard to see, and nothing seems to scale correctly.

  1. First, close the GUI if it is open.

  2. Next, right click on OpenBCI_GUI.exe and select Properties. The following window should pop up:


  1. Select the Compatibility tab at the top of this window, and then click Change high DPI settings.


  1. In the section labeled High DPI scaling override, check the box Override high DPI scaling behavior and change from Application to System (Enhanced).


  1. That's it! Once the settings have been changed, restart the GUI!

Install OpenBCI_GUI On Linux

Unzip the downloaded application and place in desired location.


Linux Users: How to run the GUI with High DPI Screens

On Linux, there is no way to force scaling. However, here is a link to a script that should work.

Running the OpenBCI_GUI

Important Notes:

  • In some cases, there may be issues with the way your machine handles the BLE application that enables communication with the Ganglion Board.
  • If you run into additional issues, please visit the OpenBCI_GUI Section of our Forum

Running on macOS

Navigate to your Applications folder and double click the OpenBCI_GUI You may see a message pop up asking you if you're sure you want to open it. Click Open and the app will launch.

Running on Windows

Mac

Navigate to your OpenBCI_GUI directory, double click OpenBCI_GUI.exe.

If prompted, check both boxes:

As of GUI v4, the GUI will auto-launch the Hub on Windows.

After launching the GUI, you can verify the Hub is running in your Windows tool tray.

Running on Linux

Open a terminal application and navigate to the directory (with cd) of the unzipped application.

Then, launch the Application from terminal with the command:

or

This will launch the OpenBCI_GUI and OpenBCIHub.

Running the OpenBCI GUI From The Processing IDE

Most users should start by running the standalone OpenBCI GUI (see previous section). The Processing IDE is for adding features or modifying existing code.

The OpenBCI GUI was built using Processing, a popular, Java-based creative coding framework. If you are interested in adding features or modifying the existing code, it is really easy to do so if you are familiar with Java. If you're not familiar with Java, don't fret! Processing is one of the easiest software packages to pick up as a beginner coder.

The things you will need to run the OpenBCI GUI in Processing are:

First, go to processing.org and download the latest version of Processing. Here is a walkthrough on how to install Processing on Ubuntu Linux.

Go ahead and move it to your Applications folder, and launch the application. If this is the first time that you are running Processing, it will create what it calls it's Sketch folder in the following locations:

On a Mac Users/<user-name>/Documents/Processing
On Windows C:Users<user-name>DocumentsProcessing
On Linux /home/<user-name>/sketchbook

The OpenBCI GUI code repository is located on github here. click on the Clone or download button in green on the right, and select Download ZIP. If you are a advanced GitHub user, go ahead and clone it, or fork it if you like.

After the download completes and the file extracts itself, you will see the folder called OpenBCI_GUI-master. Change the name of this file to OpenBCI_GUI. If you don't change it, it won't work! You can move the folder OpenBCI_GUI and it's entire contents to your Sketch folder, or put it wherever you like (Mac Example: Users/<user-name>/Documents/GitHub/OpenBCI_GUI).

Inside the OpenBCI_GUI folder, there is a folder called libraries. Theses are the 3rd party libraries that the OpenBCI GUI uses to work it's magic. You need to copy all of these folders into:

On a Mac Users/<user-name>/Documents/Processing/libraries
On Windows C:UsersUsernameDocumentsProcessinglibraries
On Linux /home/<user-name>/sketchbook/libraries

If there is no folder called libraries in that location, go ahead and make one. Once you have done that, close the Processing app and reopen it. If you get an error saying 'Duplicate Packages', you may need to remove the jna package from the Processinglibraries folder. The next big step is to add the OpenBCI Hub (backend communication) in the data directory.

Install OpenBCI Hub on Mac/Linux/Windows

There is a piece of software which is necessary to make the connection between the GUI and your computer's Bluetooth hardware.We call this the OpenBCI Electron Hub. Go to our github repository for the Hub, and click on the link for your Operating System.

After downloading and un-packing, your Downloads folder will look like this on Windows/Linux. On Mac, you'll just have an OpenBCIHub.app file.

On Mac, move the OpenBCIHub.app to:

/users/<user-name>/Documents/Processing/OpenBCI_GUI/OpenBCI_GUI/data/OpenBCIHub.app

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On Linux:

Rename the directory you just unpacked to OpenBCIHub and move it to:

<path-to-processing>/Processing/OpenBCI_GUI/OpenBCI_GUI/data/

On Windows:

Rename the directory you just unpacked to OpenBCIHub and move it to:

C:users<user-name>DocumentsProcessingOpenBCI_GUIOpenBCI_GUIdata

Enter the new OpenBCIHub folder and right click on the executable -> properties -> compatibility -> tick 'Run this program as an administrator'.

Then double click the executable to run it for the first time. You must check both check boxes when prompted.

Then quit the HUB: click the tray icon, and then press the quit button.

As of GUI v4.0.3, the GUI will auto-launch the Hub on Windows.

Open The OpenBCI GUI Project in Processing & Launch It!

If you are on Windows, set Processing to 'Run this program as an administrator'.

When you get Processing running again, you will see a window open up. This is the Processing IDE (Integrated Development Environment).

Select File > Sketchbook and you will open a window where you should see the option to select OpenBCI GUI. When you get that far, select OpenBCI GUI and the Processing will open up yet another window, that contains all the code to successfully run the OpenBCI GUI.

If you don't know anything about coding, don't edit these files. If you like to dig in to the meat of what makes things work, by all means. have at it. You are looking at the program code that makes the OpenBCI GUI work it's magic. Now, it's time to run it!

Press the play button on the upper left of the IDE, and the sketch will try to launch in all it's glory. If this is your first time running the sketch, you will get a message from the Mac OS that will ask you if you will allow permission for an unsigned app to run. The app in question is the Electron Hub. If you've enabled apps to run from Anywhere, you can just give permission to run the app. However, it is likely that the GUI will not function, because timing is everything. You will need to quit the sketch (press command+q or click the x button on the upper left of the GUI). Then, relaunch the sketch by pressing the play button as above. This time you won't get the alert from the Mac OS, and the GUI will launch in all it's glory!

If you are encountering issues launching the GUI at this point, please head to the OpenBCI_GUI section of our Forum and look for help or post a question.

Using the OpenBCI GUI

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Check out this Youtube video on how to use the OpenBCI GUI. Note: Uses an older version of the GUI.

By default, the GUI stores all user data and raw EEG recordings in Documents/OpenBCI_GUI and names each session with an autogenerated timestamp by default. Older versions of the GUI save data to SavedData in the same root directory as the app.

Customize Your Layout

The OpenBCI GUI displays up to six customizable windows in twelve layouts! You can choose what each window displays by clicking the dropdown menu at the upper left of each window. In the screengrab below, my GUI is showing Time Series, FFT Plot, and Accelerometer.

Also, you can see an impedance test has been started on Channel 1. See the next section 'Impedance Testing' for more information.

Impedance Testing

When using Cyton, you can display the impedance of individual channels by toggling the small Ohm icon to the right of each color coded channel number in the Time Series Widget. When the Ohm icon is toggled on, the board sends a small current through the selected channel to obtain the impedance value. For this reason, you won't be able to stream data on a channel and obtain the impedance value simultaneously.

To test impedance for Ganglion, use the Ganglion Signal Widget.

Decrease Setup Time by Saving/Loading Settings

Starting with GUI V3, you can save and load a snapshot of nearly every setting in the GUI (ex. Layout, Time Series Channel Settings, Networking Settings, etc.) by using a dropdown menu (pictured below) or keyboard shortcuts. If you change anything during a session, save your settings or click 'Stop System' before exiting. Save with lowercase 'n' and Load with capital 'N' on your keyboard to and from /Documents/OpenBCI_GUI/Settings/.

Start the system first. Then, arrange the GUI to suit your needs and click 'Settings'-->'Save'. A dialog box will open to confirm file name and path (e.g. GanglionUserSettings.json). After, you will see a message saying 'Settings Saved!' When you click 'Stop System', all settings will be auto-saved.

The GUI automatically loads settings from /Documents/OpenBCI_GUI/Settings/ when the system starts!

To load settings, just click 'Settings'-->'Load'. Select a settings file from the dialog box that opens. If the settings are incompatible (ex. loading 16 channels while using 8), the GUI will display an error at the bottom or 'Default Settings Loaded'. If all is well, the GUI will display 'Settings Loaded!' as the GUI snaps directly to your desired settings.

Click 'Settings'-->'Default' to revert the GUI to default settings.

When in Live Mode, the GUI will load your settings automatically. Please allow 1-2 seconds to successfully apply settings to Cyton and Ganglion boards. During this stage, the Dongle will blink red as it sends channel settings to the Cyton. If loading takes more than a few seconds, there may be a connection issue with the board. An error should print at the bottom of the GUI if this happens.

GUI Keyboard Shortcuts

Use the spacebar to start or stop the data stream!

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Expert Mode

To enable all keyboard shortcuts, set 'Expert Mode On' in the settings dropdown.

Expert Mode Keyboard Shortcuts:

  • Other than spacebar, you can press 's' to stop data stream, and 'b' to begin, or start the data stream.

  • You can use lowercase 'k' to set 'Bias Don't Include' on all channels, or lowercase 'l' to set 'Bias Include' on all channels.

  • Press lowercase 'd' to set all channels settings to default.

  • Using an English keyboard, you can deactivate channels 1-16 using:

    • 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
    • q,w,e,r,t,y,u,i

  • Similarly, activate channels 1-16 using:

    • !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *
    • Q,W,E,R,T,Y,U,I

  • Take a screenshot of the GUI using lowercase 'm'! It will be saved to /Documents/OpenBCI_GUI/Settings/.

  • Enter presentation mode using Enter (Win), or Return (Mac).

  • To change to the alternate color scheme, use '{'.

Converting Large SD Card Recordings

In order to convert large SD card recordings made using Cyton or Cyton+Daisy, you will need to run the GUI from Processing, but we need to change one crucial setting in Processing's Preferences. As mentioned in the screenshot below, open Processing preferences and increase max available memory to at least 9GB to convert a 12 hour SD recording. Click OK to save these preferences, restart Processing to make sure the changes take effect, and re-launch the GUI.