I've spent the last few hours trying to stream data from my OpenBCI Ganglion to my Mac without using the OpenBCI GUI. And it's been very challenging.

I've tried using python. I've tried using the Web Bluetooth API. I've tried using a basic NextJS setup.

I have issues finding my Ganglion. And then if I eventually do find it with the Web Bluetooth finder, I can't connect to it or stream data.

I will consolidate my learnings into a repo and open-source it. So that others can easily connect to their Ganglions and stream data easily.

Making progress. I was not able to connect to the Ganglion via the Web Bluetooth API because it supports Native Bluetooth. And the USB dongle supports BLED112.

What is BLED 112? From Claude:

BLED112 is a USB Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) dongle created by Silicon Labs (formerly Bluegiga). It's essentially an external adapter that adds Bluetooth Low Energy capabilities to computers and other devices that don't have built-in BLE support.

5 hours later and I'm streaming EEG data in micro-volts on my NextJS app using TypeScript!!

It took me 5 hours to:
1. See my device in my Bluetooth list using the Web Bluetooth API

2. Connect to my Ganglion

3. Stream brain activity data

I'm going to open-source this.

What I built should make it super easy to connect a Ganglion to a Mac using TypeScript. I don't understand the inner workings of how the data stream is converted to micro-volts. But I used OpenBCI's Ganglion data transfer doc as a reference for the parsing.

I'll also work on a UI that makes reading EEG data less intimidating and much more user friendly. Current idea? A speedometer-like UI.

It took me 4 hours to achieve step 1. I failed to see my Ganglion device in the available Bluetooth devices for way too long.

Why?

Because the Ganglion has a display name of "Simblee". I randomly discovered that as reading through this OpenBCI Ganglion doc.

Okay buenas noches!