8-Channel EEG Front-End on ESP32
Design the analog board that reads real brainwaves: the BCI.
- Track
- SENSE
- Level
- L3
- Prerequisites
- 4
- Status
- Coming soon
▸ Register interest
This board is on the bench. Leave your email and you'll be first in when it ships, and your interest helps decide what we build next.
What you'll build
The flagship build: an 8-channel EEG analog front-end on the ADS1299, a 24-bit biopotential converter, with galvanic isolation between the electrodes and everything downstream. It reads real brainwaves at microvolt scale. You design the whole board yourself, from the analog front-end and its bias and reference network through the isolated power to the ESP32 that streams the samples. Your board speaks the OpenBCI Cyton serial protocol, so it drops straight into the OpenBCI GUI and BrainFlow without you writing any capture software. The brain-computer interface at the center of the whole curriculum.
It sits on the SENSE track: reading real-world signals and turning voltages, currents, and biopotentials into clean digital data.
Learn the concepts now, free
The course isn't open yet, but the ideas behind it are. These free explainers cover the concepts this build puts into practice. No account needed.
- Biopotential Analog Front-EndsThe amplifier stage that makes microvolt EEG measurable: what an instrumentation amplifier does, why biopotentials demand one, and what a modern integrated AFE folds in.
- Control a Drone With Your BrainYes, you can fly a drone with an EEG brain-computer interface. Here's how it actually works, what's realistic, and how you'd build a simple one.
- EEG Electrodes & the 10-20 SystemWhere EEG electrodes go and why: the international 10-20 system, plus wet vs dry electrodes and the all-important reference and bias contacts.
- EEG Frequency Bands & FilteringEEG isn't one signal; it's overlapping rhythms at different frequencies. The classic bands (delta to gamma), what they're associated with, and why you bandpass-filter.
- EEG Safety & IsolationThe one rule that keeps DIY EEG safe: never connect a person's electrodes to anything with a path to mains. Why, the real hazard, and how isolation works.
- How to Build an EEG Brain-Computer InterfaceA first-principles roadmap to a real DIY EEG brain-computer interface: from what the signal is, through the electronics that capture it, to turning brainwaves into a command.
- Killing EEG Noise: 50/60 Hz & the Right-Leg DriveMains hum is the hardest real problem in EEG. How common-mode rejection, the driven-right-leg/bias loop, low electrode impedance, and shielding and guarding beat it, and why a notch filter is a band-aid.
- Motor Imagery & the Mu RhythmHow a non-invasive BCI reads imagined movement from the sensorimotor cortex: the mu rhythm, ERD/ERS, and why the signal is so variable.
- The ADS1299 ExplainedWhy the Texas Instruments ADS1299 (an 8-channel, 24-bit, simultaneous-sampling biopotential front-end) became the de-facto chip for DIY and research EEG.
- Turning EEG Into a Command: CSP & EEGNetHow a noisy EEG window becomes one of a few commands: the classic Common Spatial Patterns + LDA pipeline, and the deep-learning alternative, EEGNet.
- What Is a Brain-Computer Interface?A BCI turns brain activity directly into a command, with no muscles in the loop. Invasive vs non-invasive, how the read→decode→command loop works, and what's realistic.
- What Is EEG & How Does It Work?EEG (electroencephalography) records the brain's electrical activity from the scalp. What the signal actually is, what it can tell you, and what it can't.
The build pipeline
No steps skipped, no black boxes. Each stage is gated on real proof of work: a clean ERC, valid gerbers, a passing bring-up. You finish having actually done the engineering, not just watched it.
- 01REQUIREMENTS
- 02BOM SOURCING
- 03SCHEMATIC
- 04LAYOUT
- 05DRC + GERBER
- 06ORDERING
- 07ASSEMBLY
- 08BRING-UP
- 09REVISION
Builds on
Part of these builds
Questions
- When does this course open?
- It's in active production. Join the waitlist and we'll email you the moment it goes live, and the demand signal helps us decide what to build next.
- Is it beginner-friendly?
- This is an advanced L3 capstone, the deep end where the subsystems come together. Every stage is explained from first principles, so you can follow along as long as you're comfortable reading a schematic.
- What will I need to build it?
- The course overview will preview for free; the full course is a one-time purchase (no subscription). Building the board for real also needs its bill of materials (listed in the course) and a small PCB order from a fab house. The course walks you through both.
- What will I actually learn?
- You'll learn reading real-world signals and turning voltages, currents, and biopotentials into clean digital data, plus the full board workflow: schematic capture, layout, DRC, gerber export, ordering, assembly, and bring-up.
Part of the path from your first board to a brain-computer interface. See the full skill tree →