Before you begin, please do the following:

1. Install and use the Emotiv-BCI application to create your Training Profile for Mental Commands and Facial Expressions in the cloud.

2. Accept EMOTIV’s Developer’s License Agreement by installing and opening Emotiv App and following the instructions.

3. Install NodeJS. NodeJS LTS 8.x is recommended.

EMOTIV’s Developer’s License is required to use EMOTIV with any third party application like Node-RED.

Node.js is required to run Node-RED. Users of Node.js 6.x and 4.x should ensure they have the latest updates. Node-RED no longer supports Node.js 0.12.x or 0.10.x.

The Emotiv-BCI Node-RED Toolbox is designed to be used alongside our Emotiv-BCI application. Emotiv-BCI will allow you to create Training Profiles for Mental Commands and Facial Expressions which the Node-RED Toolbox can access via the cloud.

You can also use Emotiv-BCI to practice Mental Commands and Facial Expressions and familiarize yourself with other data streams - Performance Metrics and Motion Sensors - that you can apply in Node-RED integrations.

IMPORTANT:

Before deploying a Node-RED flow, use Emotiv-BCI to:

1. Login to Emotiv App

2. Connect your headset

3. Check your headset contact quality

You do not need to write code to use Node-RED, but having a previous understanding of JavaScript, Node.js and npm will be beneficial. If you are new to these platforms, you will find many resources online to help you get started.

The Emotiv-BCI Node-RED Toolbox nodes can be installed via npm.

To install, run the following command on Node-RED installation directory (~/.node-red by default) in your Terminal or cmd window. If the node-red folder doesn't exist, run node-red program on cmd/terminal to create it.

$ npm install node-red-contrib-emotiv-bci

or run this command for global installation:

$ npm install -g node-red-contrib-emotiv-bci

After the completion of this step, you should see the Emotiv-BCI nodes visible at the bottom of the nodes list on the left side of the Node-RED interface.

Install Node-RED using your Terminal or cmd. We recommending adding Node-RED as a global module which adds the command Node-RED to your system path using the following commands:

On Mac, we recommend a sudo install, using the following set of steps.

$ sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red

On Windows:

$ npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red

For more information, please refer to the Node-RED official website here.

Run Node-RED for the first time to create ~/.node-red folder on the cmd/terminal:

$ node-red

Go to http://127.0.0.1:1880/ to access the Node-RED interface.

Welcome to the User Guide for Emotiv-BCI Node-RED Toolbox!

Node-RED is an open source node based development tool built by IBM which allows you to wire up Internet of Things devices, online services like social media, and robotics like Arduino, without the need to write code.

It uses a drag and drop graphical interface and has an ecosystem of over 2000 nodes, including logic nodes, input and output nodes and GUI nodes, that you can combine to create an endless number of integrations that you can deploy on your computer, to the cloud or onto hardware like Arduino.

The Emotiv-BCI Node-RED Toolbox is a custom library of input nodes for Node-RED which will allow you to interface EMOTIV technology with Node-RED and create a wide variety of brain-computer interface (BCI) integrations, without the need to program.

We developed this Toolbox to give the EMOTIV community a way to create various applications for the BCI features of the EMOTIV platform, without the need to be or hire a developer. However, some technical skills will be helpful when installing and using Node-RED.

Emotiv-BCI Node-RED Toolbox works on Mac and Windows.

For a detailed description of each node’s features in the Emotiv-BCI Toolkit and their functionality, please view the Read Me file.

To use one of the Emotiv-BCI nodes, drag them onto the workspace. Double click on the node to access its configurable parameters.

Node-RED allows you to drag and drop input, function and output nodes to create custom flows.

Learn more about using Node-RED and creating your first flow here.

Note: Before deploying a flow, you need to be logged in to EMOTIV on your machine via one of our apps, like Emotiv App or Emotiv-BCI.

The Emotiv-BCI Node-RED Toolbox accesses the same Training Profiles in the cloud that are created and used in Emotiv-BCI. To avoid conflicting Training Profiles, there are some restrictions on profile use across multiple applications:

1. If you open a Training Profile in Emotiv-BCI and would like to use that same Training Profile in a Node-RED flow, remove the “Profile” node from your flow. This will enable Node-RED to use the Profile you have already open in Emotiv-BCI.

2. If you deploy a Training Profile in Node-RED and then try to use a profile in Emotiv-BCI, you will only be able to access that same profile in LIVE mode. To do more training in Emotiv-BCI, stop the flow in Node-RED.

3. We recommend only deploying one Node-RED flow at a time.

Node-RED supports an open source community which means you can find, edit and use flows and nodes that others have created and you can share ones you have made.

To access existing nodes and flows using EMOTIV, visit the Node-RED Library and search for “EMOTIV”. Here you can also search for additional nodes and flows that you can connect your Emotiv-BCI nodes to.

To import a node or flow from the Library into your instance of Node-RED.

1. Open the node or flow from the Library

2. Select all the code and copy the json code to your clipboard

3. From the menu inside Node-RED, select Import > Clipboard

4. Paste the json code and select to add to current flow or new flow

5. Select Import

You can share your own nodes and flows in the Node-RED Library. We look forward to seeing what the community builds with EMOTIV!