You can access the data on the microSD card without needing an external card reader. This is explained in the following steps:

1. Turn Extender ON. The Status LED will turn green.

2. Ensure no headsets are connected to Extender.

3. Plug Extender into a PC, your computer should detect it as a generic USB drive and after a few moments you should see it appear as a drive. You can now access the encrypted files on the disk.

Note: All data stored to the SD card is encrypted and the EMOTIV App and a PRO license is required to decrypt the raw data.

The EMOTIV Extender accessory adds even more mobility and marker accuracy to your EMOTIV headset. An essential companion product for your Insight, Flex and EPOC+ headsets, the EMOTIV Extender is a mains isolated external rechargeable battery pack with a microSD card for external storage.

EMOTIV products are intended to be used for research applications and personal use only. Our products are not sold as Medical Devices as defined in EU directive 93/42/EEC. Our products are not designed or intended to be used for diagnosis or treatment of disease.

This document is intended to help you get started using the EMOTIV Extender accessory. If you have any queries beyond the scope of this document, please contact us through our online support.

EMOTIV Extender

1. Extender

2. micro USB cable

3. Trigger Cable

The above image shows the external features of the Extender.

The EMOTIV Extender is compatible with our latest headsets (Insight, Flex and EPOC+) and is designed to enhance the headset usability by providing longer battery life and data storage. It has four functions:

1. Extends the battery life of the headset.

2. Allows tethering of the headset to your computer. The tether is isolated to provide a safe, reliable connection while minimising the injected noise.

3. Allows a user to record their sessions to a microSD card for later playback and analysis, removing the need to record to a mobile device or PC.

4. Allows an external hardware trigger to inject marker data directly into the raw data stream, improving accuracy of marked events to +/- 1 sample.

EMOTIV products are intended to be used for research applications and personal use only. Our products are not sold as Medical Devices as defined in EU directive 93/42/EEC. Our products are not designed or intended to be used for diagnosis or treatment of disease.

The Extender has been tested by UL for safety under the CB scheme. The table outlines the compliance testing that has been obtained:

• Extender is a consumer product, it is not intended to use be used for in-patient health care or in hazardous environments.

• Extender is powered by a Lithium-Polymer battery that is rated for operation in <45C environments. It is not user replaceable, please contact support if you suspect you have a faulty battery.

• WARNING: Do not open the enclosure. Doing so will void the warranty and can damage the headset.

• Extender features a 2.5kV isolation barrier. Safety precautions have been taken to ensure this isolation barrier but any modification to the case will mitigate the safety.

EMOTIV headset

• Extender is compatible with EPOC +, Insight and Flex

• Ensure your headset has Extender compatible firmware before using Extender

PRO license (for SD card recording mode)

• Required for decrypting data recorded in SD card recording mode

• Visit our website to view and purchase a PRO license

SD card (for SD card recording mode)

• Extender compatible with microSD cards 4-32GB formatted to FAT32

• microSD card not included

EMOTIV app (for SD card recording mode)

• Required to decrypt data saved to an SD card or computer

• Visit our website for more information about EMOTIV App and to download.

• EMOTIV app user manual available here.

Before you start taking recordings with the Extender you want to ensure it is fully charged, running the latest firmware and the clock is updated. If you plan to record to a microSD card then you need to ensure the SD card is formatted as FAT32.

Instructions to do so are in the following pages.

To record data to your Extender, you need to purchase, install and format a microSD card. The SD card must be between 4-32GB and formatted with FAT32.

Note: SD card not included with Extender.

Below are the instructions for formatting the SD card on Windows and Mac.

Windows

Power on Extender, insert the card into Extender and plug Extender into your PC.

Right click on Extender driver and select format.

Specify as FAT32 and press "Start" to format.

Your drive should now be ready for recording.

Mac

Power on Extender, insert the card into Extender and plug Extender into your Mac

Press command + space and type "disk utility". Open the Disk Utility setting window.

Partition or erase the disk and select the partition format as MS-DOS (FAT)

Press ERASE

Your disk should now be ready for use in Extender.

Extender has a real-time clock which it uses to timestamp a recording. Before you get started recording files it is a good idea to update the RTC by syncing it to your computer using our service application, EMOTIV App. If you carry out a hardware reset or the device is left unused for a while we recommend syncing the clock again. For more information about using Cortex, visit the Cortex user manual here.

To sync your real-time clock:

1. Install and open EMOTIV App on your PC or laptop

2. Connect your Extender via USB to your computer. Please ensure it is powered on (green light on) and the microSD card is removed.

3. Click on the icon on the connected device panel on Cortex to reveal options list

4. Select “Sync clock” from the drop down menu

5. Wait for the sync to finish and success message to appear at the bottom of the app screen

6. Hold down the power button for 3s until the green light turns off.

7. Press the button again to turn back on your Extender and confirm that the clock is up to date.

Note: if you do not see time clock information, please update Extender firmware.

To ensure you have the latest firmware for your Extender device, you can perform a firmware update at any time.

To update your device's firmware:

1. and open EMOTIV App on your PC or laptop

2. Connect your Extender via USB to your computer. Please ensure it is powered on (green light on) and the microSD card is removed.

3. Click on the icon on the connected device panel on EMOTIV App to reveal options list

4. Select “Update firmware” from the drop down menu

5. Wait for the update to finish and success message to appear at the bottom of the app screen

6. Hold down the power button for 3s until the green light turns off.

7. Press the button again to turn back on your Extender and confirm that the clock is up to date.

Details on updating your headset's firmware to ensure it is compatible with the latest Extender firmware can be found .

Extender has four modes of operation that you can choose from to best suit your needs:

1. Power-only mode extends the battery life of your headset

2. SD card recording mode allows you to record data to the Extender, rather than to a computer or mobile device

3. Pass-through mode directly records data to your computer, bypassing the wireless feature

4. USB drive mode allows you to access the data on the SD card when connected via USB.

The Extender has been designed to be small enough to fit into the pocket of a shirt or attached to a lanyard. It features two USB ports which are electrically isolated to connect to a headset and your computer. When connected the headset should be visible in in all EMOTIV software. It features one button for both power on/off and recording start/stop functionality. A microSD card slot is located on the side to allow users to fit a card to store recordings for offline analysis.

There is a hardware trigger input utilizing a 2.5mm audio socket pictured below.

Extender is designed to be used to extend the battery life of your EMOTIV headset when communicating wirelessly. This is useful if you are using 256Hz EEG and 128Hz motion data which is power intensive. To use it in this mode please follow these steps:

1. Turn Extender ON. The Status LED will turn green.

2. Turn on the headset and pair it to a dongle (USB Receiver) or BLE device.

3. Plug the headset into the headset USB port of Extender using a supplied headset charge cable. The headset will disconnect momentarily and should re-connect, if it doesn't the firmware of your headset might be out of date.

4. The status LED will turn orange and the charge LEDs on the head should also show orange.

The trigger input cable can be connected to your stimulus device and any rising edge pulses will be translated into hardware trigger pulses. See hardware Triggering section.

Before you are able to use Extender as a recording device you need a formatted microSD Card. You then need to follow the instructions shown in the following images and text.

Note: All data stored to the SD card is encrypted and the EMOTIV Cortex application and a PRO license is required to decrypt the raw data.

Note: Extender only records the raw data from EMOTIV headsets (raw EEG and motion data) in SD card recording mode. If you need access to our detections for mental commands, performance metrics or facial expressions, please use Extender in Power only or Pass-through mode.

In order to operate Extender as a recording device with a headset, please follow these steps:

1. Insert the microSD card into Extender.

2. Turn ON Extender by holding the push button for 2 seconds, the status LED will turn green.

3. Connect headset to Extender using the charge cable.

4. The headset with attempt a wireless connection before the USB and it is advisable to unplug all EMOTIV Universal USB receivers and disable BLE devices previously paired with the headset.

5. Turn ON your headset. When Extender detects the headset the green status LED will turn orange and is ready to record data.

6. To start a recording press the button, the status LED should now turn red.

7. In order to stop recording, press the button again. The status LED will now turn back to orange.

A battery powered trigger input can be connected to the extender at anytime and the trigger pulses will be recorded to the files.

To access and interpret the data recorded to Extender in SD card recording mode, please refer to our Data access section.

Pass through mode allow you to use your EMOTIV headset while it is plugged in. To operate Extender as a pass-through device with your headset, please follow these instructions:

1. The headset with attempt a wireless connection before the USB and it is advisable to unplug all EMOTIV Universal USB receivers and disable BLE devices previously paired with the headset.

2. Plug Extender into an open USB socket. The PC connection is the smaller mini-B USB port on left edge of Extender.

3. Turn Extender ON.

4. Plug the headset into the other USB port of Extender using the supplied charge cable.

5. Turn on the headset. The USB detection system of your device should register a disconnection and a new USB connection which simulates an EMOTIV USB Receiver.

6. Start up your EMOTIV application. The application should register the presence of the Insight connected through Extender.

7. If the connection does not work, power cycle the headset, then power cycle Extender.

Hardware triggering can be used in pass-through mode.

Extender only has one button for both waking it up from sleep and recording. The table below outlines the behaviour.

Please note Extender will automatically sleep after 30 seconds if it is turned on but not connected with a headset or PC. Extender will automatically sleep if the battery is low and will blink the power LED before switching off.

The table below explains the push button behaviour:

Extender is shipped with a charged battery as per regulatory requirements. We recommend customers fully charge their Extender before first use to provide the best user experience. If you are only using it in pass-through mode this is less important.

The Extender will charge when it is connected to a PC or to a DCP (Dedicated Charging Port) and it will automatically select one of 3 different battery charging currents depending on where it is connected. The USB 2.0 standard specifies that a device should not draw more than 100mA until the port is enumerated and then limited to 500mA. A dedicated charger such as one designed for a phone can supply 1A. The following table details how this selection will be performed.

Headset power and charging

When a headset is connected, Extender will supply power via the USB connector to ensure that the battery in the headset is not depleted. In order to save power, Extender will turn off power to the headset USB connector as described by the following table. It is possible to charge a headset and Extender at the same time if they are daisy chained together, however it will be quicker to charge the headset connected directly due to limited current on a USB port.

It is important to turn on Extender first before connecting the headset because when Extender is off it is not be able to detect a headset connection.

If Extender is turned on and the headset is connected, Extender will set the charging current for the headset battery by sending the appropriate command through the USB connection. The charging current of the headset depends on the state in which Extender is operating as illustrated by the following table.

The Extender trigger input requires a 2.5mm audio connector which has an outer diameter of less than 6.8mm to fit into the socket.

EMOTIV has provided a 1m trigger cable with every Extender. It features the required low profile connector on one end and has two tinned wires (red and black) for connecting to your trigger source. We have provided some examples of an arduino scripts.

Example 1: generates 100 pulses at 1s intervals.

Example 2: Sends a trigger pulse each time the trigger character is recieved on the arduino serial port.

The Extender’s hardware triggering feature allows you to mark external events for post-processing. The input trigger pulses are injected into to the headset data stream within +/-1 sample. There is a fixed 60ms delay between the trigger and the channel signal data which is due to the filter delay for the channels.The trigger pulse is shown in EmotiVPRO as a pink line and is also saved in the hardware column when exporting a file.

EMOTIV has provided a custom 1m trigger cable with every extender. The cable has two tinned wires red and black that can be connected to an external trigger source. The input polarity of the trigger is reversable and utilises an opto-coupled photo transistor Vishay VOL628A (see ). This component requires a minimum of 1mA forward current and maximum of 60mA. The input design has has an internal limiting resistor of 1kOhm. The trigger input voltage need to be between 2.5 -15V and can be driven directly from an arduino or a parallel port. Please see below Arduino examples:

Status LED - Indicates the status of the Headset connection

• Off: Extender is switched off.

• Green: Extender is on, but it is not recording.

• Orange: Extender is on, it had detected the headset, but it is not recording to the SD Card

• Solid Red: Extender is on and it is recording to the SD Card

• Blinking Red: Extender is on, and is finishing writing on the SD Card. This corresponds to when, after the recording is turned off, the Extender needs to flush the data and close the file on the SD Card.

• Fade on/off: firmware update failure

Power LED - Indicates the status of the Extender

• Off: Extender battery is not charging either because the Extender is not plugged into a charger or because a charging fault condition has been detected.

• Blinking Orange: Extender battery is charging at 100mA.

• Solid Orange: Extender battery is charging at 500mA.

• Red: Extender battery is charging at 1A

• Green: Charging is complete

This example generates fixed time interval pulses into the trigger port of Extender and you can see in the last image how trigger pulses are represented in EmotivPRO.

Pictured below is an Arduino Uno connected to the trigger input cable.

Below is the code we used to test which had a 10% duty cycle. Output on pin 9 shared with the LED so you can see the pulses, input voltage was ~3.5V.

/*
  Blink
  Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.
*/


// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop function runs forever
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(9, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(100);                     
  digitalWrite(9, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(900);                       
}

We modified the default blink application to use pin 9 and set the high delay give a 10% duty cycle. 100ms High and 900ms low.

We saw the following output in EmotivPRO.

This example uses the same setup for the arduino. The arduino listens to a serial port on your computer with a baud rate of 9600bps. Each time a value of 1 is sent to the serial port a trigger pulse is generated.

/*
  Trigger and blink on serial command.
*/


// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.write("Extender Trigger Example \n")
}

// the loop function runs forever
void loop()
{
  if (Serial.available() > 0)
  {
    int value = Serial.read();
    Serial.write(value);
    if (value == 1) {
        digitalWrite(9, HIGH);
        delay(100);                          	
        digitalWrite(9, LOW);                                  
    }
    
    else {
      Serial.write("Undefined Input\n"); 
    }
  }
}

Data recorded onto the microSD card is encrypted for privacy reasons and can be decrypted using Cortex, outlined below. You can download the recordings onto your computer by connecting Extender to your computer with the SD card in the slot. Or equally you can copy the files off using an external card reader. Each time a recording is made a new time stamped folder is created and consecutive files are filled to keep each from getting too large.

The instructions under USB drive mode explains how to get access to the recordings on the SD card. You can copy these files onto your computer.

The next section outlines the decryption of recordings, this is done using Cortex.

This section describes how to access and read the data recorded to your Extender in SD card recording mode.

Please Note: a valid PRO license is required to carry out the decryption. Each seat of PRO allows you to decrypt data from up to 3 Extenders.

To decrypt data from Extender, open Cortex and click on the Tools tab. You will see under this section there is an option to decrypt local data.

Step 1 : Click to "Decrypt local data" then select input directory which contains the *.eed files: you'd like to decrypt.

Step 2 : Select output directory

Cortex will then carry out the decryption and output a *.csv file for the motion and eeg data into the same folder.

The third example below shows how it is possible to install hardware support for Arduino into Matlab using the hardware support package and then directly control the output pin connected to the Extender.

1. Download and install Arduino Hardware support package on MATLAB.

2. Connect the Arduino board to the PC. To establish a connection between MATLAB and Arduino boards, the following command can be used from MATLAB:

   Copy

   >> a = arduino

3. The arduino support package can control the arduino in multiple different ways. For this example we are using Digital pin 9 and using the writeDigitalPin command. See example below.

   Copy

   writeDigitalPin(a, D9, 1)
   writeDigitalPin(a, D9, 0)

This will create a rising edge which will trigger the extender port. You can incorporate this into your code.

Extender does not have a ON/OFF switch and aside from removing the battery it isn’t possible to power cycle the device. In the unlikely event that your Extender freezes up and you have problems with getting it to operate correctly, please first contact online support.

If support is not able to resolve the issue, they may suggest that you perform a hardware reset. Located on the rear of the Extender is a small hole which sits above a hardware reset switch. This is covered over by the the sticker pictured above. You can reach this by pulling back the sticker to expose the hole as shown and use a safety pin to reach the button below. This will cause the microcontroller to reset and go to sleep.