Switched from dry electrode to gel based EEG for my home BCI setup

I always thought dry electrodes were the way to go for convenience, but after 3 months of noisy data on a OpenBCI Cyton, I tried a cheap gel cap from a lab surplus sale. The signal quality was night and day for under $50, and I could actually train a motor imagery classifier in two sessions. Anyone else find gel worth the cleanup hassle?

2 comments

2 Comments

joel_patel1mo ago

Oh man, that's clever mixing types... I tried something similar once when I was messing with a hacked together setup using tin foil and cheap gel from a drugstore. Ended up with a weird buzzing sound in my recordings that turned out to be my phone sitting too close to the amp.

milar461mo ago

Wait, has anyone tried mixing both types in the same setup? I use dry electrodes on my forehead for easy access and gel electrodes on the back of my head where hair is thick. The dry ones catch the basic stuff, but the gel picks up those tiny signals that make a real difference in classification. It's a bit weird to set up, but you get the best of both worlds without a full gel cleanup every time. Definitely worth experimenting with if you're stuck on choosing one or the other.