EEG Dev Kit – Install & Configure Local MQTT Server

So you want to use your own MQTT server. 

This is great if you want to keep your EEG data private or want lower latency so you can push higher sample rates. 

This tutorial will walk through running Apache ActiveMQ on “Bash on Ubuntu on Windows”.

tl:dr 

1. Install and start ActiveMQ
2. Open firewall
3. Create topic and update device

1. Install and start ActiveMQ

If you don’t have bash installed, follow these steps to install ubuntu subsystem on windows 10. Alternatively just install ActiveMQ on Windows.

Install Apache ActiveMQ and start it (instructions here).

2. Open firewall

The EEG Dev Kit will connect to your ActiveMQ server over your wi-fi connection. It is important that both devices are on the same network for this to work.

Then open firewall rules for any ports that are used in conf/activemq.xml e.g. 1883

Check that you can connect to your ActiveMQ using an MQTT client such as mqtt.fx

Another quick check is to use telnet from another machine on the same network

3. Create topic and update device

Your EEG Dev Kit has a unique 24 digit ID (Device ID) which can be found in foc.us/me device info page.

Create a topic in ActiveMQ with your Device ID plus suffix .afe.binary

e.g. 303730313534510A004A0024.afe.binary

Now provide the new server details to the Dev Kit in the focus/me Settings page

e.g. mqtt://192.168.15.43:1883

Finally turn on one or more AFE channels.