brainvision

Rust library and terminal UI for Brain Products BrainVision Recorder RDA EEG streams over TCP/IP.

Features

• Pure-Rust BrainVision RDA protocol parser (Start / Data16 / Data32 / Stop)
• High-level BrainVisionDevice API over TcpStream
• Reconnect with exponential backoff
• Stream abstractions: next_block(), next_scan(), capture()
• Marker parsing and export helpers (CSV, BrainVision-like triplet)
• CLI and ratatui TUI binaries
• Optional feature flags: dsp, verify, sandbox, tui

Installation

cargo add brainvision

Quick start

use brainvision::prelude::*;

let mut dev = BrainVisionDevice::connect_default("127.0.0.1")?;
let header = dev.wait_for_start()?;
println!("{} channels @ {:.2} Hz", header.channel_count, header.sampling_rate_hz());

let scans = dev.capture(1000)?;
println!("Captured {} scans", scans.len());

Recorder settings

In BrainVision Recorder:

1. Enable Remote Data Access (RDA)
2. Select port:
   • 51244 (int16 stream)
   • 51234 (float32 stream)
3. Start acquisition in Recorder before running client

Environment variables:

• BRAINVISION_HOST (default 127.0.0.1)
• BRAINVISION_PORT (default 51244)

Protocol frame layout

[GUID:16] [SIZE:4 little-endian] [PAYLOAD: SIZE-20 bytes]

Message GUIDs:

• Start/header
• Data16 (int16 samples)
• Data32 (float32 samples)
• Stop

Data blocks include:

• block number
• number of points
• marker count
• interleaved channel samples
• marker records (size, position, points, channel, type, description)

Export helpers

• write_scans_csv(path, scans)
• write_markers_csv(path, markers)
• write_brainvision_triplet(prefix, header, scans, markers) writes:
  • <prefix>.vhdr
  • <prefix>.eeg.csv
  • <prefix>.vmrk.csv

Troubleshooting

• Connected but no Start message
  • Ensure Recorder RDA is enabled and acquisition actually started.
• Connection refused
  • Check host/port and local firewall.
• Frequent reconnects
  • Increase Recorder stability / network quality.
  • Use next_block_resilient() backoff.
• Flat lines or wrong amplitudes
  • Verify channel resolutions from Start header.

Project layout

brainvision-rs/
├── src/
│   ├── lib.rs
│   ├── main.rs
│   ├── bin/tui.rs
│   ├── types.rs
│   ├── protocol.rs
│   ├── device.rs
│   ├── export.rs
│   ├── dsp.rs
│   ├── verify.rs
│   ├── sandbox.rs
│   └── error.rs
├── examples/
│   ├── scan.rs
│   ├── stream.rs
│   └── read_eeg.rs
└── tests/
    └── types_tests.rs

License

MIT