OpenXstim

OpenXstim - Open Source Transcutaneous Current Stimulator

DEVELOPED BY:

Dr Monzurul Alam
Profile: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=a2yhqEQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Contact: md.malam@connect.polyu.hk

OBJECTIVES:

The objective of this project is to develop a miniature transcutaneous electrical stimulator for non-invasive muscle and nerve stimulation.

DESCRIPTION:

Transcutaneous electrical spinal cord stimulation, a non-invasive spinal cord neuromodulation method holds tremendous promise and hope to restore functions in people with paralysis resultant of spinal cord injury (SCI), cerebral palsy (CP), stroke and other neurological conditions. Yet, there are not many options of such stimulation devices compared to conventional electrical stimulators such as neuromuscular electrical stimulator (NMES), transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator (TENS) and functional electrical stimulator (FES), especially for most people with neurological conditions in the developing world.

OpenXstim is an open-source programmable electrical stimulator (constant current) is a non-invasive muscle, nerve or spinal cord stimulation device. OpenXstim can generate up to 128 mA current pulses with a compliance voltage up to 96 V per stimulation channel. The stimulator is capable of generating high-frequency (10 kHz) burst stimulation, required for transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS).

The stimulator contains 5 primary sections: 1) a power management unit build with a few DC-DC converters to serve necessary power for the stimulator, 2) a Microcontroller unit for easy programming that provides necessary parameters for the stimulation, 3) a control and display unit to vary the stimulation parameters and display the values, 4) a Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) to generate voltage stimulation pulses, 5) a Voltage-to-Current converter unit to convert voltage pulses into appropriate current pulse.

DISCLAIMER:

The design is offered as it is. Although it has been regorously tested with utmost care and to the best of my knowledge, I do not provide any warranty in any aspect.

WARNING:

• The design is intended stricktly for research and education purposes.
• The stimulator is not approved for human or animal and cannot be used without receving prior approval from appropriate ethics committee such as Institutional Review Board.
• The stimulator can generate high voltage and under no circumstances it should be placed across the chest or close to the heart.
• The stimulator should never be powered from external adapter, USB or power source while being used or connected to the body.

LICENSE:

Documentation licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International License