Any results?

Garrett, what was library issue and where did you wire incorrectly. I need to check everything, thanks.

It took me a while to realize that the Arduino Adafruit library was named AF Motor (Arduino 1.0).zip in the GITHUB folder…. My compile/upload kept failing until I unzipped it in the ADE library mentioned in buzzboard video … the wiring problem was the printer cable not pushed in enough 😮

Thanks G, glad you're up and running--feel better.

❤

Are you seeing positive results?

Jim, tell me how vibration isolation was involved & solved, thanks.

Does each hand mirror the other please?

Anyone with basic electrical or computer assembly skills can build this. It has been designed to require the least technical skills possible. Any robotics club, electrician or computer tech should find this pretty easy.

Glad it was helpful!

Did h build gloves?

Please do!

the URL for the github site is github.com/pdbuzzboard/pdbuzzboard for all of the code.

posted! working on the small controller

I have had success with several different battery packs. I always use the 5V 2 Amp models for phone charging. There are power packs that deliver less than 2A that I avoid for anything but testing. There is no reason that a wall charger wouldn't work assuming sufficient amperage. My partner likes the ability to move the board around the house to where ever she is comfortable, thus the focus on battery packs.

Vybronics has down rated the motors from 15k to 12 k. Same motors. My wife got results with the Amazon motors (10k) and the Vybronics. I only build with the Vybronics now. While the Arduino Nano gloves got a result for her, they do "walk apart" so that both are not pausing at the same time. Important? Don't know. The Nano does not vibrate the motors as strongly as the motorshield. I am only building the motorshield gloves at this point. The motorshield takes a 5V input, but outputs around 3.3v.

The Stanford documents are here: med.stanford.edu/tass-lab/publications.html The one on the study is here: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8055937/pdf/fphys-12-624317.pdf page 4 has the patterns. This document references the randomization: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8771098/pdf/NRR-17-1495.pdf There is a lot of very good reading in there. Also, a KZfaq search for Tass and Parkinson's Disease has some very informative talks that are worth the time invested. Currently, I am the tech lead for a system in the civilian federal government. I spent a large chunk of my early career as a programmer.

@@pdvibrationtherapy Thanks so much for the links! I've looked at many of the Stanford docs and don't see the spec info. Could you please point me to where you found the detail for the build? How many hours would you estimate to perform this build the first time?

@@user-tg3yv6bu2k They didn't exactly put out step by step instructions for the build. However, they provided detail on their process. The top of page 4 of this document www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8055937/pdf/fphys-12-624317.pdf has the diagram of the stimulation pattern. However, right below it in the left-hand column, it states 100ms while the diagram shows something closer to 167ms. This document www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8771098/pdf/NRR-17-1495.pdf page 2, center column, bottom 3rd, references random patterns. For a first-time build, my guess is that the board will take between 60-90 minutes plus the time to build the fingers. The soldering of the fingers IS the challenge on this build. I can build a board's worth of fingers (8) in about 30 minutes. However, I have done it a couple of times now 🙂

The symptom improvements have been substantial and wide ranging from improved gait and reduced tremor to improvements in blood pressure control among others.

@@pdvibrationtherapy Thank you, I'm going to try to replicate your build for a family member with PD.

How long did it take to start seeing improvement?

My PD partner took about 5 days to a week to get pretty solid relief. Some get relief very quickly, others seem to take as much as 7-10 days. If you go past that without results, I recommend trying a different software load.

Day 5 for me as well for some relief...Thank you so much for being a man of the people. I am just beginning to look at your glove iterations & thoughts on each. Did someone say Nobel Prize?

For troubleshooting, I suggest you get a Multimeter if you don't have one. You can get one at any hardware store, Walmart, Amazon, etc. You don't need an expensive one for this work. For ERM motors voltage=speed=vibration (roughly). Check the voltage being output on each channel by putting the test probes on the terminal screws on top of the blue connector blocks on the motorshield. Red to positive and black to negative. If you get a negative reading or your meter beeps, swap them. The results will bounce around a bit as the meter is sampling at one rate and the Arduino is turning the "finger" on and off. However, all of the readings should be roughly the same. If they are not, the problem is in the motorshield or, much less likely, the Arduino. Swapping the motorshield is a good next step. If the readings are roughly the same, try moving the problem motors to a different port on the motorshield and see if the problem moves or stays (you can do this step first without a meter). If it moves, the motors are bad. If it stays and "good" motors become "bad" motors, it's a shield problem. Let me know how it goes.

@@pdvibrationtherapy Apologies for the much delayed response. I had to wait a while to get spares and try this out. Long story short, the problem was actually the Arduino! After trying out different motor shields, wires, motors, etc., I just swapped out with a new Arduino and the buzzboard finally worked. It has been 3 weeks since the PD person started using it - but we do not yet see a response. I will wait a little longer before trying to customize the pulse lengths. If anyone has any other suggestions, I am all ears. Thanks again for all that you do and have done - this is an incredible resource!

There is a wealth of documentation at med.stanford.edu/tass-lab/publications.html . I recommend starting with www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8055937/pdf/fphys-12-624317.pdf

tremor is pretty much gone. If she has a stressful day, she may have a small tremor in her left foot return. Have you tried dropping back to the 100 sketch and/or lowering time? She has not taken any time off. I know Tass did that in his tests, but, I assume, that was part of the "lab rat" testing to see what happened. My refrain throughout this has been "my wife isn't a science experiment"

@@pdvibrationtherapy I’m going to try both suggestions do u know of people successful on. 100?

There have been folks that reported success on 100. Do you want a version of 167 with a reduced vibration level?@@ellenquintero6

Thinking about that as I think would b less strong right. ?

can you move 3&4 to the connections for 1&2 and 1&2 to the connections for 3&4 ? Does the problem move?

I did last night and 1&2 are now the weaklings with 3&4 vibrating strongly.

I noticed the code in my sketch is 100-- should it be 167, would that make the difference?

@@cropsy50 100 vs 167 is the pulse length. It will influence the length of pulse and amount of vibration, but not cause an imbalance.

Thanks, did not really believe it would. Sorted it out today by using the yellow jumper on the Anduino for power & the 4th finger turned on. For finger 3, I used the center ground for black which worked. Without the yellow jumper, there wasn't as much power. I don't understand it, but happy to try to feel better so thanks all, especially PDBUZZ.

The parts list and software are here: github.com/pdbuzzboard/pdbuzzboard/blob/main/README.md

My wife does not experience dyskinesia. She has never had it with pills or gloves. However, in one of Dr Tass’ presentations he referenced some people experiencing dyskinesia when starting the gloves. He recommended reducing treatment time while lowering CD/LD dosage.

My first cut (the original) used a bread board with PNP transistors to turn the current flow on and off. I down regulated the voltage from 5v to around 4v with the resistors that I had on hand. Thus the over volt (they really vibrated vigorously though!). I changed to a 3.3 volt power supply for the feed which removed the need for the resistors. The motorshield design was the next step to simplify the design. The first set of code ran the motorshield at a lower speed to deliver a lower voltage to the motors. Interestingly, the Motorshield consumes a good bit of power when passing voltage through the device. It down regulates the 5V to the low 3s just by device loss. The Nano power supply doesn't have sufficient power to push the motors past limits (thus the somewhat lower vibration level of the micro controller gloves versus the board/motorshield gloves).

@@pdvibrationtherapy thank you for the information, I’m just waiting for my parts to arrive so I can start on my gloves. I’m not really clear on how to upload the programming from my computer to the device, but I will wait until I get it assembled and send you another message, Thanks again

the Arduino Uno case has two screw holes that go on the front (connector) side of the device and offset holes (one is substantially further in) on the back. I usually put the bottom on a table with the four screws protruding through. If the holes don't line up, flip the bottom over. After the bottom is on the screws, place the small rubber rings over the screws. This is important to raise the Arduino high enough to mate with the motor shield. Place the Arduino Uno (without the shield) over the screws. You will need to get the front plate in place now as you won't be able to get it in place once the top is one. Match the sides to the slots in the bottom and put the top on. Screws will line up like the bottom. Once in place, you can spin the nuts on the screws from the top. Best of luck.

That will work. The m is for ‘miili’ meaning thousand. 2000mah = 2 amp

We use 167. When we started with the board/gloves in January of last year, she scored as stage 4. At our last neurologist visit, he told her "sitting there, you don't look like a person with Parkinson's".

@@pdvibrationtherapy can I ask how often and for how long she used stim ? Still buzzboard ? Thank you so much

she currently tries to get in 1-2 hours per day in a single session. We started with the board, moved to the microcontoller gloves and, after she broke her foot, moved to the motorshield gloves. She is, primarily, on the motorshield gloves. She is able to skip days (like yesterday when she had a busy work day and a Christmas party in the evening) but we try not to skip as keeping her brain desynchronized is part of a larger plan that we are working to slow disease progression. Likely, she could move to the couple times per week "maintenance dose" that others on the Tass gloves are following.@@ellenquintero6

I figured it out had my wires backwards

Weirdly I am having the same issue where only 2 of the 4 work simultaneously. Its not a wiring thing, but curious if you had any updates?

do you have a 5 volt power supply? (no, they should not get hot)

There is a discussion thread on the github at github.com/pdbuzzboard/pdbuzzboard/discussions. My PD partner is operating on the repeating pattern _167 loads (board and gloves) with good results. I don't believe anyone has compiled results across the community.

Is that a change in pattern from 100 for your pd partner? If yes, did she "top out," at initial rate?

The pattern is the same, but the pulse is longer (167 ms vs 100). I started with the 167 in my first iteration and haven't moved her to anything else as she is getting a good result.

Great your pdp continues getting solid relief. Still searching here amongst patterns for more solid/lasting results. Thanks for quick response.

@@pdvibrationtherapy I'm interested in compiling results from the community. Starting with a basic Google Sheets to capture comments from here and the GitHub board. If you have additional comments that you've collected I'd be interested in them.

I haven't used these, but the specs match. There are only 113 in stock at Digikey, so I am hesitant to order some for testing purposes and take them from folks in need. www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/pui-audio-inc/HD-EM0602-LW15-R/18686987

thank you@@pdvibrationtherapy

I will share my experience… my buzzboard was modified using finger splints - the motor sits on the inner fingertips and I just slide my fingers in … I BZB 2 hours a day - hour AM and an hour PM … I find it easier to stand up and take that first step …. I feel less klutzy… PD had really affected my cycling power …. Switched to an e-bike to keep up with my fiancée… since BZBing I have put up my 2 longest rides since being diagnosed… longest ride was 27 miles / did 40 and 36 my last two rides. My overall energy level has improved. About 30 days in since I started.

Still on an e-bike but extending rides which is very exciting !

That is xlnt Garrett, when were you dx'd with pd? Trying to compare results with other longer term pd'ers (16 yrs), thanks.

Sept 2017 so 6 years ago ….

pdbuzzboard@gmail.com

the code for the board and gloves is available at github.com/pdbuzzboard/pdbuzzboard The references to the A and B patterns are on page 4 of this document: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8055937/pdf/fphys-12-624317.pdf This document references the randomized pattern testing on page 7 www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2021.716556/full The main page for the Stanford (Tass Labs) docs are here: med.stanford.edu/tass-lab/publications.html

If I want to change the pulse to 167 from 100(you mentioned someone got solid results at 167-but little at 100)is that done by selecting it in the library & uploading it? A non-coder's question, thanks.

The Arduino is a pretty basic device. It runs whatever Sketch was loaded last. Uploading a Sketch over writes the one currently in the device. Just download the Sketch you want and go through the compile / upload process as normal.

Thanks for the refresher..

please reach out via e-mail pdbuzzboard@gmail.com

@jimt6999 - I'd like to know this as well! I haven't heard of patients with conventional DBS partaking of this treatment. My wife has DBS, and I was hoping to somehow integrate this coordinated reset (CR) concept with her treatment. But from the videos I've seen featuring Dr. Tass talking about his research, I get the impression that these treatments would be conflict with each other. His intention is to stimulate the brain in a way that's different from the steady stimulation that conventional DBS provides (in fact he demonstrated the effectiveness of his CR research on patients who had brain electrodes, energizing them using an external, custom-programmed stimulator). So it is strictly my assumption that current conventional DBS patients perhaps should not add this therapy on top of the DBS. I tried to get some clarification about this from Dr. Tass's team at Stanford: I did connect with a real person there, but she wouldn't answer my specific question, citing plans for further research in the near future. What would be nice is if there was a way to have current DBS stimulators able to be programmed to provide these CR stimulation patterns in addition to the constant, steady stimulation utilized in conventional DBS. My wife will be having her stimulator replaced in the next few months (her battery is getting low!); I doubt that the manufacturer (Medtronics) would have something that could be programmed to deliver either/or...

Google drive is drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NHxUHjh44w7PxyNFWLYMgC35SzOBo1Ti?usp=share_link github is github/pdbuzzboard/pdbuzzboard

@@pdvibrationtherapy Thank you!

first I have heard of that. I have heard of folks getting varying results both in time and intensity of response, but I haven't heard of anyone getting additional gait issues.

I played with it a bit and figured it out, but I don't completely understand. When making the motor connections to the five terminal block, when I connected the black wires to the center ground terminal of the block, it worked fine. I was assuming the "M1" for example was a positive and negative. Hopes this helps someone troubleshoot!

The VibroTherapy_3V_167 is built for the microcontroller. The VibroTherapyMotorShield Sketches are built for the Arduino Uno / Motor shield configuration.

Please.explain more about the center.of the block and wiring. Desperately searching for anything

I had a similar problem. It ended up being caused by the plastic case, removed the case and plugged in the motor control directly and it worked.

please reach out via e-mail pdbuzzboard@gmail.com

I use both Windows and MacOS interchangeably. There is an Arduino IDE for MacOS. Whereever you install it, you will need to end up with the .. / Arduino / Libraries / AFMotor directory structure (you unzip the Motor Shield zip into the Libraries folder). (this assumes you are using the motor shield and not the micro controller. The board/port selection looks a little different, but the Mac recognizes the device without issue.

Thank you for the fast response! We were able to install the s/w and I have completed the build using gloves instead of the board. Now to see if this therapy works!

Keep us posted on results good or not so... I have not found any consistency yet after a few weeks....just. flashes of short lived things

@@cropsy50 which software load are you using? Have you tried a different software configuration?

@@pdvibrationtherapy Hi Paul(?) Hope all continues well with your better half. Did not see your question until just now as I was preparing one for you.....I switched from 167 to 100 after a couple weeks of mixed results where I thought meds were lasting longer, but not able to reduce much at all. The 100 I've done for a week without anything positive and today I switched back to 167 where meds in just this one day feel like they are lasting longer and I may be on the cusp...If you have a suggestion to try another load, I trust in your judgement, and yes, my mileage may vary. Question for you as I bought those sensors and a Arduino Nano to test. Do I have to solder all 30 pins from the 2 unattached 15 pin railings that come with the Nano. Thanks as always. Eric

I have built a very small number for others and have a waiting list. You can email me at pdbuzzboard @gmail.com. I don’t take money for building for others.

You are missing the motor shield library. It is available on the GitHub here: github.com/pdbuzzboard/pdbuzzboard/blob/main/AFMotor%20(arduino1.0).zip You will need to download it and extract its contents into a Libraries directory under your Arduino directory. On Windows it will look like c:\Users\YOUR USER ID\Documents\Arduino\Libraries (if you ran the standard install). On MacOS it will be similar. Once you have the AF Motor library in place, you should compile without issue.

Thank you so much Your hard work is helping so many people I am deeply grateful