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Comment by Jun8 | Hacker News Reader

I’ve always wanted to try TDCS, AFAIK the only way currently for recreational use is to DIY the setup. This freaks me out, fiddling with and possibly bricking your brain is not like hacking an e-ink store label or Philips toothbrush.

I think the best way for brain hacking (other than drugs) may be Altman’s Brain Machine, which works by modulated light pulses, Adafruit used to sell kits but it should be easy to build one yourself: https://www.adafruit.com/product/287, https://makezine.com/article/home/build-a-brain-machine-wit/

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One of my most San Francisco experiences, about a month after moving here:

I used an app to find a therapist after experiencing some gnarly trauma. Twenty minutes into the consult session, the therapist asks me if I'd be interested in trying an "experimental treatment proven to help process traumas." She pulled a device out of her desk drawer, and it looked kind of like a beanie hat made from electrical wires.

So, that's how I found out she was using the therapy matching app to find volunteers for her research. The literature she showed me was all related to TDCS (hadn't heard about TDCS previously).

I left pretty quickly, before the session ended, which I remember because my car was TOWED.

Seems like a Silicon Valley plot line

I’ve never successfully made it through a full episode of either Portlandia or Silicon Valley because they’re both just too real for me not in a good way.

I love the SV series, watched it twice end to end

And you are 100% right, pretty much everything in it is very real, portrayed in a cartoonish way, but so real

I’ve met real life versions of almost all the characters in it and even have attended a birthday party in Alcatraz (it was actually a ton of fun, although definitely weird and eerie too)

Hopefully you get to someday laugh at all this stuff

i struggle with the episodes and i was a consultant on the show. very traumatizing.

So interesting. How was it working on the show? What makes the episodes so hard to watch?

Nonsense tech deadline PTSD

The VCs and the founders.

Same idea (mostly) with Mr Robot

How much did it cost to get your car back?

Around $700.

DAMN.

I've tried the diy approach for programming and sports. Some limited success but it's difficult to get all the parameters like placement, duration, and current figured out, especially for sports. I gave up on it because you can have negative outcomes if you do it wrong. Nothing I did felt permanent in its effect.

A word of caution with DIY/commercial products. Tested one product out, caused me to see flashing lights and another time caused a burning sensation.

If you happen to be in the Boston area there is a tDCS study going on right now that is looking for participants. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36152197

There are several commercial devices, though I don't know if they have the performance you are looking for

Just buy a neuromyst , I own one . Its generally the most recommended one if you check out the TDCS subreddit

Do you like it? What do you use it the most for?

Thank you

Please share more details on your experiences using the device

I'm not suggesting that the product won't work or that it's snake oil, but when I looked it up on Amazon the "people who bought this also bought" section listed a 'GPS bug detector', a 'Vitamin B2 to cure migraines' product, and a geiger counter specifically designed for checking your food.

those also seem legitimate?

It also seems to suggest a certain gullibility?

I’m not sure that it suggest anything besides the fact that many people buying these products on Amazon also happen to buy other “fringe” products, perhaps because of paranoid tendencies.

Until something like this becomes mainstream, buyers will probably fall into two categories:

1. These paranoid types who are willing to try things most people won’t look twice at

2. Nerd/bio hacker types who have some fascination/interest in the subject

I’d guess there is only overlap when products are actually grounded in some real science, e.g. the people buying stuff for paranoid fringe reasons are also buying far crazier stuff that the bio hacker would reject outright and for good reason.

That seems to be your recommendations. My "people who bought this also bought" is showing another tDCS kit, a tDCS book and a tDCS cap.

To be fair my Amazon shopping history is pretty weird so it might well be that.

Do you - or anyone else for that matter - have experience with the class of neuro-feedback EEG category of devices (NeoRythm, Muse, etc)

I researched heavily for a while a few years back. I felt that the devices themselves couldn't accurately act as EEGs (setting aside whether you believe they could be used for enhancing brain function or not)

Has this changed? Are there better devices out there now?

did we just break their website?

Sadly I can trust Reddit no more. I feel like there’s a weird tendency on subreddits to just filter down to one or two brands and just trash everything else.

There is a quite long list of all available TDCS devices and their specs available on that subreddit . It such a niche thing that there isn't much bias at the moment

After all a TDCS devices just sends a specific current for a period of specified time .

Whatever brand's marketing can get in there first, snag a moderator role, and then flood this discussions.

True for everything, and is why I pray for the Dead Internet Theory to happen.

You can buy a professionally made TDCS machine, check out the TDCS reddit page for recommendations.

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