[Eeglablist] The parallel port - TRIGGERS

Fri Jul 13 11:52:13 PDT 2012

Thank you all for the suggestions.

I believe the easiest ways to keep using a parallel port with a laptop are:

> use a parallel express card
> use a docking station that has parallel port output (if the parallel port is IEEE 1284 compliant)

http://people.usd.edu/~schieber/psyc770/IO32.html  here you can
download the software to send triggers through the parallel port via
Matlab (free of costs)

Thanks again!

Davide.

On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 5:48 AM, Arnaud Delorme <arno at ucsd.edu> wrote:
> Dear Davide,
>
> the ADR-100 (Ontrak Control Systems, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada) is what I
> would recommend. It is inexpensive ($99) and robust. It works on the serial
> port, but I use an usb to serial converter. A hint below that took me a long
> time to figure out. You will need to change the terminator to 13 so the card
> functions properly.
>
> I have been able to address 2 of these cards simultaneously to sync EEG
> acquisition with other signal and was able to sync EEG down to almost ms
> precision (I did not try ms precision only 250 Hz and synchronization was
> perfect).
> I have also used the measurement computing card under Matlab that Pat
> mentions and it works as well (but I think it is more expensive).
> Best,
>
> Arno
>
> http://www.ontrak.net/products.htm#ADR100
>
> Below, all the code you will need
> port = 'COM5'; % change the port here
> serialPort = serial(port, 'baudrate', 9600);
> set(serialPort, 'terminator', 13);
> fopen(serialPort);
>
> fwrite(serialPort1, ['CPA00000000' char(13)]);
> fwrite(serialPort1, ['SPA00000000' char(13)]);
> fwrite(serialPort1, ['SPA00000001' char(13)]);
> pause(0.05);
> fwrite(serialPort1, ['SPA00000000' char(13)]);
> disp('Testing - bytes sent to serial port 1!');
>
> The card has 8 bit output. For example, if you want to send 255, you send
> 'SPA11111111'.
>
> On Jul 12, 2012, at 2:35 PM, Patrick Simen wrote:
>
> Davide,
>
> We used a USB device from Measurement Computing for which PsychToolbox has a
> controller toolbox (found in in your PTB folder under PsychHardware/DAQ; see
> http://www.mccdaq.com/usb-data-acquisition/USB-1208FS.aspx ). We sent analog
> outputs from a Mac laptop out of this device (a USB 1208-FS, approx $200),
> and soldered two wires from the DAQ device into a parallel port connector.
> (If you go this route, make sure you get the right device, a 1208-FS or
> 1608-FS --- other similar devices by Measurement Computing ending in LS do
> not work with the DAQ toolbox.)
>
> More recently, I also solved the problem of wiring up the USB device to a
> parallel port connector without soldering by selecting ribbon cable and a
> snap-together parallel port connector from a company called SparkFun. This
> solution seems to work fine.
>
> I've had no serious problems with this approach so far, but you can be
> limited in the number of distinct events you can encode, depending on
> whether your amplifier and recording software accept different voltage
> levels as different event triggers (in which case, no problem), or whether
> they accept only ON vs. OFF on each of several different pins of the
> parallel port (in that case, you can only encode a few distinct event types,
> although you might increase the number by using two of those USB devices --
> not sure if PTB can handle that though).
>
> Good luck,
>
> Pat.
>
> On Jul 12, 2012, at 4:47 PM, Andrew Smart wrote:
>
> If you have a Dell laptop you can just use a docking station with the right
> ports - we get fine results for the triggers using these:
>
> http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&sku=310-2873
>
> Andy
>
> On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 2:28 PM, Ruud Kalis <rkalis at ant-neuro.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Davide,
>>
>> We have done some pilot tests at ANT with an express card to paralel port
>> adapter. The manufacturer is Delock:
>> http://www.delock.de/produkte/G_66220/merkmale.html?setLanguage=en
>>
>> The results for trigger accuracy are ok since express cards are on pci
>> slots on the motherboard. The timing is much better than with the
>> asynchronous usb port. Keep in mind that the lcd screen takes different time
>> for changes in colours. A black - white transition might be slower than a
>> grey - white. Also soundcards in laptops might not have vary good timing..
>> There is a lot to optimize if you want to achieve a high trigger / stimulus
>> synchronization. But for mobile labs a laptop is just more easy to use.
>>
>> Good luck with setting up your experiments!
>> Best,
>> Ruud Kalis
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Davide Baldo <davidebaldo84 at gmail.com>
>> To: eeglablist at sccn.ucsd.edu
>> Sent: Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:20:58 +0200 (CEST)
>> Subject: [Eeglablist] The parallel port - TRIGGERS
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> When running EEG experiments, I use Psychtoolbox (in Matlab) to
>> present subjects with different stimuli
>> So far, I have been using a desktop, that has a parallel port that
>> allows me to send out the triggers related to the stimuli.
>> The triggers are accepted in input from the EEG recording system again
>> via a parallel port.
>>
>> I would like to use a laptop rather than a desktop to present the
>> subjects with the stimuli and to send out the related triggers.
>> The problem is that is hard to find a laptop with a parallel port. I
>> was wondering if any of you found a solution to this problem.
>>
>> That would be very helpful!
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>>
>> Davide.
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>> --
>> Ruud Kalis
>> Sales and Support Germany
>> ANT (Advanced Neuro Technology)
>> Berlin, Germany
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>> F: +31 (0)53 430 3795
>> I: www.ant-neuro.com
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>
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>
>
> Patrick Simen, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor, Neuroscience Department
> Oberlin College
> psimen at oberlin.edu
> www.oberlin.edu/faculty/psimen
>
>
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