Serial USB relay: Adding time-stamps to EEG Recordings

[Paul Groot]

Hi Jodie,

I don't see why this should be an eprime issue? The logic behind your
script is that there is an active digital signal when the stimulus is
presented. Not sure how biosemi normally encodes those events, but if it
encodes rising and falling edges seperatly, there is no way of preventing
the additional marker at the end of the stimulus. However, I doubt if the
digital interface with relays is the right way to conenct the two systems.
Relays can cause delay and bouncing problems, so I would prefer a direct
(TTL) connection from the stimulus computer to the biosemi trigger
input(s). Normally this can be done using a parallel printer port or IO
board. I would be very suspicious about a possible bouncing issue when the
relay is switched off. Especially when using high sampling rates...

Best
Paul


On 21 January 2014 13:24, Jodie <jodie at naimfeil.org> wrote:

> Hello Forum,
>
> I am having a little bit of trouble with my USB relay setup. Essentially,
> I have a USB 4-relay board which I using to communicate between E-prime and
> Biosemi.
> My plan is to timestamp in the EEG recording when the stimulus event is
> being shown. My current script is the following (which just opens and
> closes the USB relay):
>
> This in-line is immediately before the stimulus presentation:
> ----------------------------------
> Dim arrDataa(2) As Integer
>
> arrDatag(0) = 255
> arrDatag(1) = 1
> arrDatag(2) = 1
>
> Serial.WriteBytes arrDataa
> ---------------------------------
>
> Following by the Stimulus presentation
>
> Then, this in-line is immediately after the stimulus presentation:
>
> ----------------------------------
> Dim arrDatab(2) As Integer
>
> arrDatag(0) = 255
> arrDatag(1) = 1
> arrDatag(2) = 0
>
> Serial.WriteBytes arrDatab
> ---------------------------------
>
> The script works nicely and is able to time-stamp into the Biosemi
> recording. The problem is that while it works perfectly for when the trigger
> code is sent (lets say a 64 time-stamp appears in the trigger of Biosemi),
> when I 'stop' the trigger (after the stimulus is presented), there is a
> time-stamp of 64 with a zero underneath in the Biosemi recordings. This is
> problematic for when I try to analyse the EEG data because all of the
> start and stop events are saved as the same 64 time-stamps (it ignores the
> zero below the 64 in the 'stop' time-stamp condition) and therefore, the
> 'stop' is considered the same event as the initiation of the time-stamp.
>
> I contacted Biosemi and they told me that the issue is with the scripting
> in E-prime. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for how to fix
> this problem?
> It would be much appreciated!!
>
> I hope I have been clear?
>
> Thank you for your help.
>
> Kind regards,
> Jodie
>
>
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