Task Event - WriteString?

[John]

I'm running eprime pro and trying to use task events to trigger an external device.

When the stimulus comes on the screen, I need eprime to send the string "RUN" to the serial port.

In task events, I do the following:

-Add an event

-Select the serial device (COM3)

-Action:  WriteString

...but then how to I define what the string is?  (i.e. "RUN")

(In a terminal window, i can type "echo RUN > COM3" and that triggers the device...I'm just trying to figure out how eprime to do that.)

Thanks! 

[David McFarlane]

Try the following in the Task Events dialog box:

- Set Source to "(custom)"
- In Custom, put your string (e.g., "RUN", without the quotes). (You
may also use attribute references here, e.g., "[StimCode]", these
will be resolved just before the stimulus object runs.)
- Set Data Type to "String".
- Set Enabled to "Yes".

Please write back with your results, as I am not set up to test that
myself here.

And if you have not already, look a the seciton 3.1 of the New
Features Guide, and KB4803
(http://www.pstnet.com/support/kb.asp?TopicID=4803 ) for the
documentation from PST.

-----
David McFarlane
E-Prime training
online: http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx
Twitter: @EPrimeMaster (https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster)

/----
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strive to respond to all requests in 24-48 hours, so make full use of
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\----

[John]

Thanks for your reply, David - No luck.

Action: WriteString 
Parameter - Custom: RUN 

Data Type: String

Enabled:  Yes

[David McFarlane]

Thanks for reporting back. Time now to contact PST Web Support and
have them sort it out for you, then please report back here for the
rest of us. Thanks!

-- David McFarlane

At 8/12/2013 05:03 PM Monday, John wrote:
>Thanks for your reply, David - No luck.
>
>Action: WriteString
>Parameter - Custom: RUN
>Data Type: String
>Enabled: Yes
>
>On Monday, August 12, 2013 2:26:45 PM UTC-4, McFarlane, David wrote:
>Try the following in the Task Events dialog box:
>
>- Set Source to "(custom)"
>- In Custom, put your string (e.g., "RUN", without the quotes). (You
>may also use attribute references here, e.g., "[StimCode]", these
>will be resolved just before the stimulus object runs.)
>- Set Data Type to "String".
>- Set Enabled to "Yes".
>
>Please write back with your results, as I am not set up to test that
>myself here.
>
>And if you have not already, look a the seciton 3.1 of the New
>Features Guide, and KB4803

>(<http://www.pstnet.com/support/kb.asp?TopicID=4803>http://www.pstnet.com/support/kb.asp?TopicID=4803

>) for the
>documentation from PST.
>
>-----
>David McFarlane
>E-Prime training
>online:

><http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx>http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx
>
>Twitter: @EPrimeMaster
>(<https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster>https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster)

>
>/----
>Stock reminder: 1) I do not work for PST. 2) PST's trained staff
>take any and all questions at

><http://support.pstnet.com/e%2Dprime/support/login.asp>http://support.pstnet.com/e%2Dprime/support/login.asp

>, and they
>strive to respond to all requests in 24-48 hours, so make full use of
>it. 3) In addition, PST offers several instructional videos on their
>YouTube channel

>(<http://www.youtube.com/user/PSTNET>http://www.youtube.com/user/PSTNET

[John]

Update:  We were able to get it running using inline script -- it needed a carriage return.

Prior to each event, put in an inline script with:

Serial.WriteString "RUN" & ebCrLf

If using multiple pumps in a network, precede run with the address of the pump:  "00 RUN" for the first pump, "01 RUN" for the second, etc.

[David McFarlane]

Great, and thanks for posting back! So the issue was not exactly
with E-Prime Task Events, but with including control characters in
the output string.

Hmm, then you should still be able to get it to work with Task Events
by defining your string plus carriage return/newline into an
attribute, and then using the attribute reference in Task
Events. E.g., with inline code (could do this once at the Sesson level),

c.SetAttrib RunString, "RUN" & ebCrLf

and then for "Custom" in Task Events use

[RunString]

Even better, just try either of the following strings for Custom in
Task Events:
RUN\n
RUN\r\n

The generated code shows that it properly includes the escaped
control characters (\n, or \r\n), so this should work, but I need
someone else to run this and confirm.

So the lesson here seems to be that we have to know how to embed
standard escaped control characters in our Custom strings for Task Events.

-----
David McFarlane
E-Prime training
online: http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx

Twitter: @EPrimeMaster (https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster)

[John]

Correct - I was able to take out the inline and use task events by putting RUN/r/n into the custom string.

00 RUN/r/n  triggers the first pump

01 RUN/r/n  triggers the second pump

Success!

[John]

(sorry, those should be backslashes  00 RUN\r\n)