SRBox - no response

[Cristina Trifan]

Hello,

I am trying to run to Serial Response Box on Windows 7, 32 bit. My computer does not have a serial port so I cannot attach the SRBox directly to the computer. I bought a converter cable for this (USB to serial - USB to RS232 DB9 converter). I have installed the driver (Prolific) and I set the same ports in my Device Manager and in E-Prime 2.0. I have gone through the installation instructions. My computer and E-Prime recognize my SRBox and I have added the device in E-Prime. 

Still, when I run the SRBox tutorial, the buttons have no effect on the experiment and nothing is recorded. I also ran the lamps part of the tutorial and the lamps work just fine. Do you know or have an idea of what the problem might be?

Thank you!

[JoAnn Silkes]

This may be obvious, and you've probably done it, but just in case you haven't... Make sure that you've not only added the SRBox to the devices in your EPrime protocol, but have also designated acceptable responses specifically for the SRBox in the object properties page. This needs to be done separately from the responses designated for the keyboard.

JoAnn.

[Cristina Trifan]

Hello, 

Thank you for the suggestions. I have done this in my own experiment and I have also tried to do the SRBox tutorial, which already has these settings made. 

I think that the root problem is the converter cable (because a colleague didn't need the converter cable for his computer and the SRBox worked).

Has anybody had issues with the converter cable?

[JACanterbury]

If you're going to use the response box over USB then you will lose any benefits over accuracy and precision in response timings compared to when its used directly over a serial port so will probably be no worse off just using your USB keyboard for responses. 

You might find this report interesting/shocking - especially fig 14 on page 10. http://psy.swan.ac.uk/staff/freegard/Response%20Box%20Report.pdf 

cheers,

John

[Cristina Trifan]

Hello,

Thank you John for the insight.

I have managed to make the SRBox work in the end. I have tested the SRBox on Acer computers with Windows 7 and XP and none worked. I have tried the SRBox on HP (Pavilion) and Lenovo computers (both with Windows 7, 64 bit) and the SRBox worked. I don't know exactly why this happened, maybe Acer computers don't have some hardware or drivers installed, which are needed for the SRBox, or maybe the reason is something else altogether. The converter wasn't the problem, as it had a genuine Prolific chipset. 

Best regards,

Cristina.