Issues with Task Events to send triggers to BrainVision
Theodore Huppert
In our experience, we have not found a USB-LPT cable that actually works for this. The reason is because these adapters use a different protocol compared to a true LPT COM port. We have only ever gotten that to work by buying a PCI-Parallel Port (LPT) card and installing it on the computer (which means you can’t use a laptop since they won’t have PCI slots). These cards are only around $15 USD or so.
Other options are to use something like the Cederus system (https://www.cedrus.com/stimtracker/index.htm), which you can get from NIRx.
However since NIRS doesn’t need the timing to be too exact, you can use other solutions. We have a LabStreamingLayer driver and examples for Eprime that will work with the BrainVision system (https://github.com/huppertt/EprimeLSL_sync). We have also made our own USB stimulus adapters with Arduino cards (http://huppertlab.net/2018/11/21/creating-usb-analog-sync-box-with-arduino-uno/), which works because NIRS is fine with a few hundred millisecond time delays, but this would not work with EEG.
-Ted
Theodore Huppert, PhD
University of Pittsburgh
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Email: Hupp...@pitt.edu
Phone: 1-412-383-5167
Website: www.huppertlab.net
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David McFarlane
I do not have experience with BrainVision so I have to ask: What sort
of input does BrainVision need for its triggers, parallel (LPT) or
serial (COM)? Judging from the user manual that I found online, the
recorder gets its triggers through parallel input, *not* serial. That
means that your serial port device will not work at all for triggers.
And as Ted already said, USB-LPT adapters will not work for this purpose
(USB-LPT adapters are made specifically for working with old fashioned
LPT printers). You will need to add a real LPT adapter to your E-Prime
PC, or add some USB device that produces plain parallel digital output.
You might also need to build a custom cable to go from E-Prime to your
EEG PC. Finally, you will have to take some special steps with Task
Events in E-Prime to get the parallel output to work properly as
signals/triggers/markers to the EEG, search this group for several
threads discussing this.
-- David McFarlane
On 2021-09-03 Fri 11:59 AM, Theodore Huppert wrote:
> In our experience, we have not found a USB-LPT cable that actually works for this. The reason is because these adapters use a different protocol compared to a true LPT COM port. We have only ever gotten that to work by buying a PCI-Parallel Port (LPT) card and installing it on the computer (which means you can’t use a laptop since they won’t have PCI slots). These cards are only around $15 USD or so.
>
>
> However since NIRS doesn’t need the timing to be too exact, you can use other solutions. We have a LabStreamingLayer driver and examples for Eprime that will work with the BrainVision system (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/huppertt/EprimeLSL_sync__;!!HXCxUKc!ibpajfzzxH48stnuCI6gL3mLHNY7nEV1KU0QdsE_mjiZOy2uDfmeKsLI3SPbw8ej$ ). We have also made our own USB stimulus adapters with Arduino cards (https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://huppertlab.net/2018/11/21/creating-usb-analog-sync-box-with-arduino-uno/__;!!HXCxUKc!ibpajfzzxH48stnuCI6gL3mLHNY7nEV1KU0QdsE_mjiZOy2uDfmeKsLI3ZO_TrEw$ ), which works because NIRS is fine with a few hundred millisecond time delays, but this would not work with EEG.
>
> -Ted
>
>
>
>
>
> Theodore Huppert, PhD
> University of Pittsburgh
> Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
>
> Phone: 1-412-383-5167
> Website: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.huppertlab.net__;!!HXCxUKc!ibpajfzzxH48stnuCI6gL3mLHNY7nEV1KU0QdsE_mjiZOy2uDfmeKsLI3ZsfIiA7$