What kind of adapter should I use to connect a E-prime-installed laptop to an external device ?

[Xinge Li]

Hi all,

I tried to connect a E-prime-installed laptop to an external device via a parallel port on it and send triggers from E-prime to that device, but there is no parallel port in the laptop, so I am wondering what kind of adapter I can use to connect the laptop and the external device . Any input is greatly appreciated!

Best,

Xinge

[Xinge Li]

BTW, I only have a smart-card slot and a media card slot on my laptop.

[David McFarlane]

Does the laptop have USB ports?

[Xinge Li]

Yes, it has USB 3.0 and USB-C ports.

[David McFarlane]

Xinge,

If you can afford $800, I recommend getting the Chronos device from PST.
This will work with E-Prime through a USB connection to provide
digital I/O, and will also do many other useful things.

If your external device will work with serial communications, then you
could use a USB-to-serial adapter, we have had good luck with those.
USB-to-parallel adapters, however, do not seem to fully implement the
parallel port, they implement only enough to work with printers.

You could also purchase a general purpose digital I/O device that works
with USB (e.g.,
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.mccdaq.com_usb-2Ddata-2Dacquisition_USB-2D1024-2DSeries.aspx&d=DwICaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=G5rE14iEroXBmo5-NBEH68hGd8Mb0XSkrpl4X12tf70&m=S-Kg8vKJvNkbP99ukkRz4SDTBq0P7i698r7-SgI2tlo&s=jewYkJ9JGgEoXwADQxUbbVVc0SKzvgSe5RmKjKRoxtY&e= for
US$90), but that would take a lot of inline programming (I speak from
experience).

If you can afford US$25 or so, and like to hack, then you could build
something yourself with an Arduino. This talks to E-Prime over a serial
port, and provides a variety of digital I/O channels, among other
things. You would also have to do a bit of programming on the Arduino.
(I have done this for one specialized project.)

And here are two more devices that you might try with E-Prime & a USB
connection:

- U-HID Nano, https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.u-2Dhid.com_home_uhid-5Fnano.php&d=DwICaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=G5rE14iEroXBmo5-NBEH68hGd8Mb0XSkrpl4X12tf70&m=S-Kg8vKJvNkbP99ukkRz4SDTBq0P7i698r7-SgI2tlo&s=7FQ2wH_CUrzqVLGscOtjhwK2Ocds9s32q_7K-2dCAJg&e=

- Teensy, https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.pjrc.com_teensy&d=DwICaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=G5rE14iEroXBmo5-NBEH68hGd8Mb0XSkrpl4X12tf70&m=S-Kg8vKJvNkbP99ukkRz4SDTBq0P7i698r7-SgI2tlo&s=9yJnpNSUJih5nqgNXPZSd1h417wTo-9kunj-VPwD8Iw&e=

If you get any of this to work, then please write back.

---------------
David McFarlane
E-Prime training online:
http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx
Twitter: @EPrimeMaster (https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_EPrimeMaster&d=DwICaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=G5rE14iEroXBmo5-NBEH68hGd8Mb0XSkrpl4X12tf70&m=S-Kg8vKJvNkbP99ukkRz4SDTBq0P7i698r7-SgI2tlo&s=aSxmVu15bi_VbJRuScEJTgvISyWMFITs9_NmnpFFcI4&e= )

[Xinge Li]

Hi David,

Thanks so much for your inputs. Our external system has some BNC input ports, but I am not sure whether they are parallel or serial ports. 

Thanks,

Xinge

[David McFarlane]

Xinge,

The BNC inputs are just plain digital (TTL) inputs. They would not work
with a serial port. A parallel port provides plain digital TTL outputs,
that's why it works with BNC inputs, but anything that provides plain
TTL output (such as in the previous discussion) would work.

-- David McFarlane