issue sending triggers using Neurospec usb-parallel adapter

[TheMetallicatz]

Hi everyone

I'm having trouble getting my experiment to send triggers, and I'm thinking it may be to do with using a usb to parallel port converter (Neurospec).

I'm thinking this because triggers are being sent to ActiView when checked via Matlab, and I have the appropriate drivers installed plus inpout32 and have that placed in the folder of my script. 

The script I am using within my study is below. It could be a simple address issue (this is the address when checking device managers via control panel). And no error message is displayed, so I gather it is correct.

from psychopy import parallel

from ctypes import windll

portaddress = 0x00000008

def sendTrigger(triggerCode):

    try:

        windll.inpout32.Out32(portaddress, triggerCode)

        #core.wait(0.05)

        windll.inpout32.Out32(portaddress, 0)

    except RuntimeError: print "Trigger \ ''' + str(triggerCode) + ''\'' could not be sent"

    except WindowsError: print "inpout32.dll couldn't be found"

sendTrigger(1)

I've also tried testing via the script below, which again shows no errors but simply doesn't send the trigger when checking via ActiView.

#!/usr/bin/env python2

from psychopy import visual, core, logging

from psychopy import parallel

from ctypes import windll

nFramesOn = 5

nFramesOff = 30

nCycles = 2

parallel.setPortAddress(0x00000008) #address for parallel port on many machines

pinNumber = 2#choose a pin to write to (2-9). 

#setup the stimuli and other objects we need

myWin = visual.Window([1280, 1024],allowGUI=False)#make a window

myWin.flip()#present it

myStim = visual.PatchStim(myWin, tex=None, mask=None, color='white', size=2)   

myClock = core.Clock() #just to keep track of time

#present a stimulus for EXACTLY 20 frames and exactly 5 cycles

for cycleN in range(nCycles):

    for frameN in range(nFramesOff):

        #don't draw, just refresh the window

        myWin.flip()

        parallel.setData(0)#sets all pins low

        

    for frameN in range(nFramesOn):

        myStim.draw()

        myWin.flip()

        #immediately *after* screen refresh set pins as desired

        parallel.setPin(2,1)#sets just this pin to be high        

        

#report the mean time afterwards

print 'total time=', myClock.getTime()

print 'avg frame rate=', myWin.fps()

#set pins back to low

myWin.flip()

parallel.setData(0)#sets all pins low again

I may be going down the wrong rabbit hole here, but Matlab runs the Neurospec usb-parallel adapter as a serial port - could this be the issue? (see URL)

Quoted from the URL below (under subheading Neurospec MMB trigger box) -  "The box appears as serial port and trigger codes are sent to this serial port using PTB's IOPort function"

https://github.com/Psychtoolbox-3/Psychtoolbox-3/wiki/FAQ:-TTL-Triggers-via-USB

Any help is massively appreciated!

Brendan

[Michael MacAskill]

Hello,

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