Psychopy3 (brew install, conda env): all 3 keyboard backends nonfunctional

Other
, ,
1

Please bear with me, I am entirely new to this whole process. I will provide any info requested but may require lots of clarification.

The computer is a 2015 High Sierra Apple computer. A colleague used brew to help me set up a conda environment for the newest version of Psychopy3. (The standalone wasn’t working with some of our hardware so it isn’t an option at the moment). This Psychopy3 gives failures for all three options for keyboard backends (ioHub, psychtoolbox, Pyglet). I need reaction time data from the keyboard and eventually will be using an eyetracker as well. I can’t run any demos due to these failures.

I read that ioHub is best for eyetrackers so I’ve been fiddling with that one. If I code directly in the coder I can do:

from psychopy.iohub.client import launchHubServer

and that works. But if I then do

io = LaunchHubServer()

it fails and says

RuntimeError: Error starting ioHub server: ioHub startup failed.

I figure there’s something wrong with the conda environment stuff we did. Is there something I’m doing that is obviously wrong (am I typing the wrong things?), or are there basic fixes I could try first? Should I be focusing on one option (ioHub, psychtoolbox, Pyglet) over the others?

2

Hi @Mallard,

What happens if you run one of the demos from Builder (rather than entering this code yourself) - for example the stroop demo from the demos drop-down in the Builder window? If you could try to run that and paste any error that you get in the stdout box of the Runner window that would be helpful.

Also, if you wouldn’t mind expanding a little on why the standalone didn’t work that would also be helpful.

Thanks!

Kim

3

Thank you very much for your response, Kim.

Running the Stroop demo from the builder: It hangs on a black screen for a minute before closing. The error says

File "/Users/researcher/anaconda3/envs/psychopy3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/psychopy/iohub/client__init__.py", line 296, in __init__
raise Runtime Error('Error starting ioHub server: []'. format(self.iohub_status))
RuntimeError: Error starting ioHub server: ioHub startup failed.
################# Experiment ended with exit code 1 [pid: 3963] #################

Why standalone didn’t work: I am attempting to control a LabJack U3 using PsychoPy and it simply wouldn’t allow me to import the module no matter what we did. We tried following all the directions we found on forums and such. My colleague said something about how the lab computer has several Pythons installed and that this was introducing some sort of issue, and that creating a conda environment allowed us to clear up the issues regarding “using the right instance of Python”.

4

Hi @Mallard,

Thanks for this, could you please try:

  • Opening the Security & Privacy in your Mac > Add PsychoPy (either by checking the box next to PsychoPy or adding it manually) to the list of apps in both input monitoring and accessibility
  • Try to run the Stroop demo again

Thanks,

Kim

5

Hi Kim, thanks for the follow-up and suggestion.

As mentioned, my machine is running High Sierra. I can’t find the input monitoring feature and google is telling me that it is not available on this version of the operating system. I did add Psychopy to the accessibility list. Running the Stroop demo gave me identical results to the attempts prior, i.e., it still hangs and then gives the aforementioned error.

Should I update my machine? Doing so would require moving existing experiments onto other devices but if it will fix this current issue we are willing to do so.

Thanks again.