Sending triggers to EEG via Brain Vision Triggerbox by using the serial Port Component

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1

Hello all,

I am trying to make PsychoPY send triggers to EEG through the Brain Vision Triggerbox

I am using the serial Port component. In the pictures below you can see what I’m doing (there are 3 different visual stimuli and I want to send three different triggers for each):

1 (2)
1 (2)1920×1200 137 KB

(Here I also tried setting the duration as 1 second, did not work)
2 (2)
2 (2)1911×1139 93.3 KB

3 (2)
3 (2)1920×1200 127 KB

However, I get this error message when I run the experiment:

File “C:\Users\kppadmin\Desktop\Metin_Paradigm_2\Paradigm_2_ThirdTry_lastrun.py”, line 260, in
serialPort = serial.Serial(
File “C:\Program Files\PsychoPy\lib\site-packages\serial\serialwin32.py”, line 33, in init
super(Serial, self).init(*args, **kwargs)
File “C:\Program Files\PsychoPy\lib\site-packages\serial\serialutil.py”, line 225, in init
self.parity = parity
File “C:\Program Files\PsychoPy\lib\site-packages\serial\serialutil.py”, line 336, in parity
raise ValueError(“Not a valid parity: {!r}”.format(parity))
ValueError: Not a valid parity: None

Anyone maybe has an idea what causes the problem? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

1 Like
2

So I have realized I put the wrong port name here (it should have been COM3). However, I still get the same error when I use the serial Port component.

That’s why I tried to communicate with the port with a code. I used the code described here: Sending triggers via a Serial Port — PsychoPy v2023.2.3

And my code is as follows:

Begin Experiment:
import serial
port = serial.Serial('COM3') 

Begin Routine:
pulse_started = False
pulse_ended = False

Each Frame:
if face_hab.status == STARTED and not pulse_started:
    port.write([trigger_values_hab]) # trigger_values_hab is the header of an excel coloumn where I define the triggers
    pulse_started = True
    pulse_ended = False
    pulse_start_time = globalClock.getTime()

if pulse_started and not pulse_ended:
    if globalClock.getTime() - pulse_start_time >= 0.005:
        pulse_ended = True

However I have some issues / questions and any help would be appreciated:

1. I want to use the win.callOnFlip function as described in the link above and as can be seen below:

win.callOnFlip(port.write([trigger_values_hab]))

But I receive this error:

“C:\Users\kppadmin\Desktop\Metin_Paradigm_2\Paradigm_2_ThirdTry_lastrun.py”, line 1451, in 

win.flip()

File “C:\Program Files\PsychoPy\lib\site-packages\psychopy\visual\window.py”, line 1219, in flip

callEntry['function'](*callEntry['args'], **callEntry['kwargs'])

TypeError: ‘int’ object is not callable

I have also tried to change the settings in the properties of the excel coloums (I defined the values as “Text”, rather than “Standard”. Because otherwise the first code I wrote above did not work either…) But then, I receive this error:

data = to_bytes(data)

File “C:\Program Files\PsychoPy\lib\site-packages\serial\serialutil.py”, line 68, in to_bytes

return bytes(bytearray(seq))

TypeError: ‘float’ object cannot be interpreted as an integer

Any idea how I can make the win.callOnFlip function work while indexing to my trigger list on the excel sheet?

2. I have realized that not all the triggers are sent to the EEG. And I have figured out a pattern: If, let’s say, two identical triggers (I give the triggers values like 1,2 and 3 on the excel sheet) appear sequentially, then only the first one is being sent. For example, if I have stimuli_2 appear two times sequentially (meaning have two "2"s on the trigger_list_hab coloumn one coming after the other in rows), then a trigger called S2 is sent for the first stimuli_2, but not for the second stimuli_2. Do you know maybe what causes this?

Thanks in advance!

3

I meet the same problem and hope someone can help us with it :slight_smile:

4

Hi @Ange

For the first problem, @Becca suggested this solution in another topic: Sending multiple triggers in one routine using serial port - #4 by Becca

I stopped receiving errors afterwards however, the triggers were not shown regardless. You could try simply using port.write (without a win.callOnFlip() function). That worked for me. But it is said that this may lead to less preceise timing so timing verification with a phototide etc might be considered here.

For the second problem, I realized I did not reset the port back to 0 and when I did that, the problem was solved:

if pulse_started and not pulse_ended:
    if globalClock.getTime() - pulse_start_time >= 0.005:
        port.write[0x00]  # !
        pulse_ended = True
1 Like
5

Hello :wave:
I have disigned a task about creativity with EEG in psychopy. It’s some questions to count number of ideas. Each idea, one click (or key response.)
But it doesn’t work! It can’t send trigger with “each” click (or key response).
Would you please help me?