Sending Triggers to EEG with Parallel Port

Builder
1

OS (e.g. Win10): Windows 7
PsychoPy version (e.g. 1.84.x):
Standard Standalone? y If not then what?:
What are you trying to achieve?:

I am trying to get Psychopy to send triggers to the acquisition computer for EEG data acquisition (via Curry 7)

What did you try to make it work?:

I have followed the instructions on this thread: Cannot send a signal via ParallelPort using PsychoPy on Windows7 (64bit) - Coding - PsychoPy

I have I installed the Inpout drivers from the website below. First I tried copying inpoutx64.dll into both system32, SysWOW64 and the experiment folder, as psychopy version I am using is 64 bit. However, I also tried Inpout32 when this didn’t work.

[http://www.highrez.co.uk/Downloads/InpOut32/default.htm ]

I have also installed the driver and I got the following message “Successfully installed and opened 64bit InpOut driver InpOutx64.sys.”

What specifically went wrong when you tried that?:
Include pasted full error message if possible. “That didn’t work” is not enough information.

Following these steps did solve the original warning error which I had: “warning psychopy.parallel has been imported but no parallel port driver found. Install either inpout 32, inpout×64 or dlportio.”

Psychopy now runs my experiment with no errors, however I still cannot see any triggers on the acquisition computer via Curry 7. The address I entered for the port was 0xC000. This address works fine when using eprime on the same computer, which sends triggers with no problem to the acquisition computer. I have also checked this parallel port address on the computer by clicking on system - hardware - parallel ports etc.

I am not sure what else I can try, please help!

2

Out of curiosity, does your computer have a built-in parallel port? or are you using a USB-parallel port adapter?

3

Hi @habboud the computer has a built-in parallel port

4

That’s good, at least you will have good timing. USB-parallel port adapters do not have good timing.

I am not fluent with PsychoPy to be able to help with your question. But if interested, see our “c-pod for Neuroscan” product. It offers a 2ms delay that is jitter free. Perhaps more importantly, the output is asynchronous.

5

I have solved this problem. I just had to make sure the duration for the parallel port components in Psychopy were set to 100ms.

6

That sounds like a long time, especially if the experiment has to pause for 100ms. But I’m glad it’s working.

7

Hi @habboud the experiment does not have to pause for this duration. This is the length of time the triggers appear on the acquisition computer whilst recording

8

Dear habboud,I want to ask you a question about parallel out send data as EEG trriger ,When the transmitted data is less than 16, the display is normal; when the transmitted data is greater than 16, the displayed number is this number minus 16, for example, 30 is transmitted, and 14 is recorded in EEG. set like this

image
image929×514 32.3 KB

9

I’m afraid I don’t know enough to answer your question. Perhaps @rsells2 can assist?

10

Dear rsells2,I want to ask you a question about parallel out send data as EEG trriger ,When the transmitted data is less than 16, the display is normal; when the transmitted data is greater than 16, the displayed number is this number minus 16, for example, 30 is transmitted, and 14 is recorded in EEG. set like this

image
image929×514 32.3 KB