Cedrus Stimtracker & superlab with BrainProducts recorder, event marking

Hardware General
, , ,
1

Hello,

I am trying to get event triggers from a superlab experiment into the brainvision recorder software. I am using superlab 5 to run the experiment, brain products actichamp EEG system and Brainproducts recorder software to record EEG.
I have spent the day trying various set ups and although i can get the stimulus computer running the experiment in superlab and it shows the event triggers on the stimtracker, but there are no markers in the data being recorded.
When researching to find a solution, the cedrus support page provides the following instruction:
“Cedrus manufactures a StimTracker adapter board that makes it possible to interface with Brain Products’ actiCHamp EEG amplifier and recording software using a standard DB9 cable. This document describes the signals that the adapter board makes available.”

I have found this a little vague please could you direct me in the direction of the adaptor board this is refering to? and and I would like to know specifically which cables need to be plugged in where to achieve event marking in brainvision recorder using stim tracker and superlab.

With this said, one option i have tried is:
stimulus computer ->USB-> Stimtracker ->ttl-> EEG host computer.
but I have found that the moment the Stimtracker is plugged into a ttl connection, it powers off. Is there any reason why this is happening?
Alternatively, i was hoping to try
Stimulus computer → USB-> stim tracker-> parallel port → serial port trigger in on actichamp - > serial port trigger out on actichamp → parallel port on EEG host PC
But we don’t have a serial port gender changer and so are in the process of trying to locate/purchase one as the parallel port/serial cable we have provides a female serial connector and thus need a male/male changer. But before we do so please could you advise if this will solve the problem?
I am lost for solutions now so will try anything.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Annabel

2

Are you using the original StimTracker ST-100 model or the newer StimTracker Duo or Quad?

3

We have the first gen Stim Tracker: StimTracker 1G Support

4

For the first generation model, the support note is referring to this signal adapter. Do you have it? StimTracker 1G almost always shipped with a signal adapter.

5

Ahh okay, thank you! No we don’t have this, it wasn’t in the box. Although we have had the stim tracker for some years, it was unused until I started trying to get it to work with brain products and there was no adapter in the box. We do have parallel port-serial port cables which I am currently using, will these allow the same function rather than purchasing the adapter?

6

My guess would be that you received a signal adapter for use with another system, perhaps the parallel port one? There very few sales that did not include a signal adapter.

To connect to actiCHamp, you can either buy this signal adapter or make your own cable. We still have a couple of these adapters in stock.

If you want to make your own cable, you will need this page: StimTracker Output Pin Assignments.

7

Hi Hisham,
Okay thats very helpful to know, thank you!

8

I was also hoping for help as to why when a ttl is connected, stim tracker shuts down despite working fine up until this?

9

I would need more info. It could be that StimTracker has failed after all these years or it could be a cabling issue. Please send me an email via our website so we can arrange for a Zoom meeting.