ButtonBoxes

Buttonbox

2013 Buttonbox
Downloads
Buttonbox 2013 Hardware Design Code Template 2015 (Duemilanove) RuSocSci (Python package)

The buttonbox is used for time accurate(1ms) button press registration. We use it to register buttonpresses, soundkey, voicekey signals and to send tone onset, analog output, triggers with the BITSI protocol. It is suitable for Behavioral, EEG, MEG, and fMRI experiments. The buttonbox is connected to a computer with a usb connection.

The output connector has two binary eight bit ports: input and output. The two ports can be used for responses (input) and stimulus triggers (output). Two 12 bits analog outputs and three 12 bits analog inputs. The output connector has a sound and voicekey which triggers when a amplitude reaches a threshold. By using the serial port, the BITSI can be used platform independently: it works on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. Most programming environments and stimulus packages support serial communication.

BITSI Protocol

BITSI stands for Bits to Serial Interface. Because the BITSI is designed to interface both in- and output signals, the 'protocol' is asymmetric: the input and output protocols differ.

Input

The input port can be used to interface eight buttons maximally. Button presses are translated to serial output characters/bytes according to the following table:

BITSI Simple
Signal/Button	ASCII (rise/fall)	Code (rise/fall)
1	A / a	65 / 97
2	B / b	66 / 98
3	C / c	67 / 99
4	D / d	68 / 100
5	E / e	69 / 101
6	F / f	70 / 102
7	G / g	71 / 103
8	H / h	72 / 104

This means that when signal 1 gets active(button press), a capital A will be sent to the serial port. A lowercase 'a' will be sent when the signal is deactivated(button release). Mechanical buttons can be connected directly.

Output

Output knows two protocols: BITSI simple or BITSI extended. To enter a certain protocol two buttons have to be pressed when the BITSIbox is powered. Press button H and A for simple mode and H and B for extended mode.

If no button is pressed when powered it boots the last known protocol. In the simple protocol every byte sent to the BITSI over the serial port, is represented at the 8 bit output.

The extended protocol uses two bytes(or two characters), this combination can access two analog outputs and a tone generator. The first byte selects the output. The second byte determines the value written to this output.

BITSI Extended
Function	Byte 1 (ASCII/code)	Byte 2
Marker Out	M / 77	Marker Value
Pulse Out	P / 80	Marker Value
Pulse Time	X / 88	ms before pulse reset
Analog Out 1	Y / 89	Analog Output Value
Analog Out 2	Z / 90	Analog Output Value
Tone	T / 84	Start Tone
Detect Sound	D /	S / 83
Detect Voice	D /	V / 83
Calibrate Sound	C /	S
Calibrate Voice	C /	V
Analog In 1	A /	1
Analog In 2	A /	2
Analog In 3	A /	3
Analog In 4	A /	4
LEDs Off	L /	X
LEDs Input	L /	I
LEDs Output	L /	O

Port Settings

Trigger port

Schematic view of the 25 pins connector

The 25 pins female connector has 8 inputs and 8 outputs, respectively 1-8 are inputs and 9-16 are outputs. Three analog input with an analog to digital convertor of 12 bit, pins 17,18,20 and 21. Two analog outputs with an digital to analog convertor of 12 bits on pins 22 and 23.

Serial port

Our hardware design allows to be connected to the computers USB and emulates a serial communication Port.

Baudrate	115200
Parity	None
Data bits	8
Stop bits	1
Flow control	None

USB-Com port

1.Connect the BITSIbox to your computer using the USB cable.

2.When you connect the BITSIbox, Windows should initiate the driver installation process (if you haven't used the computer with an BITSIbox board before).

3.On Windows Vista/7, the driver should be automatically downloaded and installed.

4.On Windows XP, the Add New Hardware wizard will open:

• When asked Can Windows connect to Windows Update to search for software? select No, not this time. Click next.
• Select Install from a list or specified location (Advanced) and click next.
• Make sure that Search for the best driver in these locations is checked; uncheck Search removable media; check Include this location in the search and browse to the c:/beheer/arduino/drivers directory.
• The wizard will search for the driver and then tell you that a "USB Serial Converter" was found. Click finish.
• The new hardware wizard will appear again. Go through the same steps and select the same options and location to search. This time, a "USB Serial Port" will be found.

How to Check the Com Port settings(important!)

• From the Start menu, open the Control Panel.

• From the control panel, open the System window.

• From the system properties window, go to the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.

• From the Device Manager window, click Ports (Com&LPT). You should now be able to see which Com Port the USB adapter is assigned to.

• If the Com Port is 10 or higher, you will have to change it to a lower port.

• From the Device Manager window, click on USB Serial Port (Com#). Click the Port Settings tab of the USB Serial Port Properties window, and then click the Advanced button.

• In the Advanced Settings window, use the scroll input to select a Com Port (select 10 or lower). Change Receive (bytes) and Transmit (bytes) to 64. Change the Latency Timer to 1.

• Click the OK button.

Always connect the usb device to the same port and your settings will be remembered.

Software Settings

Neurobs Presentation

The experiment files needs a few settings for the device to work:

• In the settings tab: port -> input port -> 1 must be the device that identifies itself as "Arduino Uno" in the device manager. Note that the port must have a number not higher than 10 (COM1-COM10). Use re-enumerate if it is higher.
• Rate must be set 115200, Parity to None, Data Bits to 8 and Stop Bits to 1, Uncheck FIFO Interrupt.

Testing Buttonbox

When pressing on the A button within the input channel tester. You will see the following ASCII code.

Adding Marker

Testing Markers (output)

Send code 1 for Button A

Button A will light up.

Send code 0 for clearing.

Example PCL code you can program a handle to send a marker:

#handle:
output_port OutputPort = output_port_manager.get_port( 1 );

Example to send a marker:

OutputPort.send_code(100); #create a marker

for more information see chapter 8 in the presentation course by clicking here

Python/PsychoPy

Download this site-package to use the buttonbox: rusocsci

Example using buttons from the buttonbox in Python:

 1#!/usr/bin/env python
 2
 3# import the rusocsci.buttonbox module
 4from rusocsci import buttonbox 
 5
 6# make a buttonbox
 7bb = buttonbox.Buttonbox()
 8
 9# wait for a single button press
10b = bb.waitButtons()
11
12# print the button pressed
13print("b: {}".format(b))

Example using markers with the buttonbox in Python:

 1#!/usr/bin/env python
 2
 3# import the rusocsci.buttonbox module
 4from rusocsci import buttonbox 
 5
 6# make a buttonbox
 7bb = buttonbox.Buttonbox()
 8
 9# send a marker
10bb.sendMarker(val=100)    #This is your marker code, range code 1-255

Example using BITSI extended in Python:

 1#!/usr/bin/env python
 2
 3# import the rusocsci.buttonbox module
 4from rusocsci import buttonbox 
 5
 6# make a buttonbox
 7bb = buttonbox.Buttonbox()
 8
 9# select a function
10bb.sendMarker(val=(ord(X)))    #select pulse time
11bb.sendMarker(val=2)           #set time of dureation pulse to 2ms
12
13bb.sendMarker(val=(ord(M)))    #select marker out
14bb.sendMarker(val=115)           #set marker value 115

Example using BITSI extended analog read in Python:

 1#!/usr/bin/env python
 2
 3# import the rusocsci.buttonbox module
 4import serial
 5
 6# make a buttonbox
 7ser = serial.Serial("COM2", 115200, timeout = 0.10 )
 8
 9while True:
10	ser.write('A1')
11	ser.flush()
12	x = ser.readline()
13	visual.TextStim(win, text=x).draw()
14
15	# black screen for 1000 ms
16	win.flip()
17
18	key = event.getKeys()
19	try:
20		if key[0]=='escape':
21			break
22	except:
23		continue

Example using the Buttonbox in PsychoPy:

 1#!/usr/bin/env python
 2
 3# import psychopy and rusocsci
 4from psychopy import core, visual 
 5from rusocsci import buttonbox
 6
 7## Setup Section
 8win = visual.Window(monitor="testMonitor")
 9bb = buttonbox.Buttonbox()
10text = visual.TextStim(win, "Press a button on the buttonbox")
11
12## Experiment Section
13# show text
14text.draw()
15win.flip()
16# wait for response
17b = bb.waitButtons()
18# show response
19text.setText("you pressed: {}".format(b))
20text.draw()
21win.flip()
22core.wait(5)
23
24## Cleanup Section
25core.quit()

For more documentation click here: http://pythonhosted.org//RuSocSci/index.html

Matlab

  1function ret = buttonbox(cmd,varargin)
  2% to initialize connection: (omit 2nd argument if defaults apply)
  3%    define settings as structure with fields:
  4%       bb.Device    = 'COM2';
  5%       bb.BaudRate  = 115200;
  6%       bb.DataBits  = 8;
  7%       bb.StopBits  = 1;
  8%       bb.Parity    = 'none';
  9% handle = buttonbox('open',bb)
 10%
 11% to run: (receiving incoming data, check code for own purposes)
 12% buttonbox('run',handle);
 13%
 14% or
 15%
 16% to send a marker: (marker: a numeric value)
 17% buttonbox(marker)
 18%
 19% or
 20%
 21% to wait for a buttonpress:
 22% key = buttonbox('wait_keypress')
 23%
 24% to close the connection:
 25% buttonbox('close',handle);
 26
 27persistent old_hdl  % keep handle to COM object persistent
 28
 29% set defaults
 30bb.Device    = 'COM2';
 31bb.BaudRate  = 115200;
 32bb.DataBits  = 8;
 33bb.StopBits  = 1;
 34bb.Parity    = 'none';
 35
 36if nargin < 1
 37   cmd = 'open';
 38end
 39if nargin > 1
 40   % user overwrites default settings
 41   flds = fields(varargin{1});
 42   for n = 1 : numel(flds)
 43      bb.(flds{n}) = varargin{1}.(flds{n});
 44   end
 45end
 46if nargin==1 && isnumeric(cmd)
 47   marker = cmd;
 48   cmd = 'marker';
 49end
 50
 51
 52switch cmd
 53   case 'marker'
 54      if isempty(old_hdl)
 55         help serial_buttonbox_common
 56         error('Buttonbox not yet initialized');
 57      end
 58      handle = old_hdl;
 59      ret = IOPort('Write', handle, uint8(marker), 1); % last argument: blocking
 60      java.lang.Thread.sleep(10);
 61      IOPort('Write', handle, uint8(0), 0); % last argument: blocking
 62      if ret < 1
 63         disp('Marker might not have been written to button box, please verify setup....?');
 64      end      
 65      return
 66   case 'open'
 67      % get handle to serial device
 68      handle = open_buttonbox(bb);
 69      ret = handle;
 70      return
 71   case 'close'
 72      if nargin > 0
 73         handle = varargin{1};
 74      else
 75         handle = old_hdl;
 76      end
 77      fclose(handle);
 78      ret = handle;
 79      return
 80   case 'run'
 81      % read incoming data
 82      if isempty(old_hdl)
 83         help serial_buttonbox_common
 84         error('Buttonbox not yet initialized');
 85      end
 86      handle = old_hdl;
 87      % code proceeds below ....
 88   case 'wait_keypress'
 89      % read incoming data
 90      if isempty(old_hdl)
 91         help serial_buttonbox_common
 92         error('Buttonbox not yet initialized');
 93      end
 94      handle = old_hdl;
 95      while 1
 96         % start polling for characters (indicating start of scan)
 97         navailable = handle.BytesAvailable;
 98         if navailable
 99            data = [];
100            while navailable
101               % read incoming data
102               [newdata, cnt] = fread(handle, navailable);
103               % concatenate possible new data
104               if cnt
105                  data = [data newdata(:)];
106               end
107               % check if any more data left
108               navailable = handle.BytesAvailable;
109            end
110            ret = data;
111            return
112         end
113      end %while 1
114   otherwise
115      fprintf('Unknown option %s\n',cmd);
116      ret = [];
117      return
118      
119      
120end
121
122%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
123% only gets here when cmd = 'run' %
124%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
125
126% Initialize output figure
127win = list_output(' ',[]);
128while 1
129   % Exit if user closed output figure
130   if ~ishandle(win)
131      return
132   end
133   % start polling for characters (indicating start of scan)
134   navailable = handle.BytesAvailable;
135   if navailable
136      data = [];
137      while navailable
138         % read incoming data
139         [newdata, cnt] = fread(handle, navailable);
140         % concatenate possible new data
141         if cnt
142            data = [data newdata(:)];
143         end
144         % check if any more data left
145         navailable = handle.BytesAvailable;
146      end
147      % output info about which button was pressed
148      for n = 1 : numel(data)
149         line = sprintf('incoming: %03d   %s',data(n),char(data(n)));
150         list_output(line,win);
151      end
152   end
153   pause(0.01);
154end %while 1
155
156   function hdl = open_buttonbox(device)
157      % open handle to serial device (mini buttonbox)
158      try
159         hdl = serial(device.Device, 'Baudrate', device.BaudRate, 'DataBits', device.DataBits, 'StopBits', device.StopBits, 'Parity', device.Parity);
160         fopen(hdl);
161      catch
162         if ~isempty(old_hdl)
163            fclose(old_hdl);
164            delete(old_hdl);
165         end
166         hdl = serial(device.Device, 'Baudrate', device.BaudRate, 'DataBits', device.DataBits, 'StopBits', device.StopBits, 'Parity', device.Parity);
167         fopen(hdl);
168      end
169      old_hdl = hdl;
170      
171      fprintf('Wait for device buttonbox....\n');
172      tic
173      while hdl.BytesAvailable && toc<10
174         navailable = bbox.BytesAvailable;
175         % wait for welcome message device
176         fread(hdl, navailable);
177      end
178      pause(0.5);
179      
180      % 		while ~IOPort('BytesAvailable', hdl) && toc<10
181      % 			% wait for welcome message device
182      % 		end
183      % 		pause(0.5);
184      
185      % clear buffer
186      %IOPort('flush', hdl);
187      IOPort('purge', hdl);
188      
189   end
190
191   function win = list_output(line,win)
192      persistent ptr
193      persistent lines
194      persistent edt
195      Maxlines = 40;
196      
197      if isempty(win)
198         % initialize listbox output figure
199         lines = cell(1,Maxlines);
200         [lines(1:end)]=deal({''});
201         ptr=Maxlines;
202         lines(ptr) = {'Buttonbox output:'};
203         idxs = mod(ptr:ptr+Maxlines-1,Maxlines)+1;
204         
205         win = figure();
206         % initialize figure to hold output text
207         edt = uicontrol('Parent',win,'Style','ListBox','HorizontalAlignment','left', ...
208            'Max',Maxlines,'BackgroundColor',[1 1 1],'Visible','on','String',lines(idxs), ...
209            'FontSize',12,'Value',Maxlines);
210         pos = get(win,'Position');
211         set(edt,'Position',[1 1 pos(3) pos(4)]);
212      end
213      ptr = mod(ptr,Maxlines)+1; % start
214      lines{ptr} = line;
215      idxs = mod(ptr:ptr+Maxlines-1,Maxlines)+1;
216      set(edt,'String',lines(idxs),'Value',Maxlines);
217      drawnow;
218   end
219end