Multichannel Systems MC_Rack Manual - Manual (Page 104)

MC_Rack Manual
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1. Click the data stream that you are interested in, that is generally the Electrode Raw Data
stream. The available electrode channels appear in a button array on the right side.
2. You can now either select all channels by clicking the check box next to the Electrode Raw Data
stream name, or you can pick single channels by clicking the corresponding buttons. For more
information, please see "Channel Selection" in the MC_Rack Features section. Only data from
the selected channels will be saved to the hard disk.
Synchronizing the recording
For synchronizing MC_Rack to imaging or other recording systems, such as a patch clamp setup,
there are basically two options. See also the chapter Continuous and Triggered Data for more
information on the difference between continuous and triggered data files.
 A triggered recording of sweeps with a maximum duration of 2 s (based on a periodical
trigger pulse). This way, the generated data file stores only data cutouts around the trigger
event (called triggered data). This is especially useful for analyzing evoked responses, for example,
LTP experiments. For example, you can use the Sync Out pulse of a Stimulus Generator for
triggering the sweeps. It is possible to record sweeps that are longer than 2 s, but please note
that you will not be able to review or analyze the generated data file with MC_Rack, as MC_Rack
supports only sweeps with a maximum duration of 2 s. You can still export the data from the file
with MC_DataTool, though. See also "Recording triggered data".
Triggering the start and stop of the recording (based on a single trigger pulse): With the
Recorder option Create New File On Trigger, a new file is created when a trigger event occurs.
To start the recording, you still need to start MC_Rack with the Start button before the trigger
event occurs. That means, the first data file will be unrelated to the trigger event, but you can
delete this file if you do not need it. The second and all following files will be synchronized to the
trigger. With this option, you can generate both continuous and triggered data files. You will
need two different triggers (for example, one TTL pulse applied to digital input bit 0 and the
other TTL pulse applied to the digital input bit 1) for triggering both the recording of sweeps
with one trigger, and trigger the start of the recording (that is, the generation of the data file)
with the other trigger. With the option Stop on Trigger, you can end the recording again
(based on a second trigger).