Multichannel Systems MC_Rack Manual - Manual (Page 50)

MC_Rack Manual
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Continuous recording versus triggered recording
For recording evoked activity, like LTP experiments or retina recordings, it does generally not
make much sense to record continuously. It is recommended to record only the signals of interest
following a trigger event, for example, a TTL signal from the stimulator, to save disk space.
You can then define the Start Time (before the trigger event) and the Window Extent (total
cutout length). Please do not prolong the "Window Extent" time interval to more than 3800 ms.
Please read chapter "Triggering MC_Rack on the Stimulus" for more information about "Window
Extent" settings. For more information on continuous and triggered data, please see the chapter
Continuous and Triggered Data in the "Step by Step Tutorial" section.
This option is only available if there is a trigger stream available, that is, a Trigger Detector
in the rack.
3.2.8 Starting Data Acquisition and Recording
Now that you have completed the virtual rack, you are ready to start the rack.
 Click Start
(either on the Measurement menu, the toolbar, or the Rack tabbed page)
to start the data acquisition. Each virtual instrument in your rack starts to process the channels
and data streams that were assigned to it.
 Click first Record
and then Start to write data to the hard disk. The data from the
electrodes selected in the Recorder is saved to the file and location specified in the Recorder.
 Click Stop
to stop the data acquisition.
Warning: Only data of the channels and data streams that were selected in the Recorder
are saved in your data file when you start a recording. Data is only saved to the hard disk when
the red Record button is pressed in. Make always sure that you have selected all channels of
interest, and that the Record button is active before starting an experiment to avoid data loss.