Send bytes from bonsai to bpod

Vik

Hey,
My aim is to track voltage changes from a pressure sensor via NI-DAQ and Bonsai so that Bonsai will trigger a state change in Bpod when the pressure stays constant for at least 1 second.
I managed to connect Bonsai to Bpod via the socket connection (says "Bonsai status: connected") and found the OSC send message example in Bonsai gallery (which uses UDP instead of TCP, does it matter?), but I can't find what exactly should be written in the state machine code in Matlab. I know it has to do with soft codes but it seems like the documentation is outdated (e.g. in SoftCodeTriggeredStateChange example).
I did see the Bonsai example in the plugins folder in Bpod but it doesn't work for some reason (the camera capture just gets stuck when a light is shown and no message is generated in Bonsai), but anyhow it seems like none of the Matlab script files in the Bonsai folder I mentioned are the needed script to run this example.

Thank you,
Vik

Josh

Hi Vik,

Our Bonsai integration had depended on MATLAB's undocumented Java functions for creating TCP socket. Unfortunately Mathworks changed something in recent versions that broke our implementation. If you can use an older version of MATLAB, (e.g. r2013a) it should work.

I have several users reporting this issue at the moment, so it will be fixed ASAP. The solution will be to use PsychToolbox's pnet - which should work across platforms and MATLAB versions.

I'll post a follow up when the update is released (this will be a new versioned update of Bpod_Gen2).

-Josh

Josh

Hi Vik,

Bonsai integration now uses PsychToolbox pnet instead of , on the 'develop' branch of the Bpod_Gen2 repository here.

You'll need to remove your existing Bpod installation from the MATLAB path and add the new one.

The correct startup sequence for the example code is:

-In Bonsai, open the example Bonsai workflow here but don't start it yet
-In MATLAB, open the Bonsai socket configurator from the settings menu
-Click 'connect'. The 'Bonsai Status' display should turn yellow.
-Switch back to Bonsai, and press the green button to start the workflow.
-Switch back to MATLAB. The 'Bonsai Status' display should have green text: 'Connected'.
-Run the 'SoftCodeTriggeredStateChange' example code here.
-At the MATLAB command prompt, run SendStateMachine(sma);
-Place a flashlight in the left half of your webcam's view field (you should have a fairly dark background compared to the light)
-At the MATLAB command prompt, run RawEvents = RunStateMachine
-The left port should be lit, and the state machine's status indicator should be orange (running a trial)
-Move the flashlight to the opposite side of the webcam view.
-You should see the lit port change from 1 to 3, and the state machine ends the trial.

Please let me know if this works!

Thanks,

-Josh

Vik

Hi Josh,
The example still doesn't work but it''s probably not related to bpod anyhow (Bonsai gives me an error when I press start: "Unable to acquire camera frame", even though it prompts me to choose one of the two cameras I have connected, which both work outside of bonsai) so I decided to leave it.
If you could please reply to the question I asked in the original post I'd appreciate that a lot: "I can't find what exactly should be written in the state machine code in Matlab. I know it has to do with soft codes but it seems like the documentation is outdated (e.g. in SoftCodeTriggeredStateChange example)."

Thanks,
Vik

Vik

Vik wrote[quote='Vik' pid='3627' dateline='1628507005']
Hi Josh,
The example still doesn't work but it''s probably not related to bpod anyhow (Bonsai gives me an error when I press start: "Unable to acquire camera frame", even though it prompts me to choose one of the two cameras I have connected, which both work outside of bonsai) so I decided to leave it.
If you could please reply to the question I asked in the original post I'd appreciate that a lot: "I can't find what exactly should be written in the state machine code in Matlab. I know it has to do with soft codes but it seems like the documentation is outdated (e.g. in SoftCodeTriggeredStateChange example)."

Thanks,
Vik

Nevermind, I found a way around it. So for anybody else encountering issues with Bonsai bpod TCP communication, I'm now using wired communication (BNCs simply connecting Bpod and NI and an analog output node in Bonsai). Hope this helps somebody.

Josh

Hello Vik,

The SoftCodeTriggeredStateChange example is current. Bytes from Bonsai are sent to the state machine as soft codes, and can be handled from your state's StateChangeConditions section with {'SoftCodeX', StateY}

-Josh