Question about SetGlobalCounter

Oly

Hi, Josh @Josh

When I use global counter 2 to count the number of hits from the mouse. I hope that 5 hits can end the current trial. However, I found that if I use BNCState as the marker for hits, it cannot be counted. In RawData, there is no corresponding digital marker for BNC2High. Can you tell me where I might have made a mistake? The code is attached below:

sma = SetGlobalCounter(sma, 2, 'BNC2High', 5);
sma = AddState(sma, 'Name', 'Hit', ...
    'Timer', 0,...
    'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup', 'GiveReward'},...
    'OutputActions', {'BNCState', 2});

To summarize, I want to count the "Hit" state and end the current trial when it reaches the requirement, which corresponds to ('GlobalCounter2_End','>exit').

Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions!

Best
Oly

Oly

Hi, Josh @Josh

I have another question regarding global timer in Bpod. In my current experiment design, I'm using a global timer to control the maximum duration of a block, but I'm having issues getting the GlobalTimer1_End event to properly trigger state transitions as expected. In my other code implementations, when I use a global timer, the GlobalTimer1_End event correctly triggers the next state transition when the timer expires. However, in this specific code, it doesn't seem to work as expected.
For testing purposes, I've added an "Error" state in multiple places. Logically, the GlobalTimer1_End should trigger much earlier (when the global timer reaches S.GUI.MaxBlockTime), rather than waiting for the state's own timer to expire and falling into the Error state.

Here's my code:

% Define lick port used in states based on S.GUI.LickPort
PortIn=strcat('Port',num2str(S.GUI.LickPort), 'In');
PortOut=strcat('Port',num2str(S.GUI.LickPort), 'Out');

%%
sma = SetGlobalCounter(sma, 1, PortIn, S.GUI.LickTimes); % Arguments: (sma, CounterNumber, TargetEvent, Threshold)
sma = SetGlobalCounter(sma, 2, 'BNC1High', S.GUI.liquid_1st_num_each_block); % Arguments: (sma, CounterNumber, TargetEvent, Threshold)
sma = SetGlobalTimer(sma, 1, S.GUI.MaxBlockTime); %This legacy syntax is supported. Arguments: (sma, GlobalTimerNumber, Duration(s))


sma = AddState(sma,'Name','SessionStart', ...
    'Timer', S.GUI.TimeBeforeStart,...
    'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup','GoSound'},... 
    'OutputActions', {'HiFi1','*'}); 

sma = AddState(sma,'Name','GoSound', ...
    'Timer', S.GUI.SoundGoDuration,...
    'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup','WaitForLick_TimeTrig'},...
    'OutputActions',  {'HiFi1', ['P' 0]});

sma = AddState(sma,'Name','WaitForLick_TimeTrig', ...
    'Timer', 0,...
    'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup','WaitForLick_ResetCounter'},...
    'OutputActions',  {'GlobalTimerTrig',1}); 

sma = AddState(sma,'Name','WaitForLick_ResetCounter', ...
    'Timer', 0,...
    'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup','WaitForLick'},...
    'OutputActions',  {'GlobalCounterReset',1}); 


sma = AddState(sma, 'Name', 'WaitForLick', ...
    'Timer', S.GUI.MaxBlockTime,... 
    'StateChangeConditions', {'GlobalCounter1_End','Hit','GlobalCounter2_End','WaitNextBlock','GlobalTimer1_End','Finish','Tup', 'Error'},...
    'OutputActions', {});

sma = AddState(sma, 'Name', 'Hit', ...
    'Timer', 0,...
    'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup', 'GiveReward'},...
    'OutputActions', {'BNCState', 1}); 
sma = AddState(sma,'Name','GiveReward', ...
    'Timer', S.ValveTime,...
    'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup','ITI'},... 
    'OutputActions',  {'ValveState', S.Valve_InputDecimal,'BNCState', 3}); 

sma = AddState(sma,'Name','ITI', ...
    'Timer', S.GUI.ITI,...
    'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup','WaitForLick_ResetCounter'},... 
    'OutputActions',  {});

sma = AddState(sma, 'Name', 'WaitNextBlock', ...
    'Timer', S.GUI.MaxBlockTime,... 
    'StateChangeConditions', {'GlobalTimer1_End','Finish','Tup', 'Error'},...
    'OutputActions', {});

sma = AddState(sma, 'Name', 'Finish', ...
    'Timer', 0,... 
    'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup', '>exit'},...
    'OutputActions', {});

sma = AddState(sma, 'Name', 'Error', ... 
    'Timer', 0,...
    'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup', '>exit'},...
    'OutputActions', {});

In my previous working implementations, the global timer worked perfectly, so I'm confused about why it's not functioning correctly in this specific code. (In addition, global counter 2 also doesn't work)

Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! If you could help me identify what might be going wrong, I would be very grateful.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Best regards,
Oly

Josh

Hello Oly,

If I understand correctly, the issue is that BNCState drives output from the BNC output channels, while BNC1High is an event generated when an external instrument sends TTL pulses to the BNC input channels.

You can test this by connecting a BNC cable from the state machine's BNC output to its BNC input. With the cable in place, you should see the events you're looking for.

The second issue may be caused by the global timer elapsing when the machine is in a state where it is not handled. For instance, if the timer elapses while the machine is in the GiveReward or ITI states, an event is generated but not handled in those states. After ITI state flow goes to WaitForLick_ResetCounter and then to WaitForLick. The timer was never re-triggered, so the timer event will not occur in WaitForLick where it is handled.

Please let me know if this solves the issues!

Thanks,
Josh

Josh

For some reason there was a duplicate thread, so I deleted the duplicate.