Trigger does not work on every computer

Johan_P

Hello everyone,
I have a very strange problem with OpenSesame and I need your help.

I have a laptop, an old one with a parallel port, running under Win XP 32 bits. I use the Parallel port trigger to send a trigger signal through this port. I found the address of the port using a small dedicated soft. The address is H3BC (LPT port type 3). I put 0x3BC in my script for the LTP port address and everything is fine.
But this laptop is old, slow and shows signs of "I'm going to die soon..."

So I have another computer, a desktop one (WinXP32, with a LPT port on the motherboard). I searched for the LPT address and found H378. So I put 0x378 for the LPT address in my script (same script, same version of OpenSesame). Nothing works. I can't get a trigger on my EEG record. I tried the inline python script. Nothing more.

I also tried everything on a very recent desktop computer (Win7-64 with LPT on PCI card). The address this time is HD010. No solution works...

Do you have some idea ?

Thanks,
Johan

absurd

Hi Johan,

I can only make some guesses:

1. As regards the XP 32 Desktop, have you looked inside this PC's BIOS? I had a similar problem with an older Dell with LPT on motherboard. In this Dell's BIOS one could choose the so called LPT port mode under the "Onboard Devices" menu (labels might be completely different with your PC, depending on the manufacturer/BIOS). At first trigger sending didn't work as "PS/2" mode was chosen (there are the options "Off", "AT", "PS/2", "EPP" and "ECP"). I switched to "EPP" saved the changes and rebooted: Now it works.

2. I do not know if newer (Win7 onwards) PCs have a choice like (1) in their BIOS at all, however, check this as well. You mentioned that you have Win7-64, so have you installed the 64bit LPT driver as mentioned in one of my former discussions? See here.

Good luck,
Johannes

Johan_P

Hi Johannes,

Very good guess ! I change from ECP to EPP on my desktop WinXP. It works. Now I have a backup computer.

Still, I will work on the recent one as it would be much more comfortable to use. I think the problem is something very close on the Win7 computer (yes, I followed the "how to" and installed the 64bit LTP driver. But as the LPT is on a PCI, I can't configure it through the Bios. And it seems to be in ECP...I will probably find another PCI card. I know it's possible to force some to work as EPP with a jumper or something on the card. Or one I can control from the bios.

Thanks a lot,
Johan

Johan_P

Hi all,
I'm back on this project. I can't find a PCIe parallel card that could be force to EPP. So I have to find another solution.

I tried to use Psychopy and discover it. It is possible in the builder part to add an output on the parallel port. I Just add the address of my PCIe card, which is 0xD010, and it works. I tried again with open sesame and nothing...What could be so different between this two software ?

I'm not used to Psychopy and and it would be really easier to use my opensesame script instead of builind one from scratch...

Johan

Johan_P

Okay, I dug a bit in PsychoPy and it is not working properly on my computer. I have the well know avbin.dll bug and it is a pain.

New solution, buying a new computer....This is a shame. Or buying a proprietary software like eprime...

Johan