# Enable DAQ co-acquisition in EthoVision XT

Aim

To program EthoVision XT to send a synchronization signal to the external DAQ system.

Procedure

1.In EthoVision XT, open your experiment.

2.Choose Setup > Experiment Settings.

3.Under Video Source, choose Live tracking and select the Enable DAQ co-acquisition box. Click the Edit button.

4.Under Predefined Settings, select the item corresponding to your DAQ system, or create a new one (see below).

Notes

▪When you have acquired data, the Experiment Settings are read-only (settings are grayed out).

▪You can only co-acquire external data when you carry out Live Tracking.

To create a new DAQ Hardware Settings profile

1.In the DAQ Hardware Settings window, click the New button.

2.A new field appears at the bottom of the list of predefined profiles. Type a name for the new profile.

3.Under Output device, select one of the COM ports from the list. This COM port is used to connect the EthoVision XT computer to the DAQ system.

Click the Check Status button to check the availability of the port.

It may be that either all COM ports on your PC are occupied, or your PC does not have a COM port. In those cases, contact Noldus for a USB-to-COM converter.

4. Under Signal Type, select:

▪On-Off if the external signals are sampled at low rate (less than 10 Hz) and without interruption (thus no scheduled sampling).

▪Time Code (TCAP) in all other cases. Enter the Sample rate (in Hz) with which you sample data on your DAQ system.

If you want to sample data at a rate higher than 2 KHz, set 2000 Hz.

Depending on the Sample rate, the Minimal sampling time changes; this indicates the minimum time the data should be acquired on the DAQ system for synchronization to work properly.

5.Click OK.

To delete a DAQ Hardware Settings Profile

In the DAQ Hardware Settings window, select a Profile and click Delete or press Delete.

To change the order of DAQ Hardware Settings Profiles

In the DAQ Hardware Settings window, select a Profile and click the Move Up / Move Down button or press ALT-arrow down / ALT-arrow up on your keyboard.

To add a description to a DAQ Hardware Settings Profile

In the DAQ Hardware Settings window, select a Profile, click in the Description box and type in text. Click on another Profile and click Yes to save the Description.

See also

▪On-Off vs. Time Code (TCAP) synchronization signal