Multichannel Systems STG4002 Manual - Manual (Page 9)

5
3 First Use of the Stimulus Generator
3.1 Welcome to the STG and MC_Stimulus
Product line overview
Stimulus generators of the 4000 series are general purpose stimulators designed for a wide variety
of applications, both in vitro and in vivo.
Flexible and easy-to-use MC_Stimulus software enables complex stimulus waveforms (both
current and voltage). Waveforms designed in the program or imported from an external ASCII
file are converted by the connected STGs into pulses, which are sent to stimulating electrodes.
Stimulus isolation units (SIU) for each channel are included. Thus, no external SIUs are required.
A trigger input and output for TTL signals allows to synchronize the stimulus generator with other
instruments. Triggering of other devices via programmable TTL pulses (Sync Out) is possible, as
well as triggering of the STG by external devices via the Trigger In input. For example, you can
synchronize stimulation and recording with a TTL signal sent from the Sync Out output of
the STG to the data acquisition system, for example, the MC_Card or an USB based data
acquisition device.
Stimulus generators are available with two, four or eight completely independent stimulation
channels (STG4002, STG4004, STG4008). Each channel is freely programmable, combination of
channels to achieve complex stimulation patterns is not necessary.
STG 4002
The real-time stimulus generator of the 4000 series is an advanced version and the world's
first STG that is able to send continuous pulse streams for stimulation of electrodes. In addition,
you can trigger all (up to 8) channels separately by external TTL pulses.
The STG 4000 series has two operating modes: Download mode and Streaming mode.
In Download mode, you can control the STG either by the MC_Stimulus II or by a custom
program. Stimulus protocols are created in MC_Stimulus II or the custom program; complete
protocols are downloaded onto the STG, and can after the download be executed without
a computer connection. MC_Stimulus II is downward compatible to MC_Stimulus
(for controlling the 1000 series), that means, you can load stimulus protocols generated
by MC_Stimulus into MC_Stimulus II, but not the other way round.
In the Streaming mode, you can control the STG either by the Stimulus Streamer or by
a custom program. If you use the Stimulus Streamer, you can load stimulus protocols in Mono-
MP3 or binary file format of unlimited size that were generated by a custom application and are
then sent continuously from the computer to the STG in small data packets. If you use a custom
program for controlling the STG, this program can generate and send the stimulation protocols
in parallel from the computer to the STG.