Multichannel Systems MC_Rack Manual - Manual (Page 110)

MC_Rack Manual
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4.6 Displaying Data
4.6.1 Display Types
You can flexibly define the electrode grid for all displays. You can define not only the channels
to be displayed, but also the position of the channels in the display. For example, you can arrange
the electrode channels in the typical MEA layout, but you can also customize the layout freely
according to your experimental setup.
All data streams that you have assigned to a display are shown on this display. There are different
display types for different data stream types.
 The Data Display can show Analog Raw Data, Electrode Raw Data, Trigger, and Spikes.
 The Longterm Data Display can show Analog Raw Data and Electrode Raw Data,
 Only extracted Parameter streams can be assigned to the Parameter Display.
 The Digital Display displays Digital Data streams, that is, the TTL input signals on the digital
16-bit channel.
 There are also special displays for some virtual instruments: The Spike Sorter display, the
Analyzer display (only in triggered mode), the Averager display. For these displays, the same
general features are available as for the Data Display: The display settings, peak detection,
background picture, and ASCII export.
Also, for each display, you can choose between different plot types, depending on the data
stream type. The plot type defines how the data is shown on the display.
 When displaying Raw Data, only the Trace plot is available.
 Spikes can be shown in a Trace, Overlay, or Raster plot.
 Parameters can be displayed as a Trace, False Color or False Color vs. Time plot,
or as a Number.
 The logical state of the 16 bits of the Digital Data stream can be displayed as a trace.
The decimal value of the 16 bit encoded binary number can be displayed as a number.
The ranges of the x- and y-axis can be set only for the overall display. That means, if you have
two data streams or channels that are based on a different scale (for example, not amplified
Analog Raw Data and amplified Electrode Raw Data), it is recommended to use two separate
displays and set the scaling accordingly.
4.6.2 Setting up a Display Layout
Similar to other virtual instruments, displays do not recognize active channels by themselves, but
you have to set up a channel map for each display separately. A channel map defines the layout in
which the channels of a display appear, that is, information about the channel numbers and their
positions. There are several standard maps provided in the MC_Rack program folder, for example
the standard rectangular 8x8 MEA grid. But you can set up and save your own custom maps as
well. The advantage of this system is that you control which channels are displayed, thus saving
computer performance. If you get a performance limit message, try to remove displays or to
display fewer channels in the displays. Displays have a quite big impact on computer performance.
Also, you can arrange the electrode channels in the display exactly as you like, thus trying to make
the display look as similar as possible to the real electrode layout.