Prerequisites
This guide assume that you have an acquisition board with all the component soldered in place—either one that you built yourself, or ordered from CircuitHubthe Open Ephys store, LabMaker, or received from Open Ephyselsewhere. If so, we'll walk you through the steps necessary to start collecting data with your board.
What you'll need
For each system that you want to use, you'll need the following:
1. One Opal Kelly FPGA module (usually included with the acquisition board, but may also be purchased separately). If your acquisition board has a USB connector on the back, the FPGA is already installed. We recommend using the XEM6310-LX45 ($499.95), which transmits data via USB 3.0, and supports up to 512 channels of simultaneous data acquisition. The board is also compatible with the Opal Kelly 6010-LX45 FPGA module ($399.95), which uses USB 2.0 and can handle up to 128 channels.
2. One or more headstages based on the Intan RHD2000-series amplifier chips. These are your options:
The options can be found on the Intan Technologies website. You can also build your own headstage (see the discussion in the Headstages section).
3. At least one RHD2000 SPI interface cable per headstage. See further information on the Cables & Tethers page. These cables can be daisy-chained up to 10 meters. Any combination of the following will work:
- 3-foot SPI interface cable - $215.00 (Intan Part #C3203)
- 6-foot SPI interface cable - $295.00 (Intan Part #C3206)
- Cooner wire SPI interface cable - to build it yourself, follow the instructions in this blog post and here.
4. Various components (shown with price and recommended DigiKey part numbers)
- One heatsink ($2.43, #294-1097-ND)
- One thin, passive HDMI cable (type A to type A) (perhaps something like Q398-ND)
- 3 x 3 x 1 cm computer fan (optional)
- One Type A to Type B USB cable ($1.86, #Q361-ND, included from Opal Kelly)
- One 5V/6W power supply ($9.69, #SWI6-5-N-P5R )
- Eight through-hole vertical BNC connectors per I/O board ($2.73 each, #A97564-ND)
- One surface-mount HDMI connector per I/O board ($0.73, #609-4614-1-ND cut tape)
5. General lab supplies:
- Soldering iron (the thinner the better)
- Solder and flux
- 5-minute Epoxy (such as Z-poxy)
- M3 hex key (we like part #5984A42 from McMaster-Carr)
6. A reasonably fast modern computer (desktop or laptop) running Windows, Mac, or Linux.
- A solid-state hard drive is recommended if you need to record >32 channel simultaneously
- If you're using a laptop, make sure the acquisition board is grounded to a wall outlet (or your experiment ground). See the recording noise page.
Step 1: Installing the FPGA
NOTE: If your board already has an FPGA, you can skip this step.
Required components: Opal Kelly XEM6010-LX45, heatsink
Tools: M3 hex key or Phillips screwdriver, depending on your specific board
1. Flip the acquisition board over and use the hex key to remove the four screws. Some squeaking is to be expected.
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