Flat binary format (old version)

Note: This documentation is valid for GUI versions 0.4.2.1 or earlier.

Continuous data

The "Binary" format saves continuous data in a file named "experimentX_YYY_Z.dat" where:

• X = experiment # (incremented when acquisition is stopped)
• YYY = processor number (starts with 100, and increments by one for each processor in the signal chain)
• Z = file # (incremented when recording is stopped)

Note: If you're using the Neuropix version of the GUI, the files saved by the Neuropix module will contain an additional number, "0" for the spike band continuous data and "1" for the LFP band continuous data.

The data is saved as signed int16s in the following order:

ch1_samp1, ch2_samp1, ch3_samp1, ... chN_samp1, ch1_samp2, ch2_samp2, ... chN_sampM

In order to load the data properly, the total number of channels (N) must be known. If you're unsure about how many channels have been recorded for a given processor, this information can be found in the settings.xml file. The total number of int16s in the file divided by the total number of channels will be an integer.

To convert the int16s to microvolts, multiply all of the values by 0.195 (for Rhythm FPGA and Neuropix source nodes).

Other data

Spikes, messages, and events are saved in the Open Ephys data format.