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Installation

Hardware​

Step 1: LED Connection​

  1. Connect the anode of the LED to the positive pin of the LED0 (or LED1) screw terminal and the cathode to the negative LED0 (or LED1) screw terminal.
  2. If an external LED driver is used instead, connect its analog input to the DAC0 (or DAC1) screw terminal.
LED ratings

Check the maximum current of the LED in its datasheet before enabling the output, and configure the Led0MaxCurrent/Led1MaxCurrent registers accordingly. See Device Registers.

Step 2: Clock Synchronization​

  1. If using a Harp clock synchronizer board, connect the correspondent audio cable to the clock sync (CLKIN) input.

Step 3: Power Connection​

  1. Plug the 9–12 V DC power adapter into the barrel connector.
supply voltage

The voltage that is not dropped on the LED is dissipated by the device. Use the lowest supply voltage that still covers the forward voltage of the LED plus ~1.5 V of headroom (e.g. the 9 V option for IR or red LEDs), to keep the device cool.

Step 4: USB connection​

  1. Connect the USB cable to the USB port and to your computer.
  2. The green LED must start blinking.

Software​

Bonsai​

Bonsai is an open-source visual language for reactive programming. It's lightweight, easy to use and has a great interoperability with the Harp ecosystem (including the Harp Current Driver).

Bonsai Installation​

Before being able to control the Harp Current Driver through Bonsai, follow the installation steps for Bonsai and for the necessary packages:

  1. Download and install the Bonsai Installer.
  2. Install the necessary packages:
    1. Open Bonsai.
    2. Click on Manage Packages.
    3. Select All in Package source.
    4. Search and install the following packages:
      • Bonsai - Starter Pack (ID: Bonsai.StarterPack)
      • Bonsai - Harp Library (ID: Bonsai.Harp)
      • Bonsai - Harp Design Library (ID: Bonsai.Harp.Design)
warning

For the time being, Bonsai is only available for Windows.

device interface package

A dedicated Harp.CurrentDriver interface package, exposing each register as a named Bonsai operator, is available in the device repository but is not published in NuGet yet. Until then, the device registers can be accessed by address with the generic operators of the Bonsai.Harp package, as shown in the Example section.