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Installation

Hardware​

Step 1: Behavioural Arenas Connection​

  1. Connect each behavioural arena to the corresponding connector of the FlyPAD Controller.
  2. Up to 32 dual-channel arenas can be connected to a single controller. Arenas are addressed individually, so unused positions can be left free.
arena position

The position where an arena is connected determines the index of its two channels in the CapacitanceValues array. Keep a record of the mapping between arenas and connectors, as it is needed to identify the animals during the analysis.

Step 2: Clock Synchronization​

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

Step 3: USB connection​

  1. Connect the USB cable to the back panel USB port and to your computer.
  2. The green LED in the front panel 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 FlyPAD Controller).

Bonsai Installation​

Before being able to control the Harp FlyPAD Controller 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.FlyPad interface package, exposing each register as a named Bonsai operator, is not published yet. Until then, the device registers are accessed by address with the generic operators of the Bonsai.Harp package, as shown in the Example section.

The existing Bonsai.FlyPad package targets the original FTDI based flyPAD multiplexer and does not apply to the Harp FlyPAD Controller.