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Specifications for audio trigger 5 aug 2011 HJ Witchel

This device is meant to send triggering signals or timing signals to a variety of a discrete physiological measurement tools. The triggering signal should be based on movies played by a computers audio (headphone) output; the input signal is played via the audio output of the computer playing the movies. Each movie begins with 45 seconds of white noise, and the beginning of the white noise should be the trigger; of course, the computer will have low levels of background noise coming though its audio when no sound is playing. The stereo audio headphones planned for use are Beyerdynamic DT100 (400 ohms). Audio input is on pins 1+2 of the PORT3 input port (pin 3 is ground, pin 4 is not used). Not shown is the connection to the other two audio sockets (for the subject and experimenter to use headphones). VR1 is a potentiometer connected to an analogue-to-digital input pin on RA2. Turning this through its extremes results in a digital value between 0-255 which will be used to set the threshold volume level. The plan is for the white noise to exceed a threshold of sound amplitude (determined by the threshold potentiometer), which should cause a mono-stable trigger to fire, and when it fires, an buffered output to a variety of devices should lead to a 1 millisecond trigger signal of 5V to reach all the output devices. The timing and rules relating to firing the output signal will be handled by the code inside the microcontroller. Pins RA0 and RA1 are analogue-to-digital input pins. The left and right audio channels will be directed onto these pins. 5V zener diodes on these inputs also protect the microcontroller for spikes in audio input above 5V. This signal should then be locked (ie will not fire again) until a manual reset switch resets the entire circuit. Once the trigger signal is sent, there should be an LED (red) that remains lit for 1 second, and another LED (white) is to remain lit after the circuit has been triggered until the entire circuit is manually reset. LEDs (D5-D7) are connected to PORT B1, B2 and B3. D4 is a green LED connected to the power 5V supply which is lit whenever the device is powered and operational. The initial trigger should be based on the audio out of the computer playing the movies. The sound circuit should be divided in three ways: a set of headphones that the experimental participant listens to, a set of headphones that the experimenter hears, and to the trigger circuit. Not shown in this diagram There is a switch that determines whether the trigger is listening for: left audio channel only, right audio channel only, the summation of the left and the right audio channel, or no audio input (ie only active when manually triggered). K1 + K2 are latching buttons used to determine which input value(s) are processed. K1 is left audio, K2 is right audio. To trigger on a combination of both, simply make sure both buttons are pressed. When no audio input is required, make sure both buttons are released.

The LEDs should be as follows: A green LED showing that the power supply is working (i.e. that the device is plugged in and the onswitch is on). A red LED that is lit for 1 second after the circuit is triggered. A white LED that is lit indefinitely after the circuit triggers until the manual reset button is triggered. LEDs (D5-D7) are connected to PORT B1, B2 and B3. D4 is a green LED connected to the power 5V supply which is lit whenever the device is powered and operational.

The switches should be as follows: S1 = manual trigger (momentary action). When this push button is pressed, the circuit should act AS IF the main circuit has been triggered by a loud noise, S2 = reset button (momentary action). Once the circuit is triggered, it remains unable to be restimulated until the reset button (push button) has been pressed. S3 = on/off toggle switch for the main power (from the 9V battery) S4 = audio trigger choice a 4 position switch (remains in position) that tells the circuit whether to be triggered by: left audio channel, right audio channel, summation of left + right audio channels, or do not listen to audio (ie trigger manually only). K1 is left audio enable K2 is right audio enable. To trigger on a combination of both, simply make sure both buttons are pressed. When no audio input is required, make sure both buttons are released. K3 is the manual trigger (momentary push button) K4 is the reset button (momentary push button) All buttons are connected to PORTB on the microcontroller which includes internal pull-up resistors. When pressed/activated, the input pin goes low. The presence of a low signal on any of these input pins represents a button press on the corresponding pin. The potentiometer is part of an amplifier (sensitivity threshold op amp) that allows the circuit to trigger on loud white noise but ignores the background computer noise output. Because the sound output of the computer is based on the volume control of the computer audio, the trigger level is unknown before the experiment. VR1 is a potentiometer used to set the threshold audio input value The power supply is based on a high quality 5V voltage regulator running off a small 9V battery. The cmos chips should be able to handle small variations is power supply. To easily display voltage input information and other debugging, a PIC18F2455 is used which includes a USB stack. The device can be powered directly from the USB port (PORT4/USB) of the host computer, or via a 9V battery (PORT4/BATT). The third pin of the three-pin battery port is connected to the serial TX line of the microcontroller so data can be sent from the device either via USB or serial. There are a variety of extra resistors in the reset circuit in order to prevent unwanted triggering when the device is powered up. Additional current limiting resistors, smoothing capacitors etc can be added as required. There should be one audio input, and two audio outputs. The audio lines and connections should be as expensive and as sturdy as possible. No expense should be spared. The ideal input should be 1/8 inch stereo, and the outputs should be inch (although if you have good reasons, this can be changed to inch for everything). Final socket types and sizes to be confirmed on successful trial of the first prototype.

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