This week, Anish began constructing the hardware setup for the behavioral system. The joystick will be placed on an adjustable, magnetic platform that can be made within reach of the head-fixated mouse. All hardware will be placed on the right side of the restrain apparatus to avoid interference with the neuroimaging setup.
In order to solve the communication issue within the MATLAB/infusion pump system, Evan called Harvard Apparatus again. It was advised that the footswitch should not be used in this application due to insufficient sampling rate. The RS232 serial I/O will now be used. Not only will this avoid the need to build a square wave impulse, but it will also remove the need to use the Arduino to build and send communication to the pump as intermediary. Instead, RS232 I/O allows MATLAB to use ASCII serial communication using built in MATLAB packages.
The goal of next week’s project progress is to develop the system that allows the existing trigger used to initiate neuroimaging to also trigger joystick data collection. During collection, the joystick must be able to move past a threshold, simultaneously analyzed to detect such a point, and send an output (LED). In addition, a joystick mounting piece will be designed in CAD and 3D that is magnetic.