Open Ephys Acquisition Board

Description

The acquisition board provides a convenient USB interface between up to 8 headstages and a computer. It features 8 channels of digital input, to sync acquisition with external devices, and 8 channels of ±5V analog input, to record auxiliary continuous signals.

View on the Open Ephys website.

If you're interested in building your own acquisition board, we strongly recommend getting in touch with us via the Open Ephys contact page. Assembly instructions can be found here.

Details

The acquisition board was designed to be compatible with headstages powered by Intan chips, miniaturized amplifier circuits optimized for neuroscience experiments. The precisely coordinated control signals that synchronize the Intan chips with the onboard analog-to-digital converter are generated by a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a device that can be instantly reconfigured to simulate multiple analog circuits in parallel. On the acquisition board, an XEM-6310 FPGA module from Opal Kelly plugs into a custom printed circuit board to relay neural data to a computer. And everything sits inside a case that can be 3D printed, CNC machined, or cast in plastic.

Features

• Simultaneous acquisition from up to 8 Intan-based headstages headstages (512 channels in total)
• up to 30 kHz sampling rate
• 8 digital inputs (requires an I/O board)
• 8 digital outputs (requires an I/O board)
• 8 bidirectional ADCs (±5V) (requires an I/O board)
• 8 DACs (±5V) (requires an I/O board)
• USB 3.0 communication
• 8 full-spectrum indicator LEDs
• over-voltage protection

File types

• .ai = Adobe Illustrator files; contain images of hardware
• .brd = EAGLE board files; describe the physical layout of the printed circuit board
• .sch = EAGLE schematic files; describe the electrical connections of the printed circuit board
• .cam = EAGLE export files; contain instructions for translating between the .brd file and Gerber files
• .png = image files
• BOM.txt = contains link to Bill of Materials in a Google Doc
• BOM.csv = text file containing all the necessary parts; can be viewed in Excel or any text editor
• .md = Markdown files; most likely a README file; can be viewed with any text editor
• "gerber" files (.top, .bsk, .oln, etc.) = contain machine-readable instructions for creating the printed circuit board; these are sent to a fab house (such as Sunstone Circuits) for PCB production
• .SLDPRT files = SolidWorks part files; contain CAD models of 3D components
• .STL files = stereolithography files; can be sent to a rapid prototyping service (such as Shapeways) to create 3D objects
• .eps files = specify design of acrylic top for laser cutting

Licensing

The designs, documentation, and photos available in this repository are free: you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO License

If you are interested selling this device, please get in touch with us via the Open Ephys contact page.

© Open Ephys 2012-2020