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open-ephys / io-arduino

Arduino shield for I/O from the host-pc
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Arduino Shield #1

Open koreign opened 10 years ago

koreign commented 10 years ago

Hi sorry for the stupid question (if that is one)

But why do we need the arduino shield instead of using the arduino board directly (which have it's own digital/analog output ? Is it due to latency ?or any other reasons ?

cjblack commented 10 years ago

Hey koreign,

You don't need the I/O shield, you can definitely interface with the arduino directly - that's how it was initially tested. The shield simply provides a convenient interface. They'll be more functionality added to it in the future.

jvoigts commented 10 years ago

Just to clarify, this arduino shield is just passive wiring that connects the arduino's i/o pins to BNC connectors, as well as to a standardized HDMI connector. This way the shield can even be used instead of one of our breakout-boards to connect BNC cables to the aq. board. You can of course use the arduino i/o software module with any arduino without this shield, but you'll have to connect your signals directly to the arduino's header connectors.

koreign commented 10 years ago

Thanks for the clarification. So far I have been using Arduino board for that purpose without the shield. I just saw the PCB for the shield you mentioned and I understand now.

One thing though, for analog inputs, I had to add a DC offset and gain (both with modulation), in order to calibrate into the arduino since the full range input only takes 0-5V. I guess the current arduino shield is only for digital.