Controls

You can create several kinds of run-time widgets and read/ write the values of the widget during the experiment. Controls will issue a trigger when their value is changed. This event is captured in the Pynapse event loop. You can also read the value of the controls inside any Python method.

Controls Tab

Runtime Tab Showing Example Controls

You can add up to 50 custom controls. Right-click on the 'Main' page to add new controls. Drag and drop the controls in the tree to set the order they are displayed at runtime. Right-click on 'Main' to add a new page of controls. Controls will be organized into tabs at runtime.

Runtime Control Tab Example

Phase Presets

User-adjustable controls (Toggle Switch, Spin Control, Slider Control, and Combo Box) can be assigned preset values for different phases of the experiment, so you can quickly change several controls with the click of a button. When combined with Session Controls you can tell the Pynapse scheduler how many trials / blocks of each phase you want to run and it automatically handles it for you. The Session Scheduler takes this one step further and allows you to schedule the sequence of phase preset conditions to run in order.

Check the Phase Presets box to enable this feature and make a comma-separated list with your own custom phase name. Check the Preset Controlled option on any control you want to add to the presets.

Assign controls to phases

At run-time, the phase presets appear as buttons. Setup the control values that you want, then right-click on one of the phase buttons and select 'Store To Preset' to assign those values to that button. The button text changes to black to indicate preset values have been assigned, and the button outline changes to blue to indicate it is currently selected.

Phase buttons: assigned, selected, and undefined

Right-click on a phase button for more options:

Option	Description
Clear Preset	Clear the selected preset, leaving it undefined
Store to Preset	Overwrite the selected phase values with the current control settings
Load from Preset	Overwrite the current control values with the selected phase values

Locking

Choose when to lock controls during the experiment.

Note

The Lock icon next to the icon at runtime must be locked in order for this setting to take effect. The Lock icon is unlocked by default in Preview mode, and locked by default in Record mode.

Slider control in unlocked and locked state

Option	Description
Normal	Control value is locked when the Lock icon is locked and Pynapse is in an active Session, so it can't be adjusted by the user during critical moments of the experiment
Never	Control value can always be adjusted by the user at any time during the experiment, regardless of Lock icon state
Always	Control value can't be changed at any time the Lock icon is locked

Slot Methods for Responding to Control Changes

This control slot method captures status information about the controls. It is available as method definitions inside Pynapse states for each control. Write a method with this name to react to the corresponding event.

Slot name	Event
s_MyControl_change	MyControl value changed

All custom control slot methods s_{CONTROL_NAME}_change. Type def s_ in the Pynapse Code Editor and let the code completion do the work for you.

Example

Print a slider value when it is changed at runtime.

class Always:    # StateID = 0

    # capture any control value change with this
    def s_MyControl_change(value):
        print('new control value', value)

Methods

All control methods have the form p_Control.{CONTROL_NAME}.{METHOD}. Type p_ in the Pynapse Code Editor and let the code completion do the work for you.

Status

read

value = p_Control.MyControl.read()

Read the current value of the control. For combo box controls, the value is the index into the list of items in the combo box.

Example

Set the next stimulation based on a slider value controlled by the user at runtime.

class PrepStim:   #StateID = 0
    def s_State_enter():
        # get next stim ready
        wave_freq = p_Control.MyControl.read()
        p_Param.p_Param.WaveFreq_write(wave_freq)

Control

write

p_Control.MyControl.write(val)

Write a new value to the control. For combo box controls, the value is the index into the list of items in the combo box. For Led Indicators, the value is the index into the list of colors.

Inputs	Type	Description
val	number	New value of the control

Example

Increment a progress bar.

class EndTrial:   #StateID = 0
    def s_State_enter():

        # increment completed trials counter
        p_Metric.completed_trials.inc()

        # update progress bar
        progress = 100 * p_Metric.completed_trials.read() / p_Metric.desired_trials.read()
        p_Control.MyProgressBar.write(progress)

lock

p_Control.MyControl.lock()

Lock the control to prevent modification.

Example

Lock control during a portion of the experiment

class StartTrial:   #StateID = 0
    def s_State_enter():
        p_Control.MyControl.lock()

unlock

p_Control.MyControl.unlock()

Unlock the control to allow modification.

Example

Unlock control during a portion of the experiment

class EndTrial:   #StateID = 0
    def s_State_enter():
        p_Metric.completed_trials.inc()
        p_Control.MyControl.unlock()

setRange

p_Control.MyControl.setRange(minv, maxv)

Set the value range of the control between minv and maxv. This is only valid for Spin Control, Slider Control, and Progress Bar controls.

Inputs	Type	Description
minv	number	New minimum value for this control
maxv	number	New maximum value for this control

setLabel

p_Control.MyControl.setLabel(txt)

Sets the text label of the control.

Inputs	Type	Description
txt	string	New label text

hide

p_Control.MyControl.hide()

Hides the control on the user interface.

show

p_Control.MyControl.show()

Shows the control on the user interface.