using fiber optic response devices

1
Dear developers,

I would like to use a fiber optic response device (FORP) (from current designs) and found the function FORPcheck in the Psychtoolbox,
but unfortunately this function can only be used on a Mac.
As far as I understood, in order to use it on Windows the specific .mex file is missing. Do you have a hint for me, that could help me out ?

Many thanx in advance,

Sabine
2
--- In psychtoolbox@yahoogroups.com, Sabine Jatzev <sabine.jatzev@...> wrote:
>
> Dear developers,

Hi Sabine

>
> I would like to use a fiber optic response device (FORP) (from current
> designs) and found the function FORPcheck in the Psychtoolbox,
> but unfortunately this function can only be used on a Mac.

Even there it's deprecated, only kept for backwards compatibility. KbQueueCheck etc. are much more robust on OS/X.

> As far as I understood, in order to use it on Windows the specific .mex
> file is missing. Do you have a hint for me, that could help me out ?

Ja, those functions depend on PsychHID which doesn't exist yet for non-Apple.
The normal KbCheck function usually works well enough on MS-Windows systems if you set the USB connected fORP to "non auto-release" mode, so it acts as closely to a normal keyboard as possible.

GetChar/CharAvail etc. would also work and not lose fast button responses, but then you won't get any accurate response times and GetChar et al. are broken on Windows Vista and Windows-7 thanks to some incompatible and really ugly design changes in MS-Windows, and will probably stay broken for at least another year. Well, at least if you want to use visual stimulation with good timing, there's a flag that allows to exchange working GetChar for broken visual timing...

Another option, imho the best one for using the fORP in terms of reliability, convenience and timing accuracy, is to connect the fORP via serial port, possibly via a serial-to-usb converter dongle if your pc lacks a serial port. Then you can use our slightly misnomed CMUBox response box driver (help CMUBox) to treat it like a response box with roughly millisecond accuracy.

-mario