Hey Chris,
Did you receive my emails? I sent a few emails last week but never heard back.
I am purchasing Macs for my set ups. Do you have any recommendations on what to buy? Number of processors? Any details that may matter for the proper use of MWorks?
Cheers,
Arash
Hi Arash,
Did you receive my emails? I sent a few emails last week but never heard back.
Oh, my – no, I didn’t receive any emails from you last week. I just checked my spam folders and didn’t see anything there either.
Did you send them from your NIH address? For what it’s worth, I had some trouble with that when you got in touch a couple weeks ago. In short: I was trying to forward your email into the MWorks support system, but apparently it was getting tripped up by the part of your address in square brackets (“[E]”). When I removed that part, everything worked fine. Maybe something similar happened last week? (On the other hand, you’ve emailed me directly before without issue, so maybe that’s not the problem.)
I am purchasing Macs for my set ups. Do you have any recommendations on what to buy? Number of processors? Any details that may matter for the proper use of MWorks?
Probably the most helpful feature is a discrete GPU (i.e. one made by AMD or NVIDIA, not Intel). Also, a processor with 4+ cores would be best.
Of the current Mac models, I think the 21.5‑inch iMac with Retina 4K display is a good choice. I’d recommend upgrading to 16GB of RAM and either a Fusion Drive or SSD.
A Mac Pro would also be fine, although the current model hasn’t been updated since 2013 and isn’t a great value. I’d stay away from the current Mac mini, which was pretty underpowered to begin with and hasn’t been updated since 2014.
Cheers,
Chris
Thanks Chris,
I used my NIH email and replied to the conversation with Mark, don’t know if it is an NIH mail problem or something with the MWorks support system. Can you confirm that you received this email. Just checking.
Many thanks for the tips. I also have a few questions about connecting MWorks to a multi channel recording system that I have here, can we talk on the phone about it?
Cheers,
Arash
Hi Arash,
I used my NIH email and replied to the conversation with Mark, don’t know if it is an NIH mail problem or something with the MWorks support system.
I assume it’s the latter. The folks who run the service we use said they’ll try to fix the issue, but obviously that hasn’t happened yet.
In the future, you could use your MIT email address, as that seems to work fine. Or you can just email me directly, and I can get things in to the support system as needed. Sorry for the inconvenience!
I also have a few questions about connecting MWorks to a multi channel recording system that I have here, can we talk on the phone about it?
Sure. If you want to talk today (Thursday), I’m around until 4:15. Otherwise, it’ll have to wait until next week, as I’m out of the office tomorrow.
Chris
Hi Arash,
I checked out the TDT recording system that you’re using.
There’s certainly plenty of digital inputs for receiving timestamps from MWorks. (You’ll need a DAQ of some sort to send them.)
I couldn’t determine whether you can start/stop recording via TTL inputs. However, I still suspect that it’s possible. Maybe check with TDT tech support?
Alternatively, the associated software package, Synapse, has a nice, HTTP-based API that definitely supports recording control. It may also be possible to use the API to get spikes back to MWorks for online analysis.
In order for MWorks to make use of the Synapse API, I’d need to develop a custom plugin. I think that’s a relatively small job, but it still will take some time. If you can use TTL signals to control recording, you’ll be able to get up and running quicker.
Cheers,
Chris
Fantastic,
Thanks a lot Chris. I will send more feedback once we get to assemble the system.
Cheers,
Arash