ConvertingE-PrimeScripts - Meg Wiki

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Converting your existing scripts to the Windows 7 version of E-Prime

We have recently updated our stimulus machines in the MEG and MRI labs to Windows 7, and this also forced us to upgrade to the latest version of E-Prime 2. E-Prime 1 will not be on these machine anymore.

The new version of E-Prime is not backwards compatible with the previous versions, so your scripts will have to be converted and will then not open in the previous version of E-Prime 2 anymore. In the coming months we will convert all other lab machines and all desktop machines in the unit to this new version, but currently most lab machines still use the older version.

This means that you cannot update E-Prime on your desktop machine yet if you are also running experiments in labs other than the MEG and/or the MRI facilities.

Converting your scripts is relatively easy: just open it in the new version and E-Prime will convert it for you. It will make a backup copy of your existing script for you too.

However, there will be some minor changes you will have to make to most scripts to make them work correctly in the MEG lab. It is highly recommended to book and hour or so in the MEG lab to convert and test all your scripts. Contact me (Maarten van Casteren) if you need help with this.

Changes

The parallel port address has changes. The new address is &HD030. If you are using the SignalData machanism to send triggers the you will have the change the address from the old (&H378) value to this new value, &HD030.

For receiving button presses you should now use the 'Parallel Port' input device, instead of the 'Port' device. All details in the 'Parallel Port' device can be kept as by default, as the port is on 'LPT1' and this device doesn't need an address.

The old 'Port' object received the 5th button press as an inverted value, so that presses showed up as releases and releases as presses. This means that you would have to look for the value '-8' if you want to respond to the 5th button being pressed. The new 'Parallel Port' device corrects for this, and all 5 buttons now come in normally.

The sound device will by default be set to 'DirectSound', but this should be changed to 'Core Audio'.

Warnings

E-Prime issues a few warnings when your script is converted. Most are not serious, but some require some action. Here's an overview of the ones I've encountered.

'Display is cloned' This will always be issued. We use a monitor on the desk and a projector in the MSR, both showing the same picture. E-Prime flags this up as a possible problem, but this can be ignored.

Debounce value. If the paralel port has been included in your script it will not have its 'debounce' value set. Just set this to 0 and you should be fine.

Screen resolution copy. This shows up when you've set your display to copy its settings from Windows. Normally Windows should be set to the same resolution and frame rate as those recommended for you experiment, but it is better to set them explicitly. Use 1024 by 768 at 60Hz.

Clear after. Display object usually had their 'clear after' box ticked, but that's a feature E-Prime wants to get rid of. You can igmore this for the time being, but if you want to solve this the untick the 'clear after' box and insert an extra TextDisplay' object after the current object, Leave this new object blank, and this will then clear the screen.

Frames in percentages. Frame values are aften given in pixel values, but E-Prime thinks it is best to use percentages. You can ignore this warning.