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Using Ephys Link

Ephys Link is a server that runs in the background.

Info

Most people should use Ephys Link through Pinpoint. See documentation on connecting from Pinpoint and using Ephys Link for experiment automation.

If you are building a client application that will talk to Ephys Link, see the Socket.IO API reference.

There are different ways of launching Ephys Link depending on its installation.

Standalone Executable (GUI)

  1. Double-click the executable file to launch the configuration window.
    1. Take note of the IP address and port. Copy this information into Pinpoint to connect.
  2. Select the desired configuration and click "Launch Server".

The configuration window will close and the server will launch. Your configurations will be saved for future use.

To connect to the server from Pinpoint, provide the IP address and port. For example, if the server is running on the same computer that Pinpoint is, use

  • Server: localhost
  • Port: 3000

If the server is running on a different (local) computer, use the IP address of that computer as shown in the startup window instead of localhost.

Standalone Executable (CLI)

Ephys Link can be launched from the command line directly without the configuration window. This is useful for computers or servers without graphical user interfaces.

With the standalone executable downloaded, invoking the executable from the command line:

EphysLink-vX.X.X.exe -b

Use the actual name of the executable you downloaded. The -b or --background flag will launch the server without the configuration window and read configuration from CLI arguments.

Here are some examples of how to start Ephys Link with a specific platform (replace EphysLink.exe with the actual name of the executable you downloaded):

Manipulator Platform Command
Sensapex uMp-4 (default) EphysLink.exe -b
New Scale Pathfinder MPM Control v2.8+ EphysLink.exe -b -t pathfinder-mpm

More options can be viewed by running EphysLink.exe -h.

Python Package

Ephys Link can be invoked from the command line with the same arguments as the standalone executable using the ephys-link binary (or el for short).