Associated GUI:
Overview
The Hotswitch GUI provides a highly convenient way to switch rapidly among different pre-configured 'states' or configurations of Ephus. Hotswitch pushbuttons are first configured, by setting the configurations of individual programs (e.g. ephys, acquirer, etc.) as desired and the 'capturing' these into a single hotswitch configuration. Hitting a hotswitch button causes that set of configurations to be loaded, putting a selected subset of programs into the desired state. Typically the hotswitches are used to switch between major recording modes, e.g. standard settings for recording voltage step responses for cell parameter measurements, or settings for map acquisition, etc. However, they are highly versatile, and can be used to make any quick change in configuration, or even just to run a user function without changing any configurations.
File>Open
n/a
State 1, State 2, etc.
The hotswitch buttons. Note that if you run out of available hotswitches, you can use one of them to configure a new set of hotswitches.
Note
After configuring a new hotswitch pushbutton (i.e., State) with the hs_config GUI (see below), use File > Program Manager > Save Configuration to overwrite the hotswitch.settings file.
Hotswitch Configuration GUI, hs_config
This interface is used to configure the hotswitch buttons.
Name, Number
Text entered here is displayed on the face of the current selected button. The number of the current button is shown in the text window (upper right). The selection can be changed by entering a new number (1 through 12), or using the arrows on the associated slider.
Directory
The directory to which the currently selected hotswitch's configuration files are saved is displayed in the window, and is selected using the 'Browse' button. These would typically go under the 'hotswitches' directory in your settings folder.
Capture Panel
The listbox shows the available (configurable) programs.
To use, put a program in the state you wish to capture, then select the program in the listbox, and hit 'Capture'. The configuration file for that program will be saved in the assigned hotswitch configuration folder. Continue the process, adding as many other programs as desired to the current hotswitch configuration.
Note that it is necessary to re-capture any programs you have re-configured if you want to apply those changes to the hotswitch. For example, if you first configure a hotswitch for a pulseJacker cycle, and subsequently make changes to the cycle (e.g. assign a different pulse to one of the positions), in the hotswitch hs_config GUI you need to re-capture the pulseJacker.
'Capture All' is a quick way to do just that, i.e., capture all active programs. However, this option should be used with caution, as users may find that it leads to confusion, and it is usually preferable to include just a subset of programs with each hotswitch configuration.
A typical best practice suggestion is to use 'Capture' to capture only those programs whose states you are interested in setting for the given hotswitch (i.e., ephys, acquirer, loopGui, stimulator; as above).
'Capture Type' (light and heavy) refers to the kind of configurations that are saved. The difference between light and heavy is largely program specific, however a light configuration generally does not contain GUI layout information. In this case, the different types of configurations have little or no bearing on the usage. For most applications it is recommended to use heavy configurations.
For example, the current state of the ephys 'External' button will not be overridden by selecting a hotswitch in which ephys was 'light'-captured, will be if it was 'heavy'-captured.
Hotswitches and calibration programs
Be careful about including calibration programs (photodiode, imagingSys) in hotswitch configurations. For routine mapping experiments, it is usually best to maintain a single up-to-date version of these files in the main configuration (the one you select during Ephus start-up, or via File>Program Manager>Load Configuration). Otherwise you run the risk of using an out-of-date configuration.
Hotswitches and triggerable programs
Note that for the triggerable programs (ephys, acquirer, stimulator) the state of the 'Start' and 'External' buttons will be captured in a hotswitch configuration. It is often good practice to include these programs in hotswitch configurations, to reconfigure those buttons from whatever state they were in to the desired one.
Notes
The GUI does not show which programs have already been captured for a particular hotswitch configuration. However, you can determine this by looking at the file contents using your system's file browser (e.g. Windows Explorer).
To remove a program from a hotswitch configuration (i.e., "un-capture" it), do so via the file browser -- navigate to that particular hotswitch directory, select the file, and delete it.