Sending digital markers via parallel port with MATLAB 64-bit

Hello,

I know that similar questions have been already asked, however none of the solutions given solved my problem.

I need to send digital markers to a BIOPAC (<http://www.biopac.com/isolated-digital-interface>) equipment which uses parallel ports. I know that this would be possible using the Data Acquisition Toolbox which, however, runs only with MATLAB 32-bit on a 32-bit machine. I have been advised not to use MATLAB 32-bit in view of future work, which may not be compatible with such version. However, I haven’t been able to find any solution to this. What I would like to know is whether there is any toolbox working on MATLAB 64-bit that could replace the Data Acquisition Toolbox. If not, what solution would you suggest? We considered making a USB to parallel port adaptor, but I am not sure whether this would work using MATLAB.

I apologize if my terminology is not correct, I am new to this.

Thank you,

Chiara

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Data Acquisition Toolkit is supported on 64 bit MATLAB, using the Session Based Interface.

"Windows 64-bit functionality is limited to supported National Instruments, Digilent Analog Discovery, and sound card devices only. All other supported devices require Windows 32 bit."

The 32 bit Windows version is disappearing; I think it is R2016a that is scheduled to be the last release.

USB to Parallel can have some very significant limitations on control of the pins, and very significant limitations on the polling rate. It can be okay if you only need Parallel as an 8 bit digital input with an automatic strobe at low data rates (a few 10s of Hz), but it can be pretty disappointing otherwise. USB to Parallel embeds the Parallel as a serial data stream since USB is pure time-shared polled serial system. I am kinda negative on using USB for DAQ purposes.

If you have a free slot in your machine, you can get much finer control and better response using a non-USB National Instruments device.

[Chiara Avancini]

Thank you, this was very useful. Now I have a clear idea of what I need. Bests