Instruction manual

. .
6 Input and Output 88
If the user knows the voltage increment needed at each step, the equation can be transposed
to solve for the Number of Steps required in the protocol and this value can be entered on the
Stimulator page:
(Start Amplitude - End Amplitude
) = Number of Steps.
Voltage Increment
Likewise, if the user knows the previous amplitude and the voltage increment, the succeeding
amplitude can be calculated:
Previous Amplitude + Voltage Increment = Succeeding Amplitude
With the starting, ending and incremental voltages set through Preferences, the voltage will
change in a step wise manner until the ending voltage is reached. The length of the protocol is
determined by the Step Width and the time between steps, the Time Off.
Repeat Count: The number of times the above step protocol will repeat
Interprotocol duration: The duration of time between the termination of one protocol and the
initiation of the next protocol
An Example of
Voltage Steps
1 To construct and record an example of pulses in Step mode, select Preferences from the Edit menu.
On the Channels page of the Preferences dialog window set a channel that has a BNC input to
record at 10,000 samples/second and display 0.5 second on the screen (Figure 6-2 on page 83).
2 Go to the Stimulator page of the Preferences dialog window; select Step from the box in the upper left
corner of the page.
3 Enter the following values into the appropriate boxes on the Stimulator page:
Delay 0
Starting Amplitude -1V
Ending Amplitude +1V
Number of Steps 8
Step Width 100 ms
Time Off 0
Repeat Count 1
Interprotocol duration 0
Holding Potential 0
4 These settings will create a wave form that starts at -1 Volt and climbs to +1 Volt in eight steps, each
step has a voltage increment of 0.25V and 100ms wide.
5 Press the Start button. The resulting wave would be similar to the step-wise elevation of
output amplitude seen in Figure 6-7 on page 88.
Figure 6-7: An example of a continuous step protocol.