Version 2.1
Version 2.1.6, released 17 Aug 2009
Fixed a bug in the implementation of Maestro's experiment document: Once the number of objects in the document approached 4096, a duplicate key was generated, rendering the document unusable. [The bug was only recently uncovered because most users create multiple, small (#objects << 4096) experiment documents rather than maintain one large master document.]
Version 2.1.5, released 31 Mar 2009 (rev 27 Jul)
Minor revision: In Trial mode only, the name of the trial is now displayed in the top-left corner of the Data Traces display panel.
Revised 27 Jul 2009: Fixed bug in RMVideo -- The Random-Dot Patch target's noise feature did not work properly. The directional or speed noise was updated on every display frame instead of the noise update interval specified in the target definition.
Version 2.1.4, released 19 Aug 2008
Introduced the trial sequencer mode Ordered (Repeat). This mode behaves like the Ordered mode, except that a trial is repeated each time the subject fails to complete it (ie, satisfy the fixation requirements).
Bug fixed: The Spike Histograms facility did not correctly process trials containing trial codes introduced after June 2005. Trials exploiting the newer velocity stablization features, pattern acceleration, or the R/P Distro operation were simply ignored.
Changes to readcxdata():
[23 Jul 2008] Added output field psgm, which stores the parameters of a Pulse Stimulus Generator Module sequence defined in the trial presented when the data file was recorded.
[21 Jan 2009] Added field psgm.tStart, an integer specifying the elapsed trial time at which the PSGM sequence was started (or, at least, enabled for external triggering).
[21 Jan 2009] Added output field trialInfo, which includes some additional information on the trial presented when the data file was recorded, including information on any perturbations presented (for data file versions >= 5).
[21 Jan 2009] The marked field is now set to 1 if either of two styles of the "discard mark" are encountered: at least one mark segment (XWork-style discard), or a mark1 at t = -1 (MWork-style discard). The Java-based JMWork supports both discard mark styles.
Version 2.1.3, released 12 Sep 2007 (rev 27 Feb 2008)
Maestro now loads the PCI-MIO-16E1's calibration constants at startup so users don't have to worry about the board being in an uncalibrated state because of a previous power outage of which they were not aware.
Implemented support for simultaneously perturbing a trial target's window and pattern speed with the same perturbation waveform. Analogously for a target's window and pattern direction. Select speed or direc as the Affected trajectory component in the Trial Editor's perturbations table.
Introduced an alternate multiplicative algorithm for speed noise generation in the implementation of the XYScope Noise Dots (Speed) target and the RMVideo Random-Dot Patch target. Also, additive speed noise granularity was changed to 1% for the Random-Dot Patch target to bring it in line with a similar change made to the Noisy Dots (Speed) target in v2.1.2.
Attempted to fix the issue regarding a communication timeout with Maestro's RTX driver when one transitions out of Continuous mode after using RMVideo targets in that mode. Not sure if the fix worked, since I have not been able to reproduce the problem on the development PC...
Revised 27 Feb 2008: Fixed serious memory-leak issue in RMVideo that ultimately led to "skipped frame" or similar errors when using the grating/plaid targets. Maestro itself was unchanged.
Version 2.1.2, released 18 Jul 2007
Minor modification to the implementation of the XYScope target Noisy Dots (Speed): speed noise offset granularity is now 1% instead of the finer 0.1%. Data file version was incremented to 11 to mark this implemenation change for downstream analysis code; there were no changes in the data file format.
Added support for perturbing a target's window speed (winSpd) or pattern speed (patSpd) during a trial. Use the Affected column in the Trial Editor's perturbation table to select the trajectory aspect that is perturbed.
Made a few more minor changes to conform to recent changes in the PSGM specification. The current PSGM hardware is rather slow, so we have to wait 5ms between parameter writes while configuring the hardware to present a pulse stimulus sequence. As a result, the PSGM is not usable in Continuous mode at this time.
Version 2.1.1, released 16 May 2007
R/P Distro feature enhanced: The user can now choose among four possible measures of the behavioral response: horizontal eye velocity in deg/s, vertical eye velocity in deg/s, the vector eye velocity in deg/s, or the direction of eye motion in deg measured CCW from the +x-axis (rightward motion). In all cases, the response is sampled at 1KHz and averaged over the course of the R/P Distro special segment. The response type is selected in the R/P Distro tab page in the Trial mode control panel. The response type is included in the header of the Maestro trial data file and in the R/P Distro summary file. Matlab utilities readcxdata() and getrpdsummary.m were updated accordingly.
An electrical pulse stimulus generator module (PSGM) will soon be introduced into at least one Maestro rig. The PSGM is controlled by the digital outputs of the timer board. Fixed some issues uncovered during testing of the prototype, and also added support for the Biphasic Train operational mode.
Minor bug fix in the firmware module m62evtmr.out, which implements the event timestamping DIO function on the M62 DSP board. This change does not currently affect any rigs, since the M62 is not installed in any of them.
Version 2.1.0, released 04 Apr 2007
Introduced support for specifying target pattern H & V acceleration on a segment by segment basis in Trial mode. The segment table now includes an additional row per target by which these new trajectory parameters are specified. The change required a change in the experiment document schema, so documents saved with this version cannot be opened by older versions. In existing documents, each trial's per-target per-segment pattern acceleration components are all initialized to zero.
Both readcxdata() and XWork have been updated to handle the new trial codes introduced by the changes above.
Installation: The file rmvnic.ini was removed from the set of installation files. The file must be different for every rig, since it includes the MAC address for the network card dedicated to the Maestro-RMVideo link. The correct .ini file is now placed in a different location on the host, rather than in the Maestro installation directory (the file is only needed by the RTX TCP-IP server, not by Maestro itself).