**CIGAL Reference Manual, Chapter 7 (Hardware): Hardware configuration and use**


===== Chapter 7 -- Contents=====
CIGAL recognizes many different types of peripheral hardware connected to your computer. In most cases, these can be grouped into different device categories (see below) to allow different physical devices to share common software interfaces. For example, you can connect analog input signals coming from many different hardware devices, but internally the software treats all analog input signals as though they were a continuous list of [[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:adc|ADC variables]] (adc0, adc1, etc.). In general, the software tries to isolate specific hardware-dependent features within the [[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter2:initialize|Init]] commands contained in the [[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter1:startup|Start-up]] command files run automatically each time you run CIGAL.  These start-up command files are typically created or modified using the [[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter1:configure|Configure]] command.

**Currently recognized hardware options:**\\

|**Device**|**Name**|**Description**|
| | | |
|**Digital inputs**| | |
|Gameport|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:gameport|gameport]]|Buttons on joystick or other gaming device|
|E-Prime SR-Box|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:srbox|srbox]]|Buttons or pulses from stimulus-response box|
|National Instruments board|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:nidig|nidig]]|Digital input lines via NI-DAQ hardware driver|
|Measurement Computing via USB|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:meascomp|meascomp]]|Digital input/output lines|
| | | |
|**Analog inputs**| | |
|National Instruments board|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:niadc|niadc]]|Analog input lines via NI-DAQ hardware driver|
|Measurement Computing via USB|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:meascomp|meascomp]]|Analog input lines|
|GE ADC via Serial port|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:geadc|geadc]]|Customized physio. signal input from GE MRI scanner|
|Glover ADC via Parallel port|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:pport|pport]]|Customized A/D input using parallel port control bits|
| | | |
|**Other**| | |
|COM - serial ports|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter4:com1|COM]]|Generic serial port input/output|
|Parallel port|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:pport|pport]]|Generic parallel port input/output|
|Eyetracker|[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter7:eyetracker|eyetracker]]|Arrington Research streaming eyetracker data|

**See Also:**\\
[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter2:initialize|Init]],
[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter1:startup|Start-up]],
[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter1:configure|Configure]]\\

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