Software

Where can I find the most recent software release information?

You can find all details and documentation related to our releases in our release log: Software Revision Log.

How can I find out my current software/firmware revision?

In PyPixx, navigate to System > About us. You will see a list of software and firmware revisions below the information about our company.

Don’t see this content? You may be using an older version of our tools. You can also get this information in the VPutil command-line software using ‘rev’.

How do I check for software and firmware updates?

If you have a recent copy of our software tools, you can check for software and firmware updates in the PyPixx program by navigating to:

System > Check Software Update
System > Firmware Update (requires hardware to be connected and powered on)

Don’t see these options? You are running an older version of our software tools. You can update to the newest version manually by installing our software tools: Software Download. Once installation is complete, you can use PyPixx to check for firmware updates.

How do I install VPixx Software Tools?

Your VPixx purchase should include a USB stick containing a copy of VPixx Software Tools. This includes all programs and software packages needed to run our devices. There is one set of Software Tools that covers all VPixx hardware.

Misplaced your USB? No problem! You can download a copy of our software tools from our website: Software Download.

MATLAB API users, please follow the Matlab Integration Guide for specific instructions on installing and configuring the necessary components.

Python API users, please refer to the Python Integration Guide for specific instructions on installing the required packages and setting up the environment.

In Windows, open the USB contents/Downloads folder and launch setup.exe, and follow the instructions in the installation wizard.

In Linux, download or copy the .deb file to your machine and then run the following to install all tools and dependencies:

sudo dkpg -i VPixx_Software_Tools.deb

Note, if you get an error installing on Ubuntu 18.04 because of missing dependencies, these can be fixed with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install gcc-10
sudo apt-get -f install

In Mac, mount the DMG by double clicking on it, then double click the VPixx Software Tools.pkg to launch the installation wizard and follow the instructions.

What is PyPixx?

PyPixx is a standalone software utility included in our VPixx Software Tools. It is officially deprecated as of release 1.6.1.

What is VPutil?

VPutil is a command-line tool that is included with our VPixx Software Tools. It allows you to change basic settings on your VPixx device, install firmware updates, manually read the device register for diagnostic purposes, and run several demos to test hardware performance.

Do you support MATLAB/Octave?

Our free software tools include an API specifically designed to work with MATLAB and Psychtoolbox. In theory we support Octave, although we do not test it regularly.

For more details on installing our MATLAB/Octave tools, and for some example code, check out our Introduction to VPixx MATLAB documentation

Please note we no longer support 32-bit versions of MATLAB.

Do you support PsychoPy?

We do! See our VOCAL: Using VPixx Hardware with PsychoPy

Do you support Python IDEs (PyCharm, Spyder, etc?)

Absolutely. Our Python API comes in two flavours. Pypixxlib uses an object-oriented approach, while the libdpx wrapper permits more sequential programming. Which strategy you opt for is a matter of personal preference. Throughout several VOCAL guides we provide examples of both types of Python code.

For more details on how to install our Python tools, see our Python Documentation.

Do you support Presentation?

We do not currently provide software support for NeuroBehavioral Systems’ Presentation software. However, it is possible to configure our hardware to communicate with the Presentation PC via the parallel port and our DB25 digital output. 

With this method, you can log button presses from our response boxes, capture automated frame-locked TTL triggers from our hardware via Pixel Mode and synchronize your experiment code with eye tracking data from either of our eye tracking systems. For more details on how to set up this connection, please contact scientist@vpixx.com.

Presentation does have MATLAB extension that allows users to run MATLAB scripts. As of April 2021, this extension only supports 32-bit MATLAB (r2015 and earlier). As soon as the extension supports 64-bit MATLAB, in theory it will be possible to use our full MATLAB API in Presentation.

Do you support E-Prime?

It is possible to use our MATLAB/Psychtoolbox tools in E-Prime by running a MATLAB server. You will need a copy of MATLAB and administrator privileges to do this.

Full instructions for how to use our devices in E-Prime can be found on page 128 of the VPixx Application Guide [pdf].

Do you support __________?

In a lot of cases, if a piece of software has some kind of extension or tool for running MATLAB or Python code, there is a chance our API can be integrated into it. 

Even if your software does not support these APIs, there is still the possibility to run the systems in parallel and use TTL triggers to synchronize events. Alternatively, you can take advantage of our data acquisition system to stream data (like eye position coordinates) onto our devices and log them on the same clock as your visual events. 

Not sure whether integration might be possible with your existing experiment pipeline? Reach out to our technical support team at support@vpixx.com and we will help you investigate.