SpikeGLX-remoteCTRL

Python SpikeGLX remote controller

Remote control for SpikeGLX recording software. Enables receiving and sending commands from other python processes over socket network to control SpikeGLX acquisition.

It can be the same computer running SpikeGLX or a different computer in the same network. NEW now also with Linux libraries from Bill.

SglxApi is provided by Bill Karsh https://github.com/billkarsh/SpikeGLX-CPP-SDK and is included in this repository. To install or update the SpikeGLX-remoteCTRL package:

• On windows copy the *.dll into the API folder
• On linux: build the API by running make-install.sh in SpikeGLX-CPP-SDK/Linux and copy the resulting files into SpikeGLX-remoteCTRL/spikeGLX_remote/API

Sphinx documentation can be found here.

Installation guide

(Optional) Create and activate a conda environment

conda env create -n spike_glx_remote python=3.11
conda activate spike_glx_remote

Install the following python packages (preferably in a virtual environment):

git clone https://github.com/arturoptophys/SpikeGLX-remoteCTRL
cd spikeGLX-remoteCTRL
pip install -e .[GUI] # for GUI support
#or
pip install -e . # for CLI only

Usage

There are 2 main ways to use this package: GUI and CLI. GUI may be more user-friendly, but requires PyQT6 dependencies.

GUI

To start the GUI, run:

python -m spikeGLX_remote.spikeGLXremote_GUI

CLI

To start the CLI, run:

python -m spikeGLX_remote.spikeGLXremote_ctrl

in this mode you can remotely connect to the server via sockets and transmit commands to SpikeGLX. For remote control, see here.

The CLI can also be used as a python module, for example:

from spikeGLX_remote.spikeGLXremote_ctrl import SpikeGLX_Controller
ctrl = SpikeGLX_Controller()
ctrl.save_path = 'C:\\path\\to\\save\\data' # set path 2 where SpikeGLX will save the data (should be a path on 
# SpikeGLX computer)
ctrl.connect_spikeglx()
if ctrl.ask_is_initialized():
    ctrl.session_id = 'TestRecording' # set session name
    ctrl.start_run()
    ctrl.start_recording()

ctrl.stop_recording()    # stop recording
ctrl.disconnect_spikeglx() # disconnect from SpikeGLX

Remote control via sockets

Describe here how to use socket utils to send out stuff.