comm module

Communication interface between Open Ephys and Python using ZeroMQ for networking and JSON message format.

Sends periodic heartbeat signals to the server, uses collector.Collector to store data received over network.

Heavily based on Francesco Battaglia’s sample implementation.

class opeth.comm.CommProcess(dataport=5556, eventport=5557)

Bases: object

ZMQ communication process - stores data, called periodically from GUI process.

context

Networking context for ZeroMQ

Type:zmq.Context

dataport

TCP port of Open Ephys plugin for data reception

Type:int

eventport

TCP port of Open Ephys plugin for events

Type:int

data_socket

ZMQ subscriber for incoming data

Type:zmq.SUB socket

event_socket

ZMQ REQ interface

Type:zmq.SUB socket

collector

Data storage

Type:collector.Collector

Parameters:

• dataport (int) – Open Ephys ZMQ plugin’s data port, default: 5556
• eventport (int) – Open Ephys ZMQ plugin’s event port, default: 5557

add_data(n_arr)

Append data to our data collector.

add_event(event)

Add/update event or timestamp.

add_spike(spike)

Add spikes. Currently not used.

connect()

Initial connection to ZMQ plugin.

Starts polling the interfaces.

send_event(event_list=None, event_type=3, sample_num=0, event_id=2, event_channel=1)

Note

Not used just for testing.

send_heartbeat()

Send heartbeat message to the event port so the ZMQ plugin can list our client.

timer_callback()

Called periodically from GUI to process network messages.

All the most important network processing happens here.

• Sends heartbeat messages every two seconds.
• Collects data.
• Processes incoming events.

uuid = None

unique ID used in heartbeat