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How to Start and Stop a Session in Net Station Acquisition
Please read below for an outline of the exact steps involved to successfully start and end a recording, according to the needs of your workflow.
Step 1: Launch Net Station Acquisition
Single click on the Net Station Acquisition icon in your dock.
Step 2: Enter information in the Patient ID field
Before you can interact with the software, you must enter alphanumeric information in the Patient ID field and click OK. You can enter any piece of information you like in this field to help you identify the study later.
Note that the file will be named according to Patient ID_Date_Time. If you do not wish to include the information entered in the Patient ID field in the file name, you can change this in the Destination settings.
Step 3: Configure your Hardware Settings and Create a Workspace if needed
Before you continue to Step 4 to start data streaming, take a moment to be sure your Hardware Settings and the recording file's Destination settings are configured according to your desired study parameters, such as the sampling rate. If needed, create a Workspace. Once you have turned Streaming on, you can no longer make changes to the Destination and Hardware Settings.
Step 4: Turn on Streaming
The On and Off buttons at the top left control the state of the amplifier. By clicking the On button, you turn on data streaming, but are not yet recording. The dark gray color indicates that the button is activated. In the image below, the Off button is dark gray, indicating that data streaming is off, and the On button has not yet been pressed.
Once the On button is pressed, the time sweep bar will begin moving across the screen indicating data streaming is turned on, and you will see a message across the screen that says Not Recording.
Note that at this point, it is possible to measure impedances by single clicking on the impedance icon. The impedance values can be saved to the final recorded file whether you are in Streaming mode or Recording mode in Net Station Acquisition.
Important Note: When Net Station Acquisition is actively measuring impedances, EEG data is not being measured! This is because the impedance measurement drives sensors with a precision 20 Hz, 400 μV peak-to-peak sine wave signal. While the sensors are being driven, they cannot record data. Therefore, be aware that if you check impedances mid-recording, you are not recording EEG during that time and instead, you will find a 20 Hz sine wave in the file for the duration of the time impedances were being measured.
Step 5: Begin recording
When the amp is streaming data, but recording has not yet begun, the Start Record button, indicated with the red circle, becomes selectable. Press the Start Record button to begin recording.
Once recording has begun, the two buttons will change. The Start Record button on the left toggles into the Pause Record button, and the Stop Record button on the right is now selectable.
Another indicator that recording has begun is that the main EEG viewing window will turn pink, as in the image below. You can select the color of the recording background in the Net Station Acquisition Preferences described in the Net Station 5.4 manual.
Step 6: Stop the recording
When you are have completed your EEG study and are ready to end the recording, click the Stop Record button, which is the button with the black square.
Step 7: Choose your next option
After clicking the Stop Record button, you will be presented with the prompt: "Recording complete. What would you like to do next?", followed by three different choices:
- Start a New Study
- Quit Net Station
- Shut Down Amplifier and Quit Net Station
- Choose Start a New Study if you need to immediately record more data from the existing patient, or if you have another immediate patient or subject in the queue. If you click this option, you will be presented with a prompt to enter information in the Patient ID field in order to begin another recording session.
- Choose Quit Net Station if there will be some down time in between recordings. If you are not immediately recording another session, it is best to quit Net Station Acquisition in between recording sessions. This will simply quit the application and is ready to be launched again (Step 1) at a moment's notice.
- Choose Shut Down Amplifier and Quit Net Station if you need to completely shut down the system and move it to another room, for example.
After clicking this button, there will be a pause and you will see the message Shutting Down Amp appear.
Once the amp has successfully been shut down, you will see a prompt saying Amplifier Shutdown Complete. Please unplug the amplifier now. Click OK. Net Station Acquisition will automatically quit. It is now safe to unplug the amplifier from power.
Note that in order to launch Net Station Acquisition again, you must follow the instructions to unplug and replug the power cable to the back of the amplifier, otherwise the amp will not be detected by Net Station the next time you try to record data.
If you have any questions, please contact EGI Support!
Additional Info
- Product Type: Net Station 5
- Information Type: Application Advice