Feature List

Why use Zapit?

Features

• Open source hardware and software.

• One-click automatic calibration of the scanners to camera using a grid of points.

• Easy manual calibration of sterotaxic space to the live image feed.

• GUI for building stimulus sets.

• On a single trial one or more locations are stimulated in series. The maximum number of points is limited by laser power and the kinetics of the opsin.

• Interactive tools for checking calibrations and stimulus positions.

• An easy to use API for integrating photostimulation into experiment code in MATLAB and Python.

• Automatic logging of stimuli during an experiment.

• Power is conveniently displayed to the user in mW following a simple calibration procedure.

• Stimuli are sent to the DAQ at the trial start then hardware triggered for precise onset.

• Stimuli may be presented for a fixed duration or terminated after an arbitrary time.

• Installation and updates via MATLAB's add-on manager. User notified of new versions in the GUI.

The Geeky Bit

• It's been neatly version controlled with releases and Issues are logged.

• The code is idiomatically written with extensive comments, making it easy to modify and fix.(Here is how that last link works. Add MATLAB syntax highlighting via the Extensions icon on the left.)

• Everything is structured neatly in packages. For example, try typing help zapit.settings.

• The GUIs and underlying logic are separated in a model/view/controller architecture.

• There are tests and examples.