News
New button boxes
On Thursday 18 August, the old colorful button boxes have been replaced with the new USB Beexybox type of button box in most of the labs. The use of the new button boxes requires the latest version of Linux we installed for you: in the purple boot menu shown by the computers when starting up, simple select “Linux OS (New BeexyBox) [Ubuntu 12.04]” now instead of “Real-time Linux OS (Old ButtonBox) [Ubuntu 12.04]” (this option should be selected by default on all experiment machines that use the new button boxes)
The Beexyboxes have three buttons, as you can see on the image. If you need a box with four buttons, you can stop by and borrow one from us.
The old button boxes have been removed, because we are in the progress of terminating support for them. If you still have an ongoing experiment which requires the use of the old button boxes for consistent measurements, please stop by and have a talk with us. If your ZEP experiment still uses the old button boxes, we can adapt your experiment for you to use the new Beexy box instead. If the use of the old button boxes is absolutely vital, we will be able to lend you an old button box, but we are terminating support for the old button boxes very soon, so this can only be used to finish currently ongoing experiments.
The new Beexyboxes have several advantages, making us confident the old button boxes are no longer required:
- The button boxes work with USB, meaning they can just as easily be used on the computers in our lab, as on one of our laptops. This increases the consistency of experiments that rely on the button boxes to measure response.
- Computers that have the proper connections for the old button boxes are no longer made, and making the changes necessary becomes increasingly hard, so this way, we’re future proof!
- Due to their new design, the Beexyboxes are more comfortable to use than the old button boxes.
The labs that now have the new Beexyboxes are:
- Baby Eye-tracking lab
- Phonetics lab (all four cabins)
- Eye-tracking lab Cabin 5
- Flex lab
We also prepared the connections for the Beexyboxes in the Baby lab and in the EEG lab, but we did not remove the already present button boxes just yet, so you can keep running your experiments there the way you’re used to. Should you want to use a Beexybox instead of a button box, please stop by, so we can provide you with one and give you some instructions on how to use it.