RHS Stim/Recording System
The Intan RHS stim/recording system is a modular, low-cost electrophysiology data acquisition system built around the Intan RHS family of microchips.
Note: The RHS stim/recording system cannot use RHD recording headstages or RHD interface cables. The RHD and RHS systems are not compatible.
Hardware
You need three basic components to assemble a functional electrophysiology stim/recording system:
- RHS stim/recording headstage. These are small circuit boards containing an Intan RHS stim/amplifier chip that amplify, filter, and digitize signals from 16 or 32 electrodes and provide constant-current stimulation pulses. Unlike traditional headstages that provide limited analog amplification, Intan headstages perform all amplification on the headstage and produce a digital data stream conveying the signals from all electrodes.
- RHS stim/recording controller. This acts as a digital hub that links one or more headstages to a computer via a standard USB port. The controller can stream up to 128 amplifier channels to a host computer at user-selectable sampling rates up to 30 kS/s per channel.
- Stim SPI interface cable. These cables link the headstages to the stim/recording controller, sending power to the headstage and data back to the controller. They come in 3-ft (0.9 meter) and 6-ft (1.8 meter) lengths. Multiple cables can be daisy-chained to create longer cables.
Software
Intan provides free software to operate this system. The software allows users to select amplifier bandwidths and sampling rates, measure electrode impedances, view live signals from electrodes, and save data to disk. Stimulation parameters may be configured in the GUI; stimulation pulses are triggered by digital inputs or keypresses. Recording sessions may be controlled manually or triggered automatically by external digital signals. We also provide free software to load saved data files into MATLAB, Python, or Julia, or to convert data files to NEX format.
We provide compiled, ready-to-run software for Windows PCs or Macs. You can download it and try it out before you buy Intan hardware; it will run in demo mode. We provide open-source C++/Qt source code that can be compiled for Linux.
Electrodes
Intan does not manufacture or sell electrodes, but many third-party companies sell electrodes that are compatible with our headstages. A list of compatible electrodes is provided with each RHS headstage.
Commutators
Many of our customers use our system with commutators (i.e., slip rings or swivels). We do not sell commutators, but we do provide an application note describing how to adapt our Stim SPI interface cables to any basic commutator. Since our interface cables use purely digital signals, operation with commutators is typically robust and free of movement-induced noise.
Documents and Software
- RHS system user manuals
- RHX data acquisition software
(may be run without Intan hardware in demonstration mode)
