pycbsdk.examples.print_rates with --skip_startup reports Firing rate = 0 with specific dataset

[paoloviviani]

I'm running nPlay server and pycbsdk print_rates example on the same machine, i.e.,

Terminal 1

$ /opt/CBNSP/bin/nPlayServer --network inst=127.0.0.1:51001 --autostart sampleData.nev 

Terminal 2

$ python -m pycbsdk.examples.print_rates --inst_addr 127.0.0.1 --inst_port 51001 -v   --protocol=4.1
Found 128 channels with spiking enabled and 0 with spiking disabled.
0 of the spike-enabled channels are using auto-thresholding.
Firing rate:    0.00 Hz +/- 0.00 (0.00 - 0.00)
0.39 +/- 747.22,        15.83 +/- 756.45,       15.10 +/- 739.81,       -0.17 +/- 0.37
12.97 +/- 747.33,       18.86 +/- 754.88,       11.35 +/- 740.68,       -0.17 +/- 0.37
[....]

and everything works as expected.

If I try to skip the startup on the pycbsdk side (i.e., only listening for incoming packets, using autostart on the nPlay side), some firing rate is reported for the standard sampleData.nev file (test_data.zip), although no channel avg/stddev is reported between firing rates.

$ python -m pycbsdk.examples.print_rates --inst_addr 127.0.0.1 --inst_port 51001 -v --skip_startup  --protocol=4.1
Found 128 channels with spiking enabled and 0 with spiking disabled.
0 of the spike-enabled channels are using auto-thresholding.
Firing rate:    0.00 Hz +/- 0.00 (0.00 - 0.00)
Firing rate:    25.33 Hz +/- 43.87 (0.00 - 102.00)

If I try to use from nPlay the input file Cyril001.nev (also attached), then I get firing rate 0, even though it works without the --skip_startup.

Terminal 1

$ /opt/CBNSP/bin/nPlayServer --network inst=127.0.0.1:51001 --autostart ~/Documents/demo_pycbsdk/Cyril001.nev 

Terminal 2

$ python -m pycbsdk.examples.print_rates --inst_addr 127.0.0.1 --inst_port 51001 -v --skip_startup  --protocol=4.1
Found 128 channels with spiking enabled and 0 with spiking disabled.
0 of the spike-enabled channels are using auto-thresholding.
Firing rate:    0.00 Hz +/- 0.00 (0.00 - 0.00)
Firing rate:    0.00 Hz +/- 0.00 (0.00 - 0.00)
Firing rate:    0.00 Hz +/- 0.00 (0.00 - 0.00)

[cboulay]

Sorry for the delay on this. I'm working on it now.

I'm testing on a Mac with real BRN hardware (Gemini Hub, firmware 7.6, protocol 4.1) and skip_startup doesn't affect the reported firing rates. So the issue you're seeing is either Linux-specific or nPlay-specific (or both). I'll try with nPlay next.

[cboulay]

Hi @paoloviviani ,

I'm afraid I wasn't able to reproduce your problem. I tried on both Mac and Ubuntu 22.04.

There was a version of nPlayServer where the --autostart argument caused it to have weird timing. That was fixed a while ago, and I thought you were using the latest version of nPlayServer (according to Cyril), but maybe you're accidentally using an older version?

Anyway, here's the latest nPlayServer again, compiled for Ubuntu 22.04.
nPlayServer_Ubuntu22.04.zip

[cboulay]

Oh, actually I didn't read the edited version of your message.

If you use --skip_startup then you aren't going to send a message to the device to change its configuration, so it will continue to operate with the default configuration. The default configuration is that all channels have spiking enabled and none have continuous sampling enabled. So your results for sampleData.nev are expected.

Maybe there's something about Cyril's file. I'll ask him for it. Edit: Sorry, it's in the zip.