WPI’s coordinated system of hardware and software allows life science researchers to record and analyze a range of data types with ease and simplicity. Low profile, low cost, high flexibility and utility make LabTrax devices the perfect choice for applications involving tissue and organ bath recordings, epithelial voltage clamp studies and a host of cardiovascular applications — just to mention a few.

Hardware

LabTrax hardware is available in 4-, or 16-channel configurations and may include, at the user’s option, built-in amplifiers for force or pressure transducers.

S Series (standard) devices offer 16-bit resolution over the ± 10 volt input range and exhibit less than a millivolt of noise. Data communication as well as power is managed over the USB port, making it easy to use a laptop or a low-profile desktop computer that may not be equipped with expansion slots or serial ports.

Data is delivered to the recorder by way of very standard front-panel-mounted BNC connectors.

T Series devices offer the same high quality recording capability but are line powered and have built in transducer amplifiers. A wide range of force displacement and pressure sensors can be plugged directly into the recorder using the DIN8 connectors mounted to the front panel.

The available LabTrax hardware together with WPI’s range of signal conditioners and the Data-Trax software make it the perfect choice for research systems addressing cardiovascular studies, blood pressure, cardiac electrophysiology, haemodynamic studies of the pulmonary and coronary systems, and studies of isolated tissues in organ or tissue baths. Equipment from WPI can also be used to tailor systems for epithelial studies, and many applications in neurophysiology.

For higher speed applications WPI offers the 118. This 8-channel device will acquire at 100,000 samples per second at 16-bit resolution.

Software

The acquisition and data display in Data-Trax, is easy and straight forward. It supports real units and a time based display that is not coupled to sample rate. You can display up to 1,000,000 data points per channel on the screen. Scrolling, zoom-in and zoom-out tools, together with a searchable list of user interventions, make finding important areas of data easy. And, of course, you can print or export anything that you see.

Data recorded with Data-Trax is presented as distance-per-unit of time, e.g., em/see, exactly as it would be on a traditional paper chart recorder. The x-axis display is compressed or expanded using point and click icons in the Data-Trax toolbar. Data-Trax’s display can smoothly scroll data at any speed. The display scroll rate is not determined by sampling rate, so you have full control over resolution and display. This is particularly useful when you want to compress high-resolution data on the time axis to create a data overview. Currently the software can display 100,000 points per channel online and one million points per channel offline so you can see quite a bit of data at a glance.

Data-Trax’s Main Window currently supports functions that can show you the real-time rate, integral or any of 16 online analyses. Each of these is set up from a single click in the Main Window. Data-Trax also has an "Analysis Window" where students can make more in-depth measurements and build lab reports. There are 31 different kinds of measurements supported in this window.

A single button allows you to find the data on a channel, wherever it is, centre it and expand it to fill the available channel space. AutoScale used with high-resolution recorders ensures that you will never again lose data because they are "out of range or off scale. "

Most measurements students make on recorded data involve a distance in time or a difference in amplitude. For this reason, Data-Trax places two easy-to-move cursors in each display of data. Data-Trax displays the difference in time and the difference in voltage (or calibrated units) between the cursors. Cursors can be moved with the mouse, or for precise placement, with the arrow keys on the keyboard.

Data-Trax software allows you to calibrate the displayed data in any unit that you choose. Reading your data in mmHg or grams or micro amps takes the guesswork out of analysis.

Researchers can insert "Text Marks" from the keyboard into their data to indicate when events like drug delivery or stimulus points are occurring. Marks are easy to search and the "Go To Mark" feature will take you to a selected event from anywhere in the data. For reporting, researchers can position the text in a given mark over the data it applies to, just like writing on chart paper.

Data-Trax allows you to program two independent analogue outputs. They can be used as independent stimulator outputs, or as linear controls for pumps or other hardware that accept an analog voltage as control. Built-in wave protocols include pulse, step, pulse train and DC. The two outputs can be combined to produce more complex protocols.

Up to eight digital inputs can be configured from the Data-Trax software. Raw data, count frequency, and open times can be displayed in real time.

Up to eight digital outputs can be configured from the Data-Trax software. Digital outputs can be used to control valves or relays in the experimental rig, or they can be configured in parallel to control serial devices.

Output sequences of events are created from an easy-to-use sequence builder that can include both the digital outputs and the analogue outputs. Sequences are remembered by the Data-Trax program and can be called manually or automatically.

Settings or templates for the various lab protocols are stored in the program’s settings menu. Each setting can include a Lab procedure and Journal format, as well as the program acquisition and analysis settings. This makes changing program settings to accommodate different experiments point-and-click easy.

Data-Trax Software upgrades are free. Better yet, Data-Trax software may be freely distributed and copied to other lab computers.

That means that researchers can record data in the lab and work on analysis and lab reports at their leisure in different locations.

The Data-Trax software is provided on an open license so you can record data in the lab and analyze it in your office without buying multiple copies of the software.

• More information on Data-Trax