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Experiment Sync & Timing Calculator.

Plan multi-device experiment rigs with TTL sync analysis, data rate budgets, and timing alignment recommendations.

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Validated2026-04-08
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When to use

  • Plan a multi-device recording rig before purchasing hardware
  • Calculate total data throughput to size your storage system
  • Identify timing alignment risks between electrophysiology, video, and behavioral devices
  • Determine which device should serve as the master clock
  • Generate a sync plan document for your lab notebook or methods section

Do not use for

  • For real-time sync monitoring during active recordings — use your acquisition software
  • As a substitute for empirical latency measurement with an oscilloscope
  • For network-synchronized distributed experiments (NTP/PTP timing)

Always designate a single master clock

Running multiple devices on internal clocks guarantees drift. Choose the device with the lowest TTL latency as your master and wire all others to its sync output. NI DAQ devices are popular choices due to sub-microsecond TTL latency.

Account for display latency in stimulus timing

Monitors and projectors add 8–16 ms of pipeline delay between the software trigger and photon emission. Use a photodiode on the display corner to measure actual stimulus onset and record it on your sync line.

Budget 2× your calculated storage

Raw data rates do not account for file headers, metadata, incomplete writes, or backup copies. For long recordings (>1 hour), budget at least twice the calculated storage and verify sustained write speed with a benchmark before the experiment.

Test sync before every experiment session

TTL cables, BNC connectors, and USB hubs can fail intermittently. Send a test pulse train and verify all devices register the correct count before starting data collection.

1

Method

Data rate computed as sample rate ×\times channels ×\times bytes per sample for each device. Sync error computed as max TTL latency minus min TTL latency across the rig. Warnings triggered by sync error exceeding 1 ms for ephys rigs or exceeding frame duration for video devices. Device specs sourced from manufacturer datasheets for Neuropixels (IMEC), Open Ephys, National Instruments, Tucker-Davis Technologies, Basler, and FLIR.

2

Validated

Last validated 2026-04-08. Calculations are designed for planning and documentation support; verify procurement decisions against manufacturer specifications or institutional SOPs.

3

How to cite

How to Cite

ConductScience Experiment Sync & Timing Calculator (v1.0). ConductScience, Inc. 2026. Available at: https://conductscience.com/tools/experiment-sync-calculator

Siegle JH et al. Open Ephys: an open-source, plugin-based platform for multichannel electrophysiology. J Neural Eng. 2017;14(4):045003.

Jun JJ et al. Fully integrated silicon probes for high-density recording of neural activity. Nature. 2017;551(7679):232–236.

Multi-Device Synchronization Fundamentals

Modern neuroscience experiments typically combine multiple data streams — electrophysiology, video, photometry, behavioral sensors, and stimulus delivery — that must be aligned in time.

TTL Synchronization uses digital pulses (0–5V) to mark common time points across devices. A master clock sends periodic pulses that each device timestamps in its own data stream. Post-hoc alignment matches these timestamps across files.
Clock Sources determine timing accuracy. A master clock generates the sync signal. External-clocked devices lock to the master. Internal-clocked devices run independently and are most prone to drift.
Data Budgeting ensures your storage and bandwidth can handle the combined throughput. Electrophysiology probes like Neuropixels generate 20+ MB/s alone — a full rig can easily exceed 100 MB/s, requiring NVMe or RAID storage.

Common Pitfalls in Experiment Synchronization

Several issues can compromise data alignment in multi-device experiments:

• Unsynced internal clocks: Two devices with independent 10 MHz oscillators will drift apart at 10–100 ppm, accumulating milliseconds of error per hour • Display latency: Monitors add 8–16 ms of frame delay. Stimulus onset times must account for this pipeline delay, not just the software trigger timestamp • USB polling jitter: USB devices have variable polling intervals (125 µs for USB2, 1 ms for USB1.1) that add timing uncertainty beyond the device’s inherent latency • Buffer overflow drops: When data rate exceeds storage write speed, samples are silently dropped, creating undetectable timing gaps • Ground loops: Sharing TTL lines between devices on different power circuits can introduce noise that corrupts sync pulses • Aliased video sync: If sync error exceeds the camera frame period, events appear in the wrong video frame, corrupting behavioral annotations

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