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Experiment Sync & Timing Calculator

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

Monitoring & TelemetryMulti-Device SyncClient-Side
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Load example Experiment Sync & Timing Calculator data to see the full workflow

Add Device to Rig

  • 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

Don't 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)

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Next Steps

Data Acquisition

DAQ systems, digitizers, and signal conditioners

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Monitoring & Telemetry

Wireless and wired physiological monitoring

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Electrophysiology

Recording systems for neural and muscle signals

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