OSCAR

An open-source controller for animal research
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About the Project

OSCAR is an open-source controller for animal research that enables flexible control of a variety of industry standard hardware with platform-independent software. OSCAR offers millisecond latency with a flexible array of inputs and outputs at a fraction of the cost of commercial options. These features position OSCAR as a valuable option for improving consistency of behavioral experiments across studies.

Check out the paper on bioRxiv. Cite:

@article {Dastin-van Rijn2023.02.03.527033, author = {Evan M. Dastin-van Rijn and Elizabeth Sachse and Francesca Iacobucci and Megan Mensinger and Alik S. Widge}, title = {OSCAR: an open-source controller for animal research}, elocation-id = {2023.02.03.527033}, year = {2023}, doi = {10.1101/2023.02.03.527033}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, abstract = {Operant animal behavior training and monitoring is fundamental to scientific inquiry across fields necessitating evaluation via controlled laboratory tasks. However, current commercial and open-source systems enforce particular hardware and software, limiting reproducibility and technique and data sharing across sites. To address this issue, we developed OSCAR: an open-source controller for animal research that enables flexible control of a variety of industry standard hardware with platform-independent software. OSCAR offers millisecond latency with a flexible array of inputs and outputs at a fraction of the cost of commercial options. These features position OSCAR as a valuable option for improving consistency of behavioral experiments across studies.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.}, URL = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/02/04/2023.02.03.527033}, eprint = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/02/04/2023.02.03.527033.full.pdf}, journal = {bioRxiv}}

Setup Instructions

1. Order PCBs and parts. We've had success with PCB printing and assembly through JLCPCB and ordering the remaining through-hole components via Digikey.
2. Order PCBs and parts for the ECB corresponding to your system. Currently, the only ECB available on this repository is for Coulbourn hardware.
3. Solder all components to the boards.
4. Upload the firmware to the Arduino. The firmware also requires the installation of the DAC8554 and digitalWriteFast libraries available through the library installer in the Arduino IDE. Ensure the board is set to the Mega 2560.
5. Connect the OSCAR to the ECB by a 40 pin ribbon cable.
6. Plug in the OSCAR to the 28 V supply. It is very important that this supply is POSITIVE 28 V otherwise the chips will fail.
7. Turn on the power supply and then the OSCAR. If using the Coulbourn ECB, the LED corresponding to the OSCAR output (A or B) should illuminate.

Using OSCAR

To communicate with OSCAR's standard firmware over serial, we've provided a local server interface in oscar_server.py that can handle network commands from user software. This server can be started by running the file or by modifying the provided oscar.bat file. Alternatively, OSCAR has an integrated Source in the pybehave task development framework that should streamline control of the hardware as well as task development.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter problems, take a look at the issues section of the GitHub and leave a new one if your problem hasn't been previously addressed.