A programmable stimulator for electrophysiological studies

We report on the design and construction of a programmable stimulator for use by neuroscientists. The stimulator is small, lightweight, and low powered. It generates positive, negative, or positive and negative pulses with widths and periods programmed by the user. The stimulator has ten parallel outputs to enable it to drive ten preparations at one time. It operates from 50-60 Hz, 115 v AC or 230 v AC and had a nominal peak-to-peak output of 30 volts. A liquid crystal display was used for the user interface and the timing was software-generated by a mincrocontroller.