Compatible devices

SMACC can drive a small number of external devices for cueing. This page lists the supported hardware and what each one needs. For how SMACC assigns and routes devices — equipment, the Devices window, and volume — see Audio routing; for using the light devices — patterns, timing, choosing between them, and safety — see Visual cues.

BlinkStick

BlinkStick is a USB-controlled RGB LED device. SMACC uses it for visual cues — lighting up a chosen color, steady or pulsing/flashing, for a set duration — which is handy for light-based cueing in sleep and lucid-dreaming experiments.

What you need

  • A BlinkStick device. They are sold directly from blinkstick.com. SMACC drives them through the blinkstick Python library, so any model that library supports (BlinkStick Square, Strip, Nano, Flex, …) will work.
  • Nothing else to install. The BlinkStick driver is bundled inside SMACC.exe, so you only need to plug the device into a USB port before launching SMACC.

Using it in SMACC

  1. Plug the BlinkStick into a USB port, then launch SMACC.
  2. Click Visual cue in the Panels column.
  3. Bind your BlinkStick to the BlinkStick light equipment in the Devices window (in the Panels column). Plug one in after launch and it’s detected automatically, or click Refresh devices (F5) in the Devices window to rescan.
  4. Configure a light cue — color, brightness, pattern (steady, or a pulse/flash at a rate in Hz), and length (or Loop until stopped) — and add more cues with + Add cue if the protocol needs several. See Visual cues for what each pattern is for.
  5. Click a cue’s Play to fire it; Stop turns the light off early. The rest of SMACC stays responsive while the light is on.

Your chosen device and the whole cue board are saved in the SMACC file, so the visual-cue setup travels with the rest of your configuration; the device is reconnected by serial on the next launch (and flagged if it isn’t plugged in).

Note

If the visual cue window reports that no light is set, open the Devices window and bind one to BlinkStick light (plug it in first; click Refresh devices (F5) there if it isn’t listed). No restart needed.

Philips Hue

A Philips Hue bridge is the room-scale alternative to the BlinkStick: the visual cue drives an ordinary Hue bulb (or a whole group) over the local network. Setup is once per bridge:

  1. In the Devices window, click Set up Philips Hue….
  2. Click Find bridge (or type the bridge’s IP — the Hue app shows it under bridge settings).
  3. Press the round link button on the bridge itself, then click Pair within 30 seconds. Test lists the bridge’s lights to confirm.
  4. Bind a light or group to the Philips Hue light equipment, and route Play visual cue to Philips Hue light.

The bridge IP and pairing key are stored in the study’s .smacc (the key is a local-network credential — treat the file accordingly). Hue suits ambient, room-scale light; it can’t flash and its onsets lag their markers, so time-locked protocols should keep the BlinkStick — see the full BlinkStick-vs-Hue comparison, and the network note there if the rig lives on a university Wi-Fi.