Install walkthrough

The following instructions are for Windows machines. The instructions are mostly similar for OSX/Linux. If you run into a problem with installing wxPython, please see the wxPython website for help.

Installing PyStim

The following walkthrough uses Anaconda, an all in one Python environment manager. Unless otherwise noted, leave options during install as defaults.

Enter lines of code in the terminal/command line. To open the command prompt, hit Windows + r, and type “cmd”.

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  1. Install Miniconda. Two important options during install must be adhered to: Check the option to add conda to your PATH environment variable, and select the option to install conda only for the local user, NOT all users.

  2. Install Git (version control tool). Make sure to select the option to add git to your PATH variable (“Git from the command line and also from 3rd-party software”).

  3. Navigate to where you want to install the pyStim repository (ex: C:/Users/sivyer/stimulus_software):

    cd "C:/Users/sivyer/stimulus_software"

  4. Download the repository (a new folder called pystim will be automatically created):

    git clone https://github.com/SivyerLab/pystim.git

  5. Create a conda environment from the included environment file:

    cd pystim
conda env create -f environment.yml

  6. Activate the environment. You should see (pystim) prepend lines on the command prompt after this:

    conda activate pystim

  7. (OPTIONAL) If you wish to be able to save captures of your stims, install ffmpeg.

  8. (OPTIONAL) If you wish to be able to playback movies, install avbin.

  9. Run the pyStim GUI.

    python pyStim/pyStimGUI.py