I do not have access to your particular type of files, but I have had success converting and manipulating (splitting/merging) ASCII files with the ABF Utility that comes bundled with MiniAnalysis from Synaptosoft. You may have to "Export As" from Patchmaster if the utility does not recognize the .dat file.

http://www.synaptosoft.com/MiniAnalysis/ABFUtility.html

Hi Alberto,

Many thanks for sharing such a useful information.

I will try it now, and let you know how it goes.

Regards,

Ryuichi

You can open HEKA file with nest-o-patch, open needed series with 'time relative to sweep' option and use 'export table'. It will create ASCII (csv) input in the simplest way, recognisable by everything.

nest-o-patch itself can be downloaded here

https://sourceforge.net/projects/nestopatch/

Thank you, Viatcheslav!

Dear  Viatcheslav,

Many thanks for your great software! I could convert HEKA data file to text file, and could be read by Clampfit! I really appreciate your advice.

By the way, when the HEKA file is converted to an ASCII file, what unit is used for the numbers? I am not sure about the scale factor of these numbers in the ASCII file.

Ryuichi

Dear Ryuichi,

thank you for the comment. Well, I hope that nest-o-patch is good not only for conversion of files, but for some analysis too :).

Now to your question. In the Pulse Tree page there is a drop-down menu with units ("pico", "nano" etc.) Initial value is "pico". In this menu you can select units - it will give picoamps, nanoamps etc. Later it is saved in these units, unless you use convert dialog to change them. If you use "convert" dialog, it is your responsibility to have correct values. Of course, in current clamp mode you will have pico-, nano- etc volts instead of amperes.

Initial values for time are always seconds.

Hope, this helps.

Viatcheslav

Dear Viatcheslav,

Thank you again for your kind explanation.

Now I know how to set the unit in the ASCII file.

How about the scale of time axis? What is the default unit when it is converted to ASCII file?

Thanks again for sharing such a useful software for free!

Best Regards,

Ryuichi

Default unit of time is seconds. Again, you can change it with "Convert" dialog. BTW, which version do you have? Nest-o-patch 2.01 has comprehensive user's guide. Maybe it is worthwhile to download it.

Hi Viatcheslav,

Thank you again for your answer. My current version is 2.0.0.

I will download the newest version.

Well, 2.0.0 is very close to the newest one. But than you have a user's manual, right? :)

Yes, I read through the user's manual... Let me apologize asking such questions. I actually read page 10 which is describing the Export Table command, but I was still not very sure about the units being used in the ASCII file. I just wanted to check if I was doing right. Many thanks for being kind enough to answer the questions above!

No you do not need to apologize. I just wanted to be sure that you have complete information about the program and all its possibilities. But you are welcome to ask any questions both here or on the program forum.

Hello Nesterov, first tool that reads dat files without troubles. Thank you. I wonder if it is possible to use it for mEPSC analysis. All the best.

What does the analysis include? I am more into epithelial transport and am somewhat ignorant about techniques of neurophysiology.

Hello Nesterov, the analysis (amplitude, frequency, etc.) includes the detection of exponential rising and decaying synaptic events (2-100 pA) in a 2-20 ms time scale over 3-10 min from whole-cell voltage clamp recordings with relative unstable baselines and noise. I found that only MiniAnalysis can do it consistently without too many definitions. Clampfit does it also using a template or threshold that seems to work when S/N is well. Your software is also great for me to analyze action potential frequency and related parameters.

Hi Viatcheslav V. Nesterov how can you export the selected traces into a TIFF file (Or any other extensions for Image) in your Nest O Patch program? My version is 2.1.9.