TDT RZ2, Manual, Page: 566 / 736

15-8 System 3
ACO32/ACO64 Motorized Commutators
The external ground is optional and should only be used in cases where the subject
must occasionally make contact with a metal surface that isn’t tied to the animal
ground, such as a lever press. When contact is made, a ground loop is formed that
temporarily adds extra noise to the system. Grounding this metal surface directly to
the TDT hardware removes this ground loop at the cost of raising the overall noise
floor a small amount.
A cable kit is provided to ensure cables used with the external ground are suitable
for this use. Each kit includes: one male banana plug to male banana plug pass
through and one male banana plug to alligator clip pass through. These cables also
include ferrite beads to remove any potential RF noise that might travel through the
cable. For best results position the ferrite bead close to the source of the RF noise.
Headstage Connections
Two or four interface receptacles are positioned on the rotary interface module. The
receptacles are labeled to correspond to the DB26 connectors on the face. The
ACO32 uses ‘A’ and ‘B’ labels, the ACO64 uses 1-4 silver marks on the
receptacles. TDT offers headstages and connectors with a mate for these receptacles.
The diagram above shows the ACO32 connection for the A subset of channels:
• from headstage (with SPL16 analog or SPL16-D digital connectors)
• to splice-to-splice connector