4
•
The EP-4 has an integrated speaker with a hardware
volume control. The device will beep during stimulation
and sensing as programmed. The EP-3 used the PC
speaker for this function that had no volume control.
•
The EP-4 has an emergency stimulation hardware button
which will start the stimulator pacing on all channels
turned on at 10mA(2mS) and 1000mS cycle length. The
EP-3 relied on the user setting up these parameters into a
protocol and running it from the PC.
•
If there are no communications between the EP-4 and the
PC for 5 seconds, the stimulator will shut down. The EP-
3 did not shut down if the PC quit responding.
•
The EP-4 protocols are stored on the PC hard drive. The
EP-3 protocols were stored in memory, which could be
erased.
•
The connection to the EP-4 is a 9 pin RS-232 cable
instead of the EP-3’s 25 pin. This is for convenience.
•
The EP-4 has two or four push button relays controlling
whether channels are off or on. The EP-3 used toggle
switches.
•
The EP-4 has the ability to measure stimulation
impedance in real-time. This is important to understand
whether there is a current path to the patient or not to
help diagnose broken cables, switches not turned on, etc.
•
The EP-4 AUX marker output port is not programmable.
Pressing it sends a pulse of finite duration. The EP-3
used this port to program strip chart recorders.
•
The patient database, notes and reporting functions have
been removed in the EP-4. The database in the EP-3 was
not used by our customers.
•
The EP-4 upgraded the operating system from DOS to
Windows 2000 to take advantage of new hardware and
software that does not support DOS and to create a fresh
new user interface.
