OpenEphys.Onix1
OpenEphys.Onix1 is a Bonsai library for the ONIX
PCIe Acquisition System. It supports:
- Neuropixels (all variants), Miniscopes, Intan-based headstages, and more.
- Automatic hardware synchronization across all data streams.
- Torque-free commutation of ultra-thin (down to ~0.2 mm diameter) tethers.
- High-performance closed-loop feedback (~100 µs loop times).
| User Guide | Operator Reference | Tutorials | Hardware Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
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 |
 |
 |
| Start here for usage instructions. | Detailed information on library components. | How to make the most of ONIX in Bonsai. | Go to the hardware documentation site. |
Bonsai is built on Reactive Extensions (Rx), which models every data source as an observable sequence of events. This fits ONIX recordings naturally: a Neuropixels probe, a Miniscope camera, and a behavioral controller each run at different rates and produce data asynchronously, and Rx lets you combine, filter, and react to those streams without writing any threading or buffering code. All ONIX streams share a common hardware clock, so alignment across devices is automatic. For closed-loop experiments, the same reactive model lets you compose stimulus delivery directly from incoming data, with loop times around 100 µs.
Bonsai is actively developed and maintained as an open-source project, with a
growing community of neuroscience labs and an expanding package ecosystem.
OpenEphys.Onix1 can be used alongside:
- The Open Ephys acquisition system
- Arduino boards
- National Instruments DAQ boards
- Machine-vision cameras (Flir, Basler, Allied Vision, Ximea, and more)
- Harp behavioral devices
- Sanworks Bpod
- Pose estimation via DeepLabCut and SLEAP
- The UCLA Miniscope ecosystem
Note
ONIX can also be used with the Open Ephys
GUI via the ONIX Source
plugin,
though it covers a subset of ONIX
features
compared to OpenEphys.Onix1. See the software
comparison
for details.