Open-source timing instrument · M/EEG
Think your triggers are accurate?
Think again.
ElectroTime measures the real delay between your trigger and the moment a stimulus actually reaches the participant — visual or auditory, on any M/EEG setup.
- ≤ $80total cost
- 100%open hardware
- ~5 minper measurement
The problem
Why timing matters
ERP and ERF analyses assume your triggers line up with the stimulus — but they don't. Your software, operating system, monitor, graphics card and sound card each add a delay, and it's different every time.
Tools that measure this cost $2000–3000 and are closed, single-purpose boxes. ElectroTime does the same job for under $80, fully open.
The data
What we found
We measured the latency at four #EEGManyLabs sites. The delays were larger than expected — and different at every site. Left uncorrected, that's enough to change your results and break replication across labs.
Next step
Get a device
ElectroTime works with your existing experiment — no changes to your setup, and a measurement only takes minutes.
- Contact us and we'll ship you a device.
- Follow the guide to record your data and send it back to us.
The team
Team
ElectroTime is developed by a team across several institutions as part of the #EEGManyLabs and EEG101 (Fundamentals of Open & Rigorous EEG Science) initiatives. Key team members:
Jasper van den Bosch
University of Leeds
Xuekun Li
University of Leeds
Yuri Pavlov
University of Alabama
Faisal Mushtaq
University of Leeds
Citation
Cite ElectroTime
A manuscript is in preparation. In the meantime, see our OHBM 2026 poster (PDF) for an overview of the device and our results.
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