Flock of Birds question (again)

[Elittdogg]

Ok, you're right. Originally I wanted to collect a fixed amount of data points. But then I switched which program I was working on and the new one needs to be flexible depending on how long the trial lasts. Given that....I'm worried that if i'm unable to specify MAX_SAMPLES value then I will get disparate values across the board (i.e. two different independent trials which both happen to be for the same duration may yield different amount of data points (e.g. 2000 vs 1849)). Which is what leads me to think it might be a processing speed issue. Unless, if I'm able to specify the SAMPLE_RATE and that would hold true for all trials then if everything goes smoothly it should collect properly. (i.e. if i can get the Birds to collect at 30 Hz consistently then I don't have any other problem.) My problem was that when I set (what I thought was) the collection rate to 1.0/30: viz.starttimer(0,(1.0/30),viz.FOREVER)
viz.starttimer(4,(1.0/30),viz.FOREVER)

I thought that that would tell Vizard to record data at a rate of 30 Hz. If that's not how I'm supposed to tell the Birds what rate to collect at then that's what I need to know. Namely, all I need is for the Birds to collect at a fixed rate for every trial (and the right (i.e. consistent) amount of total data points should emerge from that every time---without a need to specify MAX_SAMPLES).