In-Depth View
Featured Products
Product Categories
Services and More
Early Adopter 15% Off Plan
Early Adopter 15% Off Plan
Active torque compensation for high-density electrophysiology in freely moving animals. No twisted tethers, no manual swivels, no changes to your surgical workflow.
Recording from freely moving animals puts your data at the mercy of the tether. As the animal turns, the cable twists, torque builds, and you risk added drag on the animal, mechanical noise, and in the worst case a lost session. Passive swivels help, but they still demand attention and they fight the animal’s natural movement.
The Commutator Pro removes that problem. An ultra-lightweight, sub-1g IMU sensor detects cable rotation in real time, and an internal motor drives in the opposite direction to neutralize the twist before it builds. The result is continuous, hands-off cable management that preserves signal integrity without asking you to change anything about how you do surgery or set up your rig.
It works with Neuropixels and passive probes out of the box, so it drops into your existing pipeline rather than reshaping it.
1. Validated in real labs, not just on the bench
We validated the Commutator Pro across our internal test environment and in external neuroscience laboratories, so the performance below reflects real recording conditions and feedback from working labs, not bench-ideal numbers alone.
Broad probe compatibility
The system has been stress-tested under continuous movement with:
Across these, data transmission stayed reliable with no communication errors detected across all validation sessions. Coverage spanning both high-density digital probes and passive headstages in a single commutator is unusual.
Low electrical noise across the full spectrum
Neural recordings were validated against electrical noise across the full frequency spectrum. With standard grounding, the commutator introduces no detectable noise artifacts into the recording.
Quiet enough not to disturb behavior
Acoustic noise matters when your subject is awake and behaving. The Commutator Pro measured 32 to 35 dB SPL at 30 cm, against an ambient background of roughly 30 dB SPL, measured with a mobile sound level meter. In practice, it runs quietly enough to avoid stressing the animal or confounding behavioral readouts.
Proven reliability under continuous motion
To test motion tracking the way real experiments stress it, we built an automated animal-movement simulation rig. It models continuous head-nod, side-to-side head shaking, circular locomotion with rotational variation of 27s/R(seconds per rotation). Our current record is a 8-hour continuous run with no cable twists and no tracking degradation. The minimum rotational detection threshold (the deadzone) is user-adjustable in the PC interface, so you can fine-tune tracking sensitivity to your protocol.
Power designed for clean signal and long sessions
The Commutator Pro delivers up to 6 hours of uninterrupted runtime and always prioritizes drawing power from the onboard battery, which minimizes electrical noise from the AC adapter. The battery management system prevents overcharging even when the adapter stays plugged in. A recent firmware release adds a Battery Cycle Mode that cycles the battery between 80% and 20% to prolong its lifespan.
Validated cabling across length and configuration
Neuropixels uses encoded, high-speed data transmission that requires careful tuning of the entire pipeline, from the headstage to the commutator to the DAQ. The Commutator Pro is validated to preserve signal integrity across extended cable lengths and configurations, supporting a maximum combined length (DAQ cable plus headstage cable) of up to 7 meters for Neuropixels setups and up to 6 meters for HDMI configurations.
Synchronized motion data for behavioral analysis
The Commutator Pro’s 3-axis IMU data can be read out independently over USB, giving you a continuous record of head orientation alongside your neural recording. An optional accessory now in development, the IMU-Link, converts the IMU signal to an analog output you can record on a DAQ’s general-purpose ADC inputs, or stream directly into XDAQ’s digital link.
2. Specifications and the full datasheet
For complete technical specifications, dimensional drawings, and performance data, visit the product page: kontex.io/commutator-pro
Evaluating it for your lab? Request a quote or a walkthrough, and we will help you confirm fit with your probes and rig.