3b probe geometry

[agbondy]

According to the wiki, 3b probes do not have a single, fixed geometry. Is there a way to tell what the geometry is of a given probe, short of looking under a microscope? (I.e. some sort of rule based on the serial number)?

[nsteinme]

All the neuropixels 1.0 probes are staggered geometry, as shown in the nature paper. A small number of the early 3B test probes had aligned site geometry - for the particular shipment we had at UCL there was indeed something to look for in the serial numbers, though as I understood at the time it was not a general rule that would apply to all possible serial numbers. So, I think you almost certainly have staggered, but looking under a microscope is otherwise your best bet (this is actually not too hard to see), or else ask the person you got them from (Tim?) whether they know more.

[agbondy]

ok thanks!