ANY-maze Help > I/O devices supported by ANY-maze > Legacy I/O devices > The ANY-maze interface (AMi) > Installing and configuring AMi > Configuring AMi > AMi configuration - Information

AMi configuration - Information

To access the AMi configuration window, select your AMi device in the list on the left side of the I/O page and then click the button to Configure this device in the ribbon bar.

Introduction

The information page of the AMi configuration window shows information about your AMi device, and also allows you to change the device ID and reprogram the device.

Figure 1. The Information page of the AMi configuration window.

AMi device information

The information shown is:

Hardware version

This is the version of the physical hardware inside your AMi box. New versions of AMi may include new features and the hardware version allows ANY-maze (and you) to know what features to expect.

Firmware version

This is the version of the software inside AMi. This software is periodically updated to add new features and to fix problems. Generally, the ANY-maze software will automatically update the firmware if it's not the most current version.

Serial number

This is a unique serial number for the AMi device. Serial numbers are created during manufacturing and never change.

Current power source

AMi can be powered either from the USB connector or from its own DC power supply (this is the power 'brick' that was supplied with the device). This shows you what power source AMi is using at present.

Most operations can be performed without needing DC power, which can be helpful if you want to use AMi connected to a laptop - as AMi will use the laptop battery, freeing you from the mains supply. But if you intend to use AMi in a fixed location, and a power outlet is available, then it's usually best to connect it to DC power (this reduces certain power limitations on the devices you connect).

Changing the AMi device ID

What is an AMi ID?

As mentioned above, each AMi has a unique serial number and as you probably know, each one also has a name, so why does it need an ID too and what is the ID used for?

The answer is that the ID is what ANY-maze uses to recognise an AMi device and store its configuration. You might think that it could use the serial number, but imagine that you had written 20 protocols all of which used an AMi device and all of which included the configuration for that device identified by its serial number. Now your AMi breaks down, so we send you a new one. But the serial number will change, so then ANY-maze would no longer recognise that the configuration in all your protocols is for the device and you would have to reset the configuration manually in every one.

But why not use the name? In that case, the name would have to be kept the same, otherwise the same problem would occur, and if the name had to be fixed then the ability to rename devices to make them more easily recognisable would be a liability rather than a benefit.

So, every AMi has an ID. The ID is generated by ANY-maze when it first encounters an AMi device it has not met before. So if you connect an AMi to your computer, it will be given ID 1; connect a second device and it will be given ID 2 (whether the device with ID 1 is physically connected at the time or not); connect a third device - ID 3, and so on. These IDs are tied internally to a serial number, so ANY-maze knows that the device with serial number AMQT3UY7 is ID 1, the device with serial number AMHI86W2 is ID 2 and so on.

But the important thing is that you can alter an ID if you want to. So, imagine that the device AMQT3UY7 (ID 1) breaks down; you send it to us and we send you a new device with serial number AMXX98ZZ. When you connect it, ANY-maze will give it the next ID number - say 4 - but you want to use this device to replace the one with ID 1, so you change the ID to 1. Now ANY-maze will apply all the configuration settings for device ID 1 to this device, and all your protocols and experiments will continue to work normally.

Changing the ID

To change the ID of a device, you simply need to click the Change ID... button. The Change AMi device ID window will open where you can enter the new ID for the device, and you're done.

Reprogramming an AMi device

Inside AMi is a microprocessor which runs some software, just like a computer. This software (which is called firmware) is saved in special memory inside the device and can't be lost (hence the 'firm' rather than 'soft' part of the name).

Of course, like any software, this firmware can be changed to add new features or to fix problems. Updating this firmware is a process called 'reprogramming', and is something that the ANY-maze software can do. In fact, not only can it do this, but it will do so automatically if it detects that the firmware is out-of-date. This typically happens when you update your ANY-maze software, as together with the ANY-maze update we may have included an AMi firmware update too. If this is the case, then when you first run the updated version of ANY-maze with your AMi plugged in, ANY-maze will recognise that the firmware in AMi is out-of-date and will simply reprogram it automatically.

Although in most cases ANY-maze will automatically update the firmware, there are circumstances when it may not do this - in which case you can use the Update... button to reprogram the device manually. However, we don't recommend you do this unless explicitly instructed to do so by ANY-maze Support.

When you click the Update... button, the Program AMi device window will open. Here you simply need to confirm the update by clicking the Program button and AMi will be reprogrammed.

ANY-maze help topic T1153