ANY-maze Help > I/O devices supported by ANY-maze > Test equipment designed specifically for ANY-maze > The Waterwheel Forced Swim Test Tank > Waterwheel Forced Swim Test reference information > The Waterwheel Forced Swim Test configuration window > Changing the ID of a Waterwheel Forced Swim Test tank

Changing the ID of a Waterwheel Forced Swim Test tank

Introduction

Each Waterwheel Forced Swim Test tank connected to your computer has a unique 'Tank number'. This is automatically assigned to the tank when it first connected, and the numbering will typically start from 1 and work up.

It doesn't actually matter what the tank numbers are, but usually you will want to number multiple tanks as 1, 2, 3 etc. Not only will you want to number them in sequence, but you'll probably also want the numbers to be in order - that's to say, if you have three tanks in a row then the first is 1, the second is 2 and the third is 3.

Reorganising the order of tanks

This 'ordering' of the tanks is something that ANY-maze can't do automatically because, of course, it doesn't know what order you'll place the tanks on the bench. So, you may find that your tanks are ordered as 3, 1, 2 rather than 1, 2, 3.

The easiest solution to this is not to manually renumber the tanks one by one, but rather to use the Renumber Waterwheel FST tanks button which is displayed in the ribbon bar on the I/O page when you have 2 or more Waterwheel Forced Swim Test tanks connected to your PC. This option allows you to quickly renumber all the connected tanks by pressing the buttons on the tops of the tanks, in sequence.

Manually renumbering tanks

Although the most common reason for renumbering tanks is because they are not in sequential order, there are other situations in which you may wish to renumber just one individual tank. For example, a tank may have broken and you now want to give its replacement the same number as the old tank.

To renumber a tank, you should open the tank's configuration window and then click the Change number button. This will cause the Change Waterwheel Forced Swim Test tank number window to open, into which you can enter the new number you want to give the tank - see figure 1.

Figure 1. The change Waterwheel Forced Swim Test tank number window.

There are just two rules you need to be aware of when numbering a tank:

However, if you break either of these two rules, ANY-maze will tell you and you'll need to enter a different tank number.

Tanks remember their numbers

A tank's number is stored inside the tank, so whenever you plug the tank into your computer, it will always be shown with the same number. Having said that, there is a situation in which a tank's number can change without you altering it, and that's when two tanks plugged into the same computer both have the same number. For example, imagine you plugged a tank into your computer and set it to be tank 2. Then you UNPLUGGED it and plugged another tank in and set it to be tank 2 as well; then you plugged the other tank back in - now there would be two tank 2s. In this situation, ANY-maze will automatically renumber one of the two tanks to whichever number is 'next' - which it determines by scanning from 1 upwards, looking for a 'space' in the existing tanks' numbering. So if we had just two tanks plugged in and they were both set to be tank 2, ANY-maze would renumber the one you plug in second (when it detects the problem) to be tank 1 (as there's no tank 1 plugged in).

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ANY-maze help topic T1230