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The ANY-maze Digital interface pellet dispenser ports

Contents

This topic contains full details about ANY-maze Digital interface pellet dispenser ports, and covers:

An introduction to pellet dispenser ports

The ANY-maze Digital interface TTL output ports can be configured to control pellet dispensers that operate using TTL signals. In fact, ANY-maze also supports pellet dispensers with a higher voltage inputs, using the ANY-maze Relay interfaceANY-maze Relay interface.

Types of pellet dispenser supported by ANY-maze

Currently, only one specific type of pellet dispenser is supported by ANY-maze - that's the Ugo Basile pellet dispenser. All other types of pellet dispenser will need to be set up as a 'Generic' pellet dispenser - this simply generates a TTL output pulse of a given duration to control the dispenser.

Selecting the Ugo Basile pellet dispenser will remove any other options from the configuration window, since ANY-maze already knows how to set up this pellet dispenser to correctly dispense a pellet when the port is activated. The following description outlines the options available for 'generic' pellet dispensers.

Configuring a pellet dispenser port

To configure a port as a pellet dispenser, you should open the ANY-maze Digital interface configuration window, select the appropriate port and then select Pellet dispenser from the Use this port as a drop down list. This is described in detail here.

When a port is configured as a pellet dispenser, some additional options are available in the configuration window - see figure 2, below:

Figure 1. The pellet dispenser port options.

Changing the port's active state

As you'd probably expect, the ANY-maze Digital interface will output a TTL HIGH signal when it is active and a LOW signal when it is inactive. This is usually correct, but you may find that the pellet dispenser that you're connecting to has 'active low' inputs - i.e. to activate it, one needs to output a LOW signal. In this case, you can use the port's Active state options to change the output's configuration accordingly.

Changing the port's activation time

To dispense a pellet, the port needs to activate for a specific amount of time (this information will be available from the manufacturer of your pellet dispenser). You need to enter this time here, in units of milliseconds - if you're not sure what to enter, a value of around 250ms is usually about right.

Connecting to the port

Each connector on the ANY-maze Digital interface contains two ports, the odd numbered port is on pins 1 and 2 and the even numbered port is on pins 3 and 4.

Connecting to an Ugo Basile pellet dispenser

The Ugo Basile pellet dispenser uses both the ports on a connector. You should connect the 'Dispense' signal to pin 1 and the 'Feedback' signal to pin 3. You should also connect GND to either pin 2 or 4. Note that you MUST connect both the signals and one GND line to the pellet dispenser that you want to control.

Connecting to a Generic pellet dispenser

You should connect the TTL signal to pin 1 and GND to pin 2 (if you are using an odd numbered port for the pellet dispenser), OR connect the TTL signal to pin 3 and GND to pin 4 (if you are using an even numbered port for the pellet dispenser). Note that you MUST connect BOTH the TTL signal line and the GND line to the pellet dispenser that you want to control.

For an odd numbered port:

For an even numbered port:

Testing a pellet dispenser port

After you have connected your pellet dispenser to a pellet dispenser port, you will of course want to test it. This is easily done using the I/O page.

Figure 2. Testing the ANY-maze Digital interface on the I/O page. Here the pellet dispenser connected to port 1 has been activated and is 'busy' dispensing the pellet.     

If you find that a pellet does not dispense when you activate the port, then:

If all else fails, then contact ANY-maze Support who'll be happy to help.

TTL output port specification

See also:

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ANY-maze help topic T1067