ANY-maze Help > I/O devices supported by ANY-maze > The ANY-maze interface device family > The ANY-maze Digital interface > The ANY-maze Digital interface photobeam array ports

The ANY-maze Digital interface photobeam array ports

Contents

This topic contains full details about ANY-maze Digital interface photobeam array ports and covers:

An introduction to the photobeam array ports

Photobeam arrays provide a 'curtain' of photobeams and are often used to detect when an animal rears. They can also be as movement detectors, which can generate reliable movement 'counts' in circumstances in which video tracking can't be used.

The ANY-maze Digital interface is only compatible with the AMi photobeam arrays, shown in figure 1.

Figure 1. The 40cm AMi photobeam array.

Up to six photobeam arrays can be connected to a single ANY-maze Digital interface (each beam uses two digital ports).

Configuring a photobeam array port

To configure a port as a photobeam array, you should open the ANY-maze Digital interface configuration window, select the appropriate port and then select either 40cm Photobeam array or 100cm Photobeam array from the Use this port as a drop down list. This is described in detail here.

It is also possible to enable/disable the individual beams within a photobeam array, which can be very useful if some part of your apparatus will permanently block one or more beams - see figure 2.

Figure 2. In this open field the array is being used to detect rears, such that when ANY beam is blocked the animal is considered to be rearing. However, the metal columns at the corners of the apparatus will permanently block some of the beams, which means the array will always consider the animal to be rearing. This can be fixed by disabling the beams that are blocked by the columns.

To enable/disable individual beams:

Figure 3. Here the two beams at either end of the array have been disabled. If this were the array used in the apparatus shown in figure 2, then these would likely be the beams that were blocked by the metal columns and the array would now correctly detect rearing.

Connecting a photobeam array to a photobeam array port

The AMi photobeam arrays are supplied with a connector, ready to plug directly into an ANY-maze Digital interface port. The specific connections are as follows (counting left to right, looking into the port):

Testing a photobeam array port

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

Figure 4. Testing the ANY-maze Digital interface photobeams on the I/O page. Here the photobeam array connected to ports 1-2 has its last beam broken (so the state of the entire array is also 'broken').

If you find that all the individual beams are blue (i.e. broken) then check that the array is aligned and not too widely separated. Try simply pushing the two sides of the array together; if the individual beams remain blue then check the connector between the two parts of the array is plugged in, and that the connector into the ANY-maze Digital interface is also plugged in (and wired up correctly).

If some beams are red and some are blue, then check:

And if you get stuck, don't panic - just contact ANY-maze Support who will be happy to help.

Beam intensity feedback

You'll notice in figure 5, below, that some of the discs representing the beams are a lighter red than others. The darkness of the red colour indicates the intensity of each beam - the darker the colour, the more intense the beam. The intensity is affected by two things - the beam separation and the beam alignment. This intensity feedback is very useful when you're aligning the beams.

Figure 5. The darkness of the red colour of the discs indicates the individual beam intensity - the darker the colour, the more intense the beam.

Photobeam port specification

See also:

© Copyright 2003-2026 Stoelting Co. All rights reserved

ANY-maze help topic T1065