ANY-maze Help > I/O devices supported by ANY-maze > The ANY-maze interface device family > Installing and configuring ANY-maze interface devices

Installing and configuring ANY-maze interface devices

You MUST install the 'ANY-maze USB devices' driver software before you plug an ANY-maze interface device into your computer.

Setting up an ANY-maze interface device

Setting up an ANY-maze interface device is a four step process:

Installing the 'ANY-maze USB devices' driver software

You must be running ANY-maze as an administrator in order to install drivers. To do this, right-click on the icon you use to start ANY-maze and then select 'Run as administrator' from the menu which appears. (If you run ANY-maze by clicking on an icon in the Windows task bar at the bottom of the screen, then you should right-click the icon, then right-click the entry that reads 'ANY-maze' and then select 'Run as administrator' from the menu which appears).

IMPORTANT: You should install the driver software BEFORE you connect any ANY-maze interface devices to your computer.

The 'ANY-maze USB devices' driver software is a standard component of the ANY-maze system and can be installed from within ANY-maze itself by following these steps:

5.

If the driver is not installed, first select it in the list and then click the Install driver button in the ribbon bar. If the button is disabled, it means you are not running ANY-maze as an administrator - see the note above.

For further details see the ANY-maze USB device driver topic.

Figure 1. To install the driver for ANY-maze interface devices you should select the 'ANY-maze USB devices' entry and then click 'Install' in the ribbon bar.

Connecting an ANY-maze interface device to your computer

Having installed the ANY-maze interface device driver you are ready to connect the device to your computer - simply plug the device into any USB port. If you have a DC power cord (most ANY-maze interface devices don't need one) there's no need to connect it to the device at this stage, although you can if you want to.

After a short delay, Windows will recognise that the ANY-maze interface device is a new device and will install it. You probably won't see any overt indication that the device is being installed, although Windows may show an 'Installing new hardware' icon in the bottom right of the task bar.

Configuring an ANY-maze interface device

With the ANY-maze interface device connected to your computer, you are ready to use it in ANY-maze. Like all I/O devices supported by ANY-maze, ANY-maze interface devices are configured and tested using the I/O page. So the first step is to switch to the I/O page and check that your ANY-maze interface device is shown in the list on the left - see figure 2, below.

Figure 2. After connecting an ANY-maze interface device to your computer, it will automatically be listed on the left of the I/O page.

Identifying an ANY-maze interface device

As you can see in the above figure, each ANY-maze interface device of a given type will automatically be given a unique name - for example, if you have more than one ANY-maze Relay interface attached, they will be given the names 'ANY-maze Relay 1', 'ANY-maze Relay 2' and so on. However, this raises the question: which device is device 1 and which is device 2? To find out, select one of the devices in the list and then click the Identify this device button in the ribbon bar. The green light on the front of the selected ANY-maze interface device will start to blink; click the button again to switch the blinking off.

Renaming an ANY-maze interface device

Having worked out which ANY-maze interface device is which, you may want to rename them to something more meaningful, you might also want to do this even if you only have one ANY-maze interface device, so it's clearer to your co-workers what the device does. For example, if an ANY-maze Digital interface is being used to connect to a series of Skinner boxes, then you may want to rename the device to 'Skinner box interface'.

To rename an ANY-maze interface device, simply select it in the list on the left of the I/O page and then click the Rename this device button in the ribbon bar. The Rename input/output device window will open, where you can enter the new name.

Some ANY-maze interface devices (for example, the ANY-maze Operant interface) allow renaming of all connected devices of that type - the name you enter will be used in conjunction with the device's ID to give a quick and easy way to rename multiple devices of the same type. You can rename all devices at once by selecting one of the devices on the left of the I/O page, and clicking the Rename all devices button in the ribbon bar. This will open the Rename all devices window.

Configuring an ANY-maze interface device

Some ANY-maze interface devices (for example, the Digital and Optogenetic interfaces) have ports (i.e. connectors) that can be configured in different ways. For example, the ANY-maze Digital interface has 12 general purpose input/output ports, each of which can be individually configured - you might configure some ports to be switch inputs and others as TTL outputs.

To configure an ANY-maze interface device, you should first select it in the list on the left side of the I/O page and then click the Configure this device button in the ribbon bar. The configuration window for that device will open (see figure 3) . As well as allowing you to configure some of the ports of your ANY-maze interface device, this window also provides information about the version of your device and lets you perform maintenance operations such as reprogramming the device and altering its ID. Full details can be found in the relevant topics for the type of ANY-maze interface device that you have (see below).

Figure 3. The ANY-maze Digital interface configuration window. Each device has it's own configuration window, but they're all quite similar.

Note that all ANY-maze interface devices have their own configuration window, although they're all quite similar. More details can be found in the topics about each individual type of device - see below.

Connecting your apparatus to the ANY-maze interface device and testing it

So with your ANY-maze interface device connected and configured, you're ready to actually connect your apparatus to it. Of course, exactly how you'll do this depends on which device you have, and what the apparatus is. There can be a wide range of options.

I don't intend to go into all the details here, as they're covered in the topics for each individual type of ANY-maze interface device, but suffice to say that in many cases you'll simply need to connect a couple of wires to the device (which use convenient pluggable, screw terminal blocks for most connections) and you'll be done.

See also:

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ANY-maze help topic T1044