ANY-maze Help > I/O devices supported by ANY-maze > I/O errors that may occur during a test > I/O Write failed

I/O Write failed

Introduction

If your experiment uses any I/O devices, then ANY-maze will need to communicate with those devices during a test. There are a number of reasons that this communication might fail, although these reasons are usually rare.

If communication with an I/O device does fail for some reason, you will be notified of the error via the Errors & warnings panel for the relevant apparatus on the Tests page. You can then decide what action to take - whether to stop the test, for example.

Details

There are a number of possible reasons for failure to write to an I/O device; here are some of the most common:

The device is not responding

The most common reason for this error is simply that the device has become unplugged. Check that the cables leading to the device are plugged in securely.

Could not send a command to the device

Again, this might happen because the device has become unplugged. Check that the cables leading to the device are plugged in securely.

Timed out waiting for feedback

Some I/O devices such as pellet dispensers and selectors have a built-in feedback mechanism - making a change to the device may take some time to happen, so the device registers that the change has completed by generating feedback which ANY-maze uses to determine that the change has happened successfully. If ANY-maze writes to a port, but then never receives the feedback that it is expecting, this error will be generated.

This error usually means that an I/O device's mechanism has got 'stuck' - for example, a pellet dispenser starts to dispense a pellet, but the pellet jams the mechanism; or a revolving selector with multiple positions has become jammed before it reaches its final position.

For further information about these errors, please contact ANY-maze Support.

ANY-maze help topic T1312