ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Inputs and outputs > Laser controllers > An introduction to laser controllers

An introduction to laser controllers

Introduction

Laser controllers allow ANY-maze to switch lasers on and off during an experiment. They can also be used to adjust the intensity of the laser, and to adjust the properties of the laser signal - for example, setting the signal to a pulse with a specific frequency and duty cycle.

Connecting a laser controller

In order for ANY-maze to control a laser, you will need an ANY-maze Optogenetics interface, as this is currently the only laser controller ANY-maze supports. This device connects to your PC via USB and connects to a trigger input on your laser, usually using a BNC cable - full details can be found here. The interface can be connected to up to four lasers, each of which can be controlled independently.

As with all inputs and outputs supported by ANY-maze, you must add the physical I/O device, in this case the ANY-maze Optogenetics interface to the protocol before you can actually use it in a laser controller element.

Using a laser controller

When you add a laser controller to your protocol, you will be able to specify such things as the frequency and duty cycle of the pulse train you want the laser to output, how long the pulse train should remain on for, the intensity of the laser and whether or not the laser should be on at the start of the test.

Having the laser start when the test starts can be useful, but the real power of laser controllers comes from the fact that you can control them during a test using procedures. For example, you might create a procedure to detect when the animal moves into a certain zone and when it does, switch the laser on. In fact, procedures can do more than just switch the laser on and off; they can also change its characteristics, such as frequency, duty cycle and intensity. So, for example, you could have different zones and pulse the laser at a different frequency depending on which one the animal enters.

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