ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Inputs and outputs > Pellet dispensers > An introduction to Pellet dispensers

An introduction to Pellet dispensers

Introduction

Pellet dispenser outputs allow ANY-maze to control a physical pellet dispenser during an experiment, dispensing pellets based on certain conditions during a test. For example, ANY-maze could dispense a pellet when the animal presses a lever.

Pellet dispensers supported by ANY-maze.

Only one specific pellet dispenser is support by ANY-maze, and that is the Ugo Basile pellet dispenser. This has feedback built into the dispenser, allowing ANY-maze to confirm that a pellet was actually dispensed and to determine certain error conditions, such as the pellets having run out. Most other pellet dispensers can be controlled by setting them up as 'generic' pellet dispensers.

Connecting the pellet dispenser

Pellet dispensers can be connected to ANY-maze in a number of ways:

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The Ugo Basile pellet dispenser must be connected to an ANY-maze Digital interface as described here

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If the pellet dispenser's input is a 5V TTL input, then it can be controlled using the ANY-maze Digital interface as described here

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If the pellet dispenser requires a higher voltage input, then it can be controlled using the ANY-maze Relay interface

In all cases, you simply need to configure the relevant output port of the ANY-maze interface device as a 'Pellet dispenser'; for more details on how to do this, see Configuring an ANY-maze Digital interface or Configuring an ANY-maze Relay interface.

To set up pellet dispensers in our protocol, we would have to include the relevant ANY-maze interface device as an I/O device. Then, its outputs that are configured as pellet dispensers would be available within our protocol.

Of course, this description glosses over the detail of exactly how we would connect the pellet dispensers to the ANY-maze interface device, but that is described in the ANY-maze Digital interface pellet dispenser ports and ANY-maze Relay interface ports topics.

These interfaces are not the only I/O devices supported by ANY-maze - a full list can be found here.

Using the pellet dispenser

A Pellet dispenser protocol element represents a physical pellet dispenser. When you set up the output in an ANY-maze protocol, you give it a name and tell ANY-maze which I/O device it is part of. But that's not very useful; what you really want to do is to control the pellet dispenser during a test, probably dispensing a pellet in response to something the animal does.

Dispensing pellets during a test is the job of a procedure. Procedures can be set up to detect when something happens in a test (for example, the animal enters a certain zone), and to then take an action because of it - which includes dispensing a pellet using a pellet dispenser that has previously been set up as part of the protocol.

Summary

Pellet dispensers are a little more complicated than some other protocol elements because they usually require various other elements to be set up too in order to make them useful:

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You need to set up the I/O device that the pellet dispenser is physically connected to

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You need to set up the pellet dispenser itself

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