ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Inputs and outputs > Pellet dispensers > Specifying whether the physical port used by a pellet dispenser is always the same

Specifying whether the physical port used by a pellet dispenser is always the same

The option described in this topic is only shown when a protocol includes at least one movable zone.

In brief

In the majority of situations, the physical port used by a pellet dispenser will always be the same - it's simply the port on the interface device to which the pellet dispenser actually connects.

However, you may encounter situations in which the port depends on the location of a movable zone. For example, in a Y-maze, you may have a pellet dispenser mounted at the end of each arm of the maze. Now you want to create an element called 'Goal arm reward' (let's imagine that a pellet is dispensed if the animal spends a certain amount of time in the 'Goal arm'), but you have set the 'Goal arm' to be a movable zone - i.e. it isn't always the same physical arm of the maze, but changes between tests. Thus the 'Goal arm reward' will be the pellet dispenser in whichever arm happens to be the goal arm in a particular test, which necessarily means it won't always be the same physical pellet dispenser (and therefore, the 'Goal arm reward' won't always be connected to the same physical port).

Details

If you do have a pellet dispenser whose physical port depends on the location of a movable zone, like in the Y-maze example above, then you simply need to specify this by selecting the appropriate option from the drop-down list in the pellet dispenser element's page of the protocol.

When you do this, the element will automatically be given one 'Port to use' sub-element for each location of the movable zone you chose - so in the Y-maze example, there will be three 'Port to use' sub-elements, one for each arm of the maze. You'll then be able to use these sub-elements to specify which port is used for each of the possible locations of the zone.

ANY-maze help topic T0234