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An introduction to temperature controllers

Introduction

A temperature controller is usually part of some I/O device such as the OPAD cage, and is used to heat something up or cool it down. For example, in the OPAD cage, the temperature controller is used to adjust the temperature of the thermal stimulus elements which touch the animal's cheeks while it is licking the bottle spout.

An important characteristic of temperature controllers is the fact they can be adjusted by procedures during a test - thus the temperature can be adjusted based on what is happening in the test.

Connecting a temperature controller

Temperature controllers are not available as 'stand-alone' devices; they are always part of some I/O device, such as the OPAD cage. Therefore, connecting them to your PC is very simple - you just need to connect the device they're part of (usually using a USB cable).

As with all inputs or outputs supported by ANY-maze, you must add to the protocol the I/O device that the temperature controller is part of, before you add the controller itself.

Using a temperature controller

When you add a temperature controller to your protocol, you will be able to specify the temperature the controller should have at the start of the test. Of course this is useful, but the real power of temperature controllers comes from the fact that you can change their temperature during the test. This is done using a procedure, which can detect that something happens in the test and alter the temperature accordingly. For example, you might create a procedure to detect when the animal has been in contact with the thermal elements in the OPAD cage for a certain amount of time and then ramp the temperature from 20°C to 40°C over 30 seconds.

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ANY-maze help topic T0278