Knowledge Base

Control Hardware Devices

If the hardware action follows a condition based on In Zone, or Zone Transition, the action may be carried out repeatedly if the animal walks along the border of a zone. For example, if the detected body flickers on the border of two zones, and you want to drop a pellet every time the zone border is crossed, many pellets will be dropped. If this is the case, open the Detection Settings and click Advanced, then under Smoothing set Track Noise Reduction to On. This smooths the track during acquisition, which means that the track is altered. This cannot be reversed afterwards.

NeuroBsik Top Units: Ultrasound Frequency and Intensity

To produce ultrasound of specific frequency and intensity, define two actions that, when combined, specify the frequency you require.

• 4 kHz: Fsel-1 off, Fsel-2 off
• 8 kHz: Fsel-1 off, Fsel-2 on
• 16 kHz: Fsel-1 on, Fsel-2 off
• 32 kHz: Fsel-1 on, Fsel-2 on

Next, define two actions that, when combined, specify the volume you require.

• 25 dBm: Vol-1 off, Vol-2 off
• 50 dBm: Vol-1 off, Vol-2 on
• 75 dBm: Vol-1 on, Vol-2 off
• 100 dBm: Vol-1 on, Vol-2 on

Combine the four actions with an operator of type All, and then add a Time condition followed by a Sound On action.

Send Information to a Device Through a COM Port

EthoVision XT can also communicate with devices like Arduino boards through a serial (COM) port. Numbers are sent out as an ANSI string.

Commands are of the following types:

• Long Format: For example, number 1234 is sent as 1234.
• String Type: Either normal or hexadecimal. To send hexadecimal strings, put 0x in front of it. For example, 0x6261 sends two bytes: first 0x61, then 0x62.

Signals must be of long or double type. They must be delimited with CR (carriage return, \r) and LF (new line, \n) syntax. For example, to send the command $1DO0001, enter the string $1DO0001\r\n.

Source: EthoVision XT 18 - THC - Trial and Hardware Control, Noldus Information Technology