Low friction belt treadmill for use in space constrained experimental rigs. Fundamentally, it can be used as a free turning manual treadmill.
It may be used for natural action (e.g., walking) for the mouse to take during an experiment instead of standing still. For example, some users let the mice walk normally on the treadmill and then play a tone the mouse associates with a trained response to see if the mouse will start or stop moving.
This treadmill is relatively small and inexpensive compared to most existing designs. It is manually driven with an encoder which tracks the movement of the belt. The encoder does not have to be connected, unless it is desired to record or analyze the motion.
Indeed, the treadmill can be equipped with a head fixation system and/or it can be motorized to facilitate training.
Also, a software (Windows/Mac compatible) is provided to display the speed and distance of the treadmill and save them in .csv format.
The treadmill is also fully compatible with PsychoPy. 1 extra belt is supplied with the treadmill.
Training Protocol
Mice must be habituated to the treadmill to reduce stress. We recommend doing the habituation for 20 minutes to 1 hour each day for 3 to 5 days.
- Low friction, manually (rodent) driven treadmill
- Inclination (front-back) and translation adjustment for rodent comfort
- Quadrature rotary encoder, decoded by an Arduino interface
- USB serial interface for speed and accumulated distance
- 0-3.3V analog output of speed and direction
- USB-C powered (wall adapter and cable included)
- Teflon surface for low friction
- Connects easily to M6 or 1/4″ breadboards
- Optional Motor Add-on
- Wide version (90 mm belt)
- Easily detachable for low friction function
- Drive speed: 10 mm/s to 800 mm/s
- Belt driven
- Adjustable to match any treadmill slope/position
- Potentiometer speed control or sofware control via USB/serial
- Enable/disable switch
- Slow ramp start feature
- USB-C powered (wall adapter and cable included)
- Comes on a 150 X 150 mm metric breadboard (M6 taps) – Available on imperial breadboard on request
- Optional Head Fixation Add-on
| Reference | Description | Longueur transpondeur |
|---|---|---|
| A-2406-00589 | Treadmill | 7 mm |
| TAM-M | 1,40 mm | 8 mm |