Acquisition cannot be started if the license is not present, there are no planned trials in the trial list, or if the settings are incomplete.
Acquisition requires a license, either in the form of a hardware license key (any version) or a software-based license (only in EthoVision XT 16 or newer). If using a hardware license key, it must be plugged in and detected. Without the key, you can open EthoVision but you will receive a warning that "no valid hardware key is detected." Clicking through that warning will permit you to open EthoVision and use any of the analysis features, but not acquire new trials (whether live or from video).
If the hardware license key is plugged in but you still get the message "no valid hardware key is detected", please download this file: HASP 8.13 Run or double-click the downloaded file to install the driver.
The Start Trial button will only appear if there are planned trials in the trial list. You can add trials either by going to the Trial List and clicking the Add Trials button, or click the Add Trial button in Acquisition (it looks like a + sign, right next to the Start Trial button).
If you have selected the option to Track all planned trials in the acquisition, and are tracking from video files, a video file must be specified for every trial listed in the trial list. Either fill in a video for each trial, remove the trials with no video, or in the acquisition switch to Track next planned trial.
Trials cannot be started if the arena settings, detection settings, or trial control settings are incomplete or invalid.
If you are working from video files, acquisition cannot begin if no video is selected, or if the selected video has been moved or deleted. In the acquisition, click the ... button next to Video to select a new video.
You can check the arena settings by opening the arena settings and clicking Validate Setup. If there are any issues, a popup message will notify you.
In the Trial Control Settings, check that there is a path, following the arrows, from the Rule Begin to the Rule End box. If you cannot reach the Rule End box by following the arrows, the settings are not complete. You can add arrows if needed by clicking and dragging from the center of one box to the center of the next.
If you are using the Behavior Recognition Module, make sure that you have completed the Behavior Recognition settings in the Detection Settings.