Re: [External] Suggestions wanted on IOC hardware

["James P. Withrow via Tech-talk" <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

Thank you all for the information. It's been an interesting read and you've given me a lot to consider.

Most of the IOCs will be relatively 'slow' and so I think they can probably be implemented on commodity hardware. Items such as the USB interface for data acquisition and terminal servers for Ethernet->RS232 IO weren't in my original idea but they have opened up several additional avenues to consider. I'm currently playing with a few things in an attempt to broaden my understanding of EPICS in general, and as such I'm sure I'll be back with additional questions.

Thank you,

Jim Withrow

Jim Withrow, Research Support Specialist - jwithrow at cornell.edu

NE-CAT, Cornell University - https://necat.chem.cornell.edu

Advanced Photon Source, Sector 24

9700 S. Cass Avenue, Building 436 E001

Lemont, IL 60439

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From: Leblanc, Gregory <leblanc at ohio.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2025 11:13 AM
To: James P. Withrow <jwithrow at cornell.edu>; Tech-talk at aps.anl.gov <Tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Subject: RE: [External] Suggestions wanted on IOC hardware

 

Jim,

 

I’ve got a couple of undergraduate students working to deploy EPICS on Linux at our small lab.  We’ve been doing our testing HP T730 and T740 thin clients because they’re very cheap ($100 on ebay) and so far, have been much faster than we need.   Primarily we’re doing general purpose IO using Keysight (ok, mostly HP and Agilent) 34980A mainframes with multiplexers, ADC outputs, and relay outputs.  We communicate to them using StreamDevice over Ethernet.  We talk to our BRAX vacuum controllers using RS-232, also with StreamDevice. 

     Greg

 

--

Gregory Leblanc

Accelerator Engineer

Edwards Accelerator Lab - Ohio University

123 University Terrace

Athens, OH 45701 USA

leblanc at ohio.edu

M: (401) 52-OUAL1 or (401) 526-8251

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7899-5296

 

 

 

From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> On Behalf Of James P. Withrow via Tech-talk
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2025 9:03 AM
To: Tech-talk at aps.anl.gov
Subject: [External] Suggestions wanted on IOC hardware

 

Use caution with links and attachments.

Hello all-

 

I'm investigating the eventual migration of our control system to EPICS, and as such, I would like to solicit community input on IOC hardware which I can use as a 'boilerplate' configuration for common tasks like sensor (I2C/SPI) polling, instrumentation (RS232/485), and general IO.

 

• Ideally runs RTEMS and EPICS easily, with Linux and EPICS as a second choice.

• Supports GPIO and standard peripheral interfaces such as SPI, I2C, and UART.

• Can be initially set up with a standard configuration but be customized as needed.

• Has reliable persistent storage for operating system and configuration data.

• Is slightly more powerful than we think we need at the moment to allow for future-proofing.

 

Current searching has turned up mostly references to Beaglebone and Zynq hardware, however I'd like to hear from community members as to what's in use 'in the wild' and how well it works - or doesn't - for your applications.

 

Thanks!

 

-Jim Withrow