Re: Cryocon and TSI hardware support?

[David Maden <David.Maden@psi.ch>]

Shepherd, EL (Emma) wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Has anyone written any EPICS support for a temperature controller or
> temperature monitor made by Cryogenic Control Systems
> (http://www.cryocon.com/)?
>
> I'm also looking for support for a helium depth indicator made by
> Twickenham Scientific Instruments (http://www.twicksci.co.uk/)
>
> They all have serial interfaces so I am thinking about writing EPICS
> support using Streams if nobody has done this already.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Emma

Hi Emma,

We don't have this particular temperature controller in our collection of 
serial devices at SLS, but we do have the Lakeshore models 331 and 340. 
Unless the PSI firewalls are blocking access, the CVS repository of the 
software should be visible here:

  www.sls.psi.ch/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/G/DRV/lakeshore/

We also have support for Oxford Instrument's cryojet with liquid nitrogen 
auto fill controller (same URL, substitute "cryojet" for "lakeshore"). They 
both have the same structure: a collection of simple stream-device EPICS 
records for sending commands and status requests to the device, glued 
together with an snl program. There's a bit of documentation on setting up 
the cryojet at:

  www.sls.psi.ch/controls/help/howto/cryojet.html

but unfortunately nothing for the Lakeshore controllers.

Getting the Cryogenic Control Systems device to work with the Lakeshore 
code might simply be a case of a new stream-device protocol file.

For the helium depth indicator, you might consider simply connecting its 
analogue output to an ADC channel, rather than using its serial port.

Regards, David