Hi Peter,

 

Thanks very much for the information.

 

The problem the BNL people are having has been identified, but we don’t know what is causing it.

 

When the AIM software is started on the IOC it does the following:

 

- Starts a thread that listens for status responses from AIM modules.  Those status responses are used to build a table of available AIM modules on the network.

 

- Starts a thread that periodically sends multicast messages asking for AIM modules to send status responses.  Those messages are sent every 20 seconds.

 

- The main thread waits for the first response from any module, with a timeout of 3 seconds.

 

At BNL the main thread is not getting any response within 3 seconds.  If they increase the timeout to greater than 20 seconds it works.   If they change the message rate to every 5 seconds instead of 20 then they can decrease the timeout to 5 seconds.

 

It appears that what is happening is that the EPICS code is missing the first response from the module, and only getting the second and subsequent responses.

 

I assume that you have not had this problem, and the default message rate and timeout are working for you?

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

 

 

Hi Mark,
we are using an AIM 556B successfully compiled against mca release 7-1 and epics release 3.14.12.2, running on an suse linux softIOC.
 
It comes with an build-in ethernet interface, no need for an AUI!

MAC address of our model is 1125

HTH

--
Peter Mueller in
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
Division 7.13 at Bessy II

postal address:  

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
Abbestrasse 2-12
10587 Berlin
Germany


phone:  +49 (0)30 6392-5092
fax:                  -5082

e-mail: [email protected]


Am 17.07.2013 17:28, schrieb Mark Rivers:
> Folks,
>
> A group at NSLS has a new Canberra AIM 556B, which is a newer model than the 556 and 556A.  They want to use it with my EPICS support (synApps mca module). I don't have a 556B for testing, so I'm wondering if anyone has successfully used it?
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>
>
>
>
> From: Yin, Zhijian [[email protected]]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 9:54 AM
> To: Mark Rivers
> Cc: D. Peter Siddons
> Subject: Canberra AIM MCA 556B
>
>
> Hi, Mark,
>
> We've been using your epics mca support for Canberra AIM 556 at two beamlines at NSLS. We need one more mca, and last year we purchased an AIM 556, but it turned out to be a newer model, 556B, which comes with with RJ45 connector, rather than that of 556A, a 10based-2.
>
> Tried with EPICS mca module R7-1 and 7-2, does not work. The unit has mac address marked "111C", so I replaced the AIMConfig line with 0x111C in st.cmd - the older unit has three digit, but this is not a problem - nmc_comm
> _sub2.c takes care of that.
>
> nmcDemo eth0 0x111c stops at nmc_initialize()
>
> # ./nmcDemo eth0 0x111c
> Using AIM-Module 111c
> Calling nmc_initialize ...
> (nmc_initialize): waiting returned 1
> Calling nmc_build_enet_addr ...
>
> Any suggestions? maybe it's a new firmware - most likely I guess? Does anyone at APS has a 556B working? Would it be possible for us to ship you the unit so you could take a closer look?
>
> I am using 3.2 kernel (debian 7, 32bit), so I compiled with LLC socket.  Also tried libnet libpcap (not recommended), still no go, the same message.
>
> Thanks,
>
> ZY
>