Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Mark Rivers <[email protected]> · Thu, 22 May 2014 19:08:51 +0000

Folks,

On a related note, Measurement Computing has just introduced a USB counter/timer card that may work well for low-end applications.  They had previously had a counter/timer model based on an old chip, and I had written EPICS scaler record device for it.

http://cars9.uchicago.edu/software/epics/measComp4303Doc.html

However, I think the CTS9513 chip became unavailable and they discontinued the device.

The new device can be found here:

http://www.mccdaq.com/usb-data-acquisition/USB-CTR08.aspx

It costs $429 for an 8-channel version.  Here are the specs:

High-speed pulse counter for general counting applications

8 counter I/O

48 MHz maximum input frequency

Programmable resolution up to 64-bits

Aggregate scan rate of 8 MB/s

Supports the following counter input modes:
- Totalize (event counting)
- Period measurements
- Pulse-width measurements
- Timing measurements

Debounce filter circuitry with flexible edge, level, direction, and debounce settings to better adapt to signals

Four independent pulse-width modulation (PWM) timers with count, period, delay, and pulse-width registers

Eight individually-configurable digital I/O channels

Synchronous high-speed reads of digital and counter inputs

External clock input and internal clock output

External digital trigger

No external power required

It is not clear to me yet what the 8 MB/s scan rate and synchronous reads mean.  I have ordered one and will see if it can be made to emulate a multi-channel scaler, i.e. arrays of digital counts as a function of time.  But even for a simple scaler/timer it could be useful with EPICS scaler record support.

Mark

________________________________
From: Mark Rivers
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 6:37 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Interest in an Ethernet version of the SIS3820?

Folks,

Many sites are interesting in running EPICS data acquisition on non-VME systems.  For common laboratory and beamline control applications most of the devices we commonly use are available in non-VME platforms like Ethernet, USB, serial, etc.

However, one device which is used in many applications that is not really available in a non-VME platform is a high-speed counter/timer, particularly ones with buffer memory like the SIS3820.   If such a device were available in Ethernet, for example we could eliminate VME in our smaller EPICS laboratory installations.

I discussed the possibility of an Ethernet version of the SIS3820 with the SIS engineer today.  They have already produced an Ethernet version of one of their other modules, and would consider doing so for the SIS3820, assuming there was an initial order of at least 10 units.  It could probably be ready in 2015.

If anyone else would be interested in such a device could you please let me know, so I can gauge whether there would be enough demand for them to proceed?

Thanks,
Mark

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System