Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Mark Rivers via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov> · Thu, 30 Apr 2020 18:22:15 +0000

Hi Mark,

I think that adding support for the SPI-8 would not be difficult.  I suspect it is similar to the MCB-4B and so a new Model 3 driver could start with that.

I was not aware of this device.  It is potentially very interesting for beamlines at the APS.  Using that module would allow us to phase out VME crates running Pro-Dex OMS-58 and MAXv while preserving the investment in Step-Paks and motor cabling.

Mark

________________________________
From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> on behalf of Mark Vigder via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2020 12:37 PM
To: Peterson, Kevin M.
Cc: tech-talk at aps.anl.gov
Subject: Re: Motor record: ACS support

Kevin

Wow, two companies with the same name. No wonder I was getting confused.

I went to the ACS company site that makes the SPI-8. Their site states the following multi-axis controllers as having EPICS support:
    SPI-MAXnet-8000
    MCR-4 / MCR-8
    MCB-4B
Is the above information correct, and if so would that support all be in https://github.com/epics-motor/motorAcs?

The ACS website does not claim EPICS support  for the SPI-8.

Mark

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 12:19 PM Peterson, Kevin M. <kmpeters at anl.gov<mailto:kmpeters at anl.gov>> wrote:
Mark,

There are two companies named ACS.

The web page for the ACS that makes the SPI-8 (as well as the MCB-4B and
step-pak motor drivers) is here:

   http://www.acsmotion.com/ACS_Step-Pak_Catalog.htm

There is support for the MCB-4B, but NOT the SPI-8 in this driver repo:

   https://github.com/epics-motor/motorAcs

I'm not aware of any EPICS support for the SPI-8.

The web for the other company named ACS is here:

   https://www.acsmotioncontrol.com/

Support for legacy ACS Motion Control controllers is here:

   https://github.com/epics-motor/motorAcsTech80

Keenan Lang has developed some motor support for newer controllers from
ACS Motion Control, but I don't remember where that repo is.  It hasn't
been added to epics-motors yet.

Kevin

On 4/30/20 10:47 AM, Mark Vigder via Tech-talk wrote:
> Greetings
>
> I haven't used EPICS for a while but am helping out a local facility get
> a new system up and running using EPICS. They want to use The Advanced
> Control System (ACS) motor control. The controller is the SPI-8
> 8-channel Indexer/Controller Module. Is this supported by the Motor
> record? There are a couple of motor drivers for ACS distributed with the
> EPICS motor record; I assume if one is applicable it is the
> motorAcsTech80. Will this work with the SPI-8 Indexer Module from ACS?
> The last revision date on the manual they gave me is 2008 so they may be
> using an old controller.
>
> Thanks for any help
> Mark
>
> Mark Vigder
> TVB Associates

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System