Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

boj via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov> · Mon, 22 Aug 2022 10:31:51 +0200

Hi sorry for a late response to this subject,

I am having a very similar setup to what you are describing, and are

very happy about it.

System is setup like this

* All is based on debian linux,
    with epics and modules as packages

    We compiled packages from https://github.com/epicsdeb

*    I made a "generic" ioc packaged, based on

https://github.com/epicsdeb/epics-template

    Including the needed modules (stream-device, auto-save ....)

* All IOC's then just consists of database, protocol files and startup

files (as all binary are in the deb packages)

    These are keep in a git repository, for easy backup, and change

tacking.

* For archiving I use the archiver applicance, which is really easy to

setup, and does all for you

* For alarms I use a small how brewed python script to just send mails

in case of alarms

* I have a small script generating a web page with graphs for easy

checking the labs from eq my phone.

Having the major parts based on debian packages, makes installing new

and upgrading IOC's very simple.

I will be very happy to discuss / share info on this and other

approaches for small lav use of EPICS.

Best

    Bo Jakobsen

On 17-08-2022 21:26, Sean Leavey - STFC UKRI via Tech-talk wrote:

Hi all,

I'm trying to determine the feasibility of using EPICS for simple monitoring of a small clean room facility. We'll need to read out various sensors (particle counters, temperature, etc.) via Modbus over Ethernet and archive the data at low speed (a few times per minute maybe) and also ideally display live data to lab users on a GUI (e.g. MEDM or modern equivalents). We're probably going to have a small number of outputs as well: automated switching of lights, fans, motors, that kind of thing. Maybe some alarms for e.g. triggering a warning light if particle counts get too high. No closed loops.

We could probably just use LabVIEW or similar but I don't like it much and prefer a licence-free and open source solution that can be easily adapted as needed. Plus, I may clone the EPICS setup to a different lab in a different city that we work with, so it would be nice to be able to use a gateway to access and archive their channels as well.

Has anyone used EPICS on such a small scale? Was it more trouble than it was worth compared to turnkey commercial solutions?

Any input would be appreciated!
Sean Leavey
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Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System