RE: [External] Re: PVaccess | pva2pva/QSRV Resources

["Leblanc, Gregory via Tech-talk" <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

I hate to jump on the bandwagon here, but it took me a couple of days to figure out the proper incantations to get the ioc for my Agilent 34980A responding to PV commands as well as CA commands.  I’ve got some pieces of how to make it work documented, but I won’t have a chance to touch anything else until mid to late March. 

 

Our lab has been looking at EPICS for at least 5 years, but we’ve never managed to get a real implementation of anything.  That’s partly because there are only 2 of us maintaining the lab and we don’t have time.  But I think another contributing factor is the gap in middle-level documentation.  There is some information about getting EPICS built and installed, and some developer docs.  What’s missing is the documentation on how to stand up an IOC talking to something that other folks already have working. 

 

I really hope to be able to contribute to that, but we’re working on an accelerator tank opening now, and there just aren’t enough engineers here to go around.

     Greg

 

From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> On Behalf Of Timo Korhonen via Tech-talk
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2023 6:37 AM
To: Ralph Lange <ralph.lange at gmx.de>; EPICS Tech Talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Subject: [External] Re: PVaccess | pva2pva/QSRV Resources

 

Use caution with links and attachments.

I fully agree with Ralph.

However, I still think that what we are missing are examples for users that are maybe less interested in writing their own code but want to try out and hopefully then use what is provided.

Also, it is important for people who set up and manage the systems and infrastructure to understand the configuration options, how e.g., the channel search works,  etc.

PVXS documentation is good, but it is not easy for a new user to get started and figure out what is currently there, what pieces of documentation to read, or if there is something in the first place.

 

The CA manual could use (read: severely needs, IMO) an update as well, but as of now there is very little if anything to help a new, or even experienced EPICS user to get started using PVA.

Which I find is a great pity; a lot of nice things can be done by using the group PVs with QSRV and JSON configuration.

 

Timo

 

From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> on behalf of Ralph Lange via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Reply to: Ralph Lange <ralph.lange at gmx.de>
Date: Friday, 10 February 2023 at 11:35
To: EPICS Tech Talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Subject: Re: PVaccess | pva2pva/QSRV Resources

 

On Thu, 9 Feb 2023 at 20:21, Ignacio Arriagada via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov> wrote:

• Is there a PVAccess reference manual (a la CA)? I have been trying to use the protocol specification page in github, but it would be great if there was something covering PVAccess from a higher level perspective.

I would recommend PVXS [1] as client (and server) library. The older implementations that are currently shipped as part of Base will be phased out.

PVXS has pretty decent documentation. [2]

 

Cheers,
~Ralph

 

[1] https://github.com/mdavidsaver/pvxs

[2] https://mdavidsaver.github.io/pvxs/