Record TIME field taken from another record's VAL

[Majer Karel via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

Hello,

We have a number of Beckhoff PLCs installed and we are using ADS device support (https://epics.cosylab.com/documentation/adsDriver/index.html) to talk to them. We have considered synchronizing them with PTP and timestamping PVs with PTP timestamps from the PLC, but it's not clear how to do that of if it's even possible.

The ADS protocol does not carry data timestamp (https://infosys.beckhoff.com/english.php?content=../content/1033/tcinfosys3/11291871243.html&id=) and the device support documentation doesn't mention possibility of using TSE field to obtain hardware timestamp.

My idea was to convert PTP timestamp to double matching EPICS time format, publish it into ai record and use its VAL to set TIME fields of other records published by the ADS IOC. I found some tech talk on Soft Timestamp device support, but I understand it reads from other record's TIME field. Is there a way to use ai VAL field to set TIME of other records?

Thanks,

Karel Majer

Karel Majer | Senior software developer
Phone: +420 266 051 514
E-mail: karel.majer at eli-beams.eu

ELI Beamlines Facility|The Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC Za Radnicí 835, 252 41 Dolní Břežany, The Czech Republic www.eli-beams.eu