Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

[email protected] (Rozelle Wright) · Thu, 14 Sep 95 08:39:31 MDT

> From [email protected] Wed Sep 13 18:09:41 1995
> Return-Path: <[email protected]>
> Errors-To: [email protected]
> Errors-To: [email protected]
> Date: Wed, 13 Sep 95 14:07:05 HST
> Errors-To: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Analogue output simulation link SIOL
> Content-Length: 754
> X-Lines: 19
> 
> I am trying to set up a simulation system and have found that there is
> an apparent problem with the SIOL field in an analogue output record.
> This is described as an INLINK in the documentation and the
> aoRecord.ascii file, but is used as an ouput link in the code.
> 
> This has also propagated to Capfast, where the Ao symbol has SIOL as an
> input link.
> 
> I think the code is right and everything else is wrong. Why has noone
> complained before?
> 
There may not be a lot of people using both simulation and Capfast and 
those who run into the problem use a user defined port to take care of
this.  

There are other problems with the Capfast symbols which could be fixed if
someone wanted to take on the job of doing so.
It might be useful to open up a discussion of what fixes are actually needed.

Right now, Capfast is not distributed with EPICS because we have been
waiting until people have the Capfast license and then sending people a copy of
the epics library and edb.def file from Los Alamos.

Perhaps the epics symbol library should be upgraded and it along with edb.def
should be put into extensions distribution.

Problems I have seen with the most commonly used symbols are:
1.  OUT and INP fields are defined as typ VAL.  This generates an error from
e2sr which clutters up the output so that real errors can be missed.
This was done because the default value for the OUT or INP field is a hardware address.
However, if you set the typ to PATH, it doesn't complain and you can tell when
you get a real error.

2.  Problems with SIOL as mentioned above.

3.  The VAL port for a PID record should be an input port rather than an output port.
(Actually the VAL port for the Ao and Bo record is most logically an input port)

A work around for all of these problems is to make changes in the instances of the
symbols used for your particular schematic.  Even the last one.  Capfast seems
to see no problem in having a user defined input port called VAL as well as an output
port with that name.

Rozelle Wright

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|Rozelle Wright              Phone (505) 667-4804       |
|Los Alamos Natl Labs AOT-8  FAX (505) 665-5107         |
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Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System