Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Sonya Hoobler <[email protected]> · Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:21:59 -0800 (PST)

Hi Nick,

At LCLS, we use a Modbus TCP client library to communicate with the

Beckhoff BK9000. It was developed by Sheng Peng and is called

ModBusTCPClnt.

As Steve mentioned, there is also a Windows-based configuration tool from

Beckhoff that is used for initial setup.

Sonya

Sonya Hoobler
[email protected]

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009, Stephen Lewis wrote:

Yes, we bought it and installed it on a Windows laptop.  It is needed to make non-default configuration settings.

On 16 Dec 2009, at 2:55 PM, [email protected] wrote:

Hi Stephen,

Does this mean that LCLS has an EtherCAT EPICS driver so you can talk

directly to the Beckhoff modules? Or do you use some other protocol

talking to a PLC scanner?

Cheers,
Nick Rees
Principal Software Engineer           Phone: +44 (0)1235-778430
Diamond Light Source                  Fax:   +44 (0)1235-446713

From: Stephen Lewis [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 16 December 2009 19:12
To: Rees, Nick (DLSLtd,RAL,DIA)
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Remote I/O

At LCLS (SLAC) are successfully using the Beckhoff hardware.  Price is reasonable, the modularity is right, and there is a good selection of I/O.  In particular, I have a lot of thermocouples distributed around.

On 16Dec2009, at 4:44 AM, [email protected] wrote:

At Diamond we are considering what to use for the next generation of
discrete I/O. Currently we have a lot of VME based hardware, but we are
considering a good architecture for a Linux world.

The model that we are considering is a soft IOC on a Linux system
communicating over Ethernet using an open, industry standard protocol to
distributed DIN-Rail mounted I/O points. These I/O points take in
Ethernet and are powered from a 24V bus that will run around the
hardware area.

This eliminates any dependence on a specialized bus architecture (apart
from Ethernet) on the Linux system, so they can be commodity PC's, and
hopefully allows us to use widely available, cheap, industrial modules
for I/O. It will not completely replace all of the requirements
currently serviced by VME, but would be able to satisfy most of them,
with the remaining few being serviced by the occasional VME system (or
FPGA, or some other bus, or something else entirely in the future...).

This email is to poll the EPICS community as to the experience people
have had, and recommendations for and against.

The sort of thing we have identified are:

1. Modbus/TCP based modules, such as the Acromag Busworks series
http://www.acromag.com/models.cfm?Product_Function_ID=28&Category_ID=22&;
Group_ID=2
2. EtherCAT base modules, such as those from Beckhoff:
http://www.beckhoff.com/
3. Standard PLC systems where (as distinct from the other two), you
take Ethernet to a PLC controller which then has a series of modules it
talks to in a variety of possible ways.

So, is anyone willing to share their experiences with these or similar
systems,

Stephen Lewis
[email protected]
650.926.3791 (office)
650.926.7963 (beamline)
510.504.1231 (mobile)
510.655.6616 (home)
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Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System