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DABC extension to the EPICS DIM interface

Introduction

Based upon the existing EPICS DIM interface several data structures provided by DABC (Data Acquisition Backbone Core) transporting values together with additional attributes, similar to EPICS records, via the transport mechanisms of DIM should be able to be accessed from EPICS via an extension to the above mentioned original interface.

Motivation, Timescale, and Objectives

The upcoming CBM test beamtime sets the time scale for this project
connecting EPICS and DABC via DIM made visible via the CSS framework (EPICS → EPICS extensions → Control System Studio).

Objectives

Objectives of this project are:
  • make existing EPICS DIM interface available
  • update/extend or check this device support module to be able to access those elementary data types provided via a DIM service(/command) service
    type EPICS record
    supported and mapped to
    services  
      floating point (double) ai/ao
      string stringin/stringout
      integer longin/longout mbbi(Direct)/mbbo(Direct)
    commands  
      no parameter, action ao, bo, longout, stringout
      string stringout
  • map DABC records value together with some of their attributes, defined in dabc/records.h (@JAM: could you upload/attach the records.h to EPICS records maybe by setting an additional option in the OUT/INP signaling DABC-mode :
    type EPICS record
    supported and mapped to
    comments
    services  
      rate meter (double) ai, ao
      state stringin/stringout any conversion of string based information should be done in db, or some kind of enum should be provided (iterator index?)
    for mbbi(Direct)/mbbo(Direct), longin, longout
      info stringin/stringout dito.
      hist hist record ??? have to check whether hist can be supported
    commands (?)  
      no parameter, action ao/ai, bo/bi, longout/longin, stringout/stringin
  • ...
-- PeterZumbruch - 31 May 2010

People & Tasks

People


Tasks

  • Code development and extension of device support: PZ
  • DABC and DIM expertise: JAM
    • Providing information about data structures
    • Providing test system
  • EPICS expertise: BK, PZ
    • code checks
  • EPICS runtime database building, preparations and templates: BK
  • CSS based GUI building: JAM, BK
  • ...


Details

DABC structures a.k.a. "records"

Please describe here the task of those structures, and the mapping of their values (types) and attributes to the EPICS records

    rate meter

    Here is definition of structure for ratemeter (from $DABCSYS/base/dabc/records.h);
    typedef struct{
          float value; 
          int displaymode; // one of the DISPLAY_x
          float lower; // limit. If limits are equal, use autoscale
          float upper; // limit
          float alarmlower; // alarm
          float alarmupper; // alarm
          char color[16]; // (color name: Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta)
          char alarmcolor[16]; // (color name: Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta)
          char units[16];
       } RateRec;
    
       enum RateDisplayMode { 
            DISPLAY_ARC = 0,
            DISPLAY_BAR = 1,
            DISPLAY_TREND = 2,
            DISPLAY_STAT = 3 };
            
       extern const char* RateRecDesc;
    
    with the RateRecDesc defining the DIM structure like this:
    const char* dabc::RateRecDesc = "F:1;L:1;F:1;F:1;F:1;F:1;C:16;C:16;C:16";
    

    The RateDisplayMode is a hint how the ratemter should be displayed on GUI (tachometer, bar, trending or statistic histogram). Can be neglected though.

    Suggestion for mapping the structure elements to attributes of EPICS ai:
    structure.element EPICS - Attribute
    RateRec.value VAL
    RateRec.lower LOPR
    RateRec.upper HOPR
    RateRec.alarmlower LOW
    RateRec.alarmupper HIGH
    RateRec.units EGU
    "DIMinfo name" NAME name is the record name to be defined in the database

    -- JoernAdamczewski - 05 May 2010

    state

    Here is definition of structure for state (from $DABCSYS/base/dabc/records.h);
     typedef struct{
          int severity; // (0=success, 1=warning, 2=error, 3=fatal)
          char color[16]; // (color name: Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta)
          char status[16]; // status name
       } StatusRec;
       
       extern const char* StatusRecDesc;
    

    with the StatusRecDesc defining the DIM structure like this:
    const char* dabc::StatusRecDesc = "L:1;C:16;C:16";
    

    The color names are currently defined by
    
    const char* dabc::col_Red = "Red";
    const char* dabc::col_Green = "Green";
    const char* dabc::col_Blue = "Blue";
    const char* dabc::col_Cyan = "Cyan"; 
    const char* dabc::col_Yellow = "Yellow"; 
    const char* dabc::col_Magenta = "Magenta"; 
    
    

    The possible state names appear in field status[]

    and are declared as string constants in dabc/Manager.h and have currently following values:

    
    const char* dabc::Manager::stNull = "Null";
    const char* dabc::Manager::stHalted = "Halted";
    const char* dabc::Manager::stConfigured = "Configured";
    const char* dabc::Manager::stReady = "Ready";
    const char* dabc::Manager::stRunning = "Running";
    const char* dabc::Manager::stFailure = "Failure";
    const char* dabc::Manager::stError = "Error";
    
    

    Mapping to a EPICS mbbi could be achieved by assigning these state names to fields ZRST-FFST which should map input string from StatusRec.status to one of 16 possible states? The EPICS VAL field would then take a corresponding enumeration value. Fields severity and color could be neglected at first.

    structure.element EPICS - Attribute
    StatusRec.status see suggestion above
    "DIMinfo name" NAME name is the record name to be defined in the database

    Note that for each DABC node, the name of the DIM service indicating the FSM state is defined by string "RunState" (with the node name prefix in front).

    -- JoernAdamczewski - 05 May 2010

    info message

    This can be used to display for each node the last current status, or to write the infos into a log file or text list field.

    Here is definition of structure for info message (from $DABCSYS/base/dabc/records.h);

       typedef struct{
        int verbose; //(0=Plain text, 1=Node:text)
        char color[16]; //(Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow)
        char info[128]; // info message
       } InfoRec;
       
       extern const char* InfoRecDesc;
    

    with DIM structure descriptor
    const char* dabc::InfoRecDesc = "L:1;C:16;C:128";;
    

    Could be probably mapped to a EPICS stringin like this:

    structure.element EPICS - Attribute
    InfoRec.info VAL
    InfoRec.color "Green"=info, "Yellow"=warning, "Red"=error
    InfoRec.verbose neglectable
    "DIMinfo name" NAME name is the record name to be defined in the database

    additional service information

    Apart from the DABC structure fields, the DIM "quality" word is used in DABC for additional information. The bytes of this word have following meanings: mode-visibility-type-status (from msb to lsb). Functions for evaluating these properties can be found in $DABCSYS/controls/dimcontrol/src/nameParser.cxx.

    Especially the type field can be used to identify record (apart from the DIM service structure string); following DABC types exist (from nameParser.h):

        enum recordtype {
         ATOMIC      = 0,
         GENERIC     = 1,
         STATUS      = 2,
         RATE        = 3,
         HISTOGRAM   = 4,
         MODULE      = 5,
         PORT        = 6,
         DEVICE      = 7,
         QUEUE       = 8,
         COMMANDDESC = 9,
         INFO        = 10
        };
    
    For EPICS use case, the types ATOMIC (simple string, integer, double); RATE (rate meter); STATUS (FSM state); and INFO (string message for logfile) are interesting.

    The visibility byte uses bit flags to indicate certain GUI operation modes:
    #define DABC_VIS_VISIBLE     (1<<0) //VISIBLE
    #define DABC_VIS_MONITOR     (1<<1) //MONITOR
    #define DABC_VIS_CHANGABLE  (1<<2)//CHANGEABLE
    #define DABC_VIS_IMPORTANT  (1<<3) //IMPORTANT
    #define DABC_VIS_LOGGABLE  (1<<4) //write to log window
    

    Currently used are DABC_VIS_LOGGABLE (write info record string to a logfile, or not) and DABC_VIS_CHANGABLE (indicate that this atomic parameter may be changed by command).

    The status byte may contain information for log messages like:

     enum recordstat{
         NOTSPEC    = 0,
         SUCCESS    = 1,
         MESSAGE    = 2,
         WARNING    = 3,
         ERR        = 4,
         FATAL      = 5
        };
    

    Value message, warning, error could be expressed as alarm colors? This is additional possibility for InfoRec apart from mapping the color names.

    -- JoernAdamczewski - 05 May 2010
    -- PeterZumbruch - 27 May 2010

State switching commands

Declared as string constants in dabc/Manager.h with following values:

const char* dabc::Manager::stcmdDoConfigure = "DoConfigure";
const char* dabc::Manager::stcmdDoEnable = "DoEnable";
const char* dabc::Manager::stcmdDoStart = "DoStart";
const char* dabc::Manager::stcmdDoStop = "DoStop";
const char* dabc::Manager::stcmdDoError = "DoError";
const char* dabc::Manager::stcmdDoHalt = "DoHalt";

DABC uses separate DIM commands without parameters for this which are identified by these Names (note that each DIM command has name prefix which identifies the target node for command!) Exact list of example services/commands to be delivered soon.

-- JoernAdamczewski - 05 May 2010


Software

Development EPICS

  • GSI EPICS installation: EPICS base 3.14.10 maybe 3.14.11 later

code repository:

    starting point: EPICS DIM Interface as is

    • CVS:
      • :ext:lxi001.gsi.de:/u/epics/cvs/repos/projects/projects/EPICS-DIM-interface/dev/caDIMInterface
    • Tarball:
    -- PeterZumbruch - 18 May 2010

    DABC extension

    • CVS:
      • the same as the original one, the DABC extension is a preprocessor switch checking the existence of the environment variable DABCSYS, which should have been set by a previous dabclogin.
    -- PeterZumbruch - 25 Jan 2011

-- PeterZumbruch - 18 May 2010


Test system(s)

EPICS IOC

  • lxlenny32 * based on the CVS an IOC test system is started (anywhere) from where the server can be seen
  • lxg1436 (CBM, BK): user: cbmdcs and cbmoper
    • started a record database in /u/cbmdcs/apps/streamTest/exampleApp/Db
    • see dabc... template and substitutions files
    • a dummy IOC with these dummy variables for testing the GUI could be started by going to ../../iocBoot/iocstream and then typing "../../bin/linux-x86/example st.cmd" on any etch linux (except lxg1436, where a sever is already running)


DABC/DIM server

  • (JAM)
    • JAM provides a standby and on-call running DABC dummy DAC system on lxg0532
      • current configuration:
        • Controller and DIM_DNS_NODE: lxg0532
        • Combiner: lxi036, lxi048
        • Builder: lxi034

-- PeterZumbruch - 10 Mar 2011

    pure DIM server, serving artificial DABC structures

    H.Essel provides this basic ansatz for testing:
    • either use the existing goofy version :
      • # set <Testserver Directory>  TEST_BASE
        export TEST_BASE=~goofy/dim/testserver
    • or use the tarball:
      • testserver.tar.bz2: DIM testserver tarball
        • unpack it to <Testserver Directory>
      • # set <Testserver Directory> TEST_BASE
        export TEST_BASE=<Testserver Directory>

    To start follow this script:
    # change to directory
    cd $TEST_BASE

    # init dabc settings
    . dabclogin
    # init dim dns settings

    export DIM_DNS_NODE=$(hostname)
    # start dim dns server

    dimDns &
    # start testserver

    linux/tEPICSserver abc abc &

    # start dabc monitor to check activity
    moni &

    -- PeterZumbruch - 19 May 2010

Implementation of the extensions

The DABC extension will be activated by:
  • a compiler switch DABC_SUPPORT
  • another keyword for the INP/OUT in the database configuration
    • Xe: complex structure extensions
      Xe=DABC:Status state record
      Xe=DABC:Rate rate record
      Xe=DABC:Info info record
  • examples (from templates)
    • INP/OUT: @ @T=C @S=DABC/$(node):$(nodeIndex)/$(action)$(actionNodeIndex)/DataRate.Receiver @Xe=DABC:Rate
    • all:
                     
              record(ai, "$(prefix)$(node):DataRate_Receiver") {
                field(DESC, "$(node) DataRate.Receiver")
                field(DTYP, "caDIMInterface")
                field(INP, "@ @T=C @S=DABC/$(node):$(nodeIndex)/$(action)$(actionNodeIndex)/DataRate.Receiver @Xe=DABC:Rate")
              } 

-- PeterZumbruch - 26 May 2010

Status

Project Start

  • Initiated Project (BK, JAM, PZ) - 05 May 2010
  • Created documentation project page (PZ) - 05 May 2010

Code: (PZ)


    • basic code ( Xe=DABC:Xyz, DABC_SUPPORT ) implemented

      state record stringin/out implemented
      TODO: mbbi/mbbo

      rate record ai/ao implemented

      info record stringin/out implemented

      Commands TODO
    • in addition
      • general stringin/out support (data format C[:N] )
      • undefined length support (data format just Y )
      • in preparation: support for selection on structures and arrays ( e.g. "L:1;D:5;C:1;X:4" )

Debugging and Tests:

Test Systems

pure DIM server, serving artificial DABC structures
    • simple database templates for state, rate, and info
    • database built from templates (stringin and ai)
    • running IOC
    • connecting EPICS IOC
    • caget / (caput, not allowed) / camonitor
    • BOY GUI (CSS SNS): (also part of CVS)
      gui

DABC Test System
    • complex database templates for builder, controller, combiner, done
    • database built from templates (stringin and ai), done
    • running IOC
    • connecting EPICS IOC
    • caget /( caput, not allowed )/ camonitor
    • BOY GUI: also part of CVS
      • gui:
        gui
      • numbers:
        numbers
      • rate:
        rate
      • status and info:
        status and info
      • strings:
        strings

General

  • TODO: Test by the users (BK, JAM)
  • TODO: Performance Tests
  • TODO: Valgrind / e-fence ...
  • TODO: assert problem at IOC startup, to be investigated

-- PeterZumbruch - 11 Mar 2011


Outlook

  • let also EPICS provide/serve data in form of DABC structures

-- PeterZumbruch - 25 Jan 2011


-- PeterZumbruch - 11 Mar 2011
ISorted ascending Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
EPICS-DIM-Interface.tar.bz2bz2 EPICS-DIM-Interface.tar.bz2 manage 279 K 2010-05-18 - 10:43 PeterZumbruch Tarball of the current cvs content, 18.05.2010
testserver.tar.bz2bz2 testserver.tar.bz2 manage 39 K 2010-05-19 - 17:23 PeterZumbruch DIM testserver tarball
dabc2epics.pngpng dabc2epics.png manage 90 K 2011-03-10 - 11:58 PeterZumbruch gui
dabc2epics_StatusInfo.pngpng dabc2epics_StatusInfo.png manage 1 K 2011-03-10 - 12:00 PeterZumbruch status and info
dabc2epics_Strings.pngpng dabc2epics_Strings.png manage 725 bytes 2011-03-10 - 12:00 PeterZumbruch strings
dabc2epics_numbers.pngpng dabc2epics_numbers.png manage 1 K 2011-03-10 - 11:58 PeterZumbruch numbers
dabc2epics_rate.pngpng dabc2epics_rate.png manage 10 K 2011-03-10 - 11:59 PeterZumbruch rate
dabc2epics_testserver.pngpng dabc2epics_testserver.png manage 13 K 2011-03-11 - 09:49 PeterZumbruch testserver gui
Topic revision: r16 - 2018-01-08, PeterZumbruch
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