Active X CA

ChannelAccess, CA

EPICS tools use CA for network communication.
Traditionally, the Input/Output controller (IOC), running under the vxWorks real-time OS, interfaces with the plant hardware and has a CA Server.
CA client applications like an operator display run on workstations in the control room to display and modify values on the IOC.
The CA server and client software is available as C/C++ libraries for Win32, Linux, HPUX, Solaris, ...

Interfacing to CA on Win32

The CA libraries provide the full CA capability, but require C/C++ programming.
This software was originally developed in order to serve values from within National Instrument's LabVIEW to EPICS via Channel Access (CA).

There are several ways for interfacing LabVIEW and CAS:

Using ActiveX to call CA from LabVIEW might not be the fastest option available but was chosen for its versatility.

The resulting ActiveX CA Server

It should be noted that adding the server to e.g. LabVIEW will not turn that machine into a real-time EPICS IOC, capable of serving thousands of process variables. Performance might, however, be absolutely sufficient for soft-real-time requirements. This approach is also ideal when you have a working LabVIEW system already and would like to integrate it into a bigger EPICS system.

Details

NotScape?

Requests/comments?
E-Mail: Kay-Uwe Kasemir
Last update: 03/25/2002