Blend Sidekick Files into the StreamDevice Demo IOCs¶

You will download the StreamDevice configuration files for the sidekick system from GitHub, and use symbolic links to insert them into the demo IOC for StreamDevice.

You will also create an IOC configuration usable from systemd-softioc, such that you can automatically start the IOCs at first boot, and manage the iocs with manage-iocs.

References¶

Systemd-SoftIOC GitHub Page

Pre-requisites¶

Internet connection

Materials¶

Raspberry Pi with EPICS, StreamDevice, and systemd-softioc installed

Steps¶

Download Sidekick EPICS Source Files¶

Navigate into your EPICS folder, and then download the latest sidekick-epics files from GitHub via git clone.

cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/sfeister/sidekick-epics.git

This will create a folder sidekick-epics in your home directory. Inside will be the latest, up-to-date prototype files for StreamDevice. At any time, you can navigate into that directory and call git pull to update the files to the latest version.

Create new IOC folder for systemd-softioc¶

Note: Follow along here with the instructions at the Systemd-SoftIOC GitHub Page for more details about what these settings do!

Note down hostname and the next good port.¶

hostname -s
manage-iocs nextport

I got as return:

epics1
4050

Make note of both of these items! You will use them in the config below.

Assume the softioc user, create an IOC folder, and edit a config file¶

Change into the softioc user.

sudo -s -u softioc

Create a unique folder within /epics/iocs/ for this new IOC.

For example, I am choosing to name my IOC LEDs. Then, I would do:

cd /epics/iocs
mkdir LEDs
cd LEDs
nano config

And then I would edit the config file to say:

NAME=LEDs
PORT=4050
HOST=epics1
USER=softioc

Where I set the HOST and PORT from what I noted down above.

Link in the StreamDevice Demo IOC files¶

Continue as the softioc user for this portion.

From within the same IOC folder, make symbolic links to all the contents of the StreamDevice demo IOC folder.

ln -s /home/pi/EPICS/support/StreamDevice/streamApp/* ./

This is a cheat to avoid building your own IOC -- we will just basically copy / link in the files from the StreamDevice demo instead!

Link in the Sidekick EPICS proto files¶

Continue as the softioc user for this portion.

From within the same IOC folder, make symbolic links to all the contents of the sidekick EPICS StreamDevice folder. This includes prototype files, etc. Since we are linking rather than copying, any updates to our files in the cloned repository will be reflected in our setup down the road.

ln -s /home/pi/sidekick-epics/streamDevice/* ./

Configure the startup script¶

Edit a new st.cmd file.

nano st.cmd

And then fill the contents of this new file with:

export EPICS_BASE=/home/pi/EPICS/epics-base
export EPICS_HOST_ARCH=$(${EPICS_BASE}/startup/EpicsHostArch)
export PATH=${EPICS_BASE}/bin/${EPICS_HOST_ARCH}:${PATH}

bash ./leds.cmd

Where the last line, ./leds.cmd, is whatever startup script you want to run from the sidekick-epics files.

Finally, make your st.cmd startup script executable.

chmod +x st.cmd

You can now test it before continuing:

./st.cmd

And then, before closing the process, open another terminal window and check that caget is working correctly.

Finally, kill the process and open a new terminal window under the user pi.

Install the IOC with manage-iocs¶

Finally, from another terminal window logged in as the pi user, install the IOC using manage-iocs.

manage-iocs report
sudo manage-iocs install LEDs
sudo manage-iocs start LEDs

When prompted about whether you want to start LEDs at boot, say yes. This will start the IOC automatically every time the pi boots up.

If you want to restart the IOC or stop the IOC, here are two more useful commands:

sudo manage-iocs restart LEDs
sudo manage-iocs stop LEDs

If you want to peer in at what's happening with the IOC, try

telnet localhost 4050

where 4050 is the previously set port value.

Conclusion¶

Congratulations! You should be able to manage your IOCs with manage-iocs commands and the IOC should now start up every time you boot the computer.

You can adapt the above instructions for the other computers which will be running the other IOCs, like the shutter IOC and the pulse generator IOCs.