Duke University Free Electron Laser Laboratory

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System at the DFELL

The Duke University Free-Electron Laser Laboratory is a member of the EPICS collaborative. The DFELL uses EPICS to control a linac, a ramping booster synchrotron, an electron storage ring and a storage ring based free-electron laser. Applications are using EPICS R3.13.10 and R3.14.8.2.

The laboratory's control systems consist of a series of Input/Output Controllers with Motorola VME boards with 68k or PPC processors running the VxWorks Real-Time Operating System. These IOCs interface with hardware attached to several different bus types including CAMAC, Allen-Bradley, IPAC and VME. Interface to GPIB instruments is accomplished through an x86 IOC running GNU/Linux (CentOS) and EPICS R3.14 using the linux-gpib package and a standard NI PCI-GPIB card.

The IOCs communicate via ethernet using the Channel-Access Protocol to each other and to several Solaris and Linux Workstations located in a central control room. These workstations provide high-level control and operator interface. The workstations are also used in development, data logging and analysis.

Available DFELL Software

EPICS hardware device support

VME

• iseg VHS: 4 or 12 channel High Voltage Power Supply (bo, ai, ao)
• Joerger VDACM: 8-channel, 16-bit, 100 kHz waveform generator (waveform output)
• BiRa 7305 VSAM: 32 channel, 16-bit ADC with automatic range, polarity and calibration with 26-bit dynamic range (ai)
• Hytec VDD 2670: Dual 18-bit DAC (ao)
• VMIVME-2536: Optically Coupled Digital I/O Board with 32 inputs and 32 outputs (bi and bo)
• VMIVME-2120: 64-bit High Voltage Digital Output Megamodule (bo)
• VMIVME-1182: 64-Channel Isolated Digital Input Board (bi)
• VMIVME-3113A: scanning 12-bit, 64-channel Analog to Digital Converter (ai)
• VMIVME-3122: high performance 16-bit ADC (waveform) (Additional support for the 3122 as an AI module also available on the downloads page).
• VMIVME-4116: 16-bit, 8-channel Digital to Analog Converter (ao)
• VMIVME-4132: 12-bit, 32-channel Digital to Analog Converter (ao)
• Highland Technology V850/V851 Digital Delay Generator (also can be used with Berkeley Nucleonics B950/B951 DDG)
• Creative Electronic Systems CBD 8210: VME to CAMAC Branch Driver
• EPICS interface to BINP NMR Probes (VMEbus)

CAMAC

• DSP CAMAC 3016 DAC: 16-bit, 16 channel Digital to Analog Converter (ao)
• DSP CAMAC 2032 Scanning DVM: 14-bit, 32 channel auto-ranging Smart Analog Monitor (ai)
• BiRa CAMAC 5305 SAM: 14-bit, 32 channel auto-ranging Smart Analog Monitor (ai)
• CAMAC E100 Binary Input: 32-Channel Binary Input Module (bi)
• BiRa CAMAC 2324 Binary Input: Dual 24-bit Parallel Input Module (bi)
• BiRa CAMAC 3224 Binary Output: Dual 24-bit Digital Output Register (bo)
• BINP CAMAC D0609 ADC: 20-bit integrating digital voltmeter (ai)
• BINP CAMAC D0612 ADC: 20-bit integrating digital voltmeter (ai)
• BINP CAMAC D0612 ADC w/ BINP A0604 MUX: 16 channel multiplexer (commutator) with 20-bit ADC (ai)
• BINP CAMAC D0643 DAC: 20-bit, 1 channel Digital to Analog Converter (ao)
• BINP CAMAC USD-2: Stepper Motor Driver

GPIB (using linux-gpib)

• HP/Agilent 3458A DMM
• HP 5328A Universal Counter
• HP 5386A Frequency Counter
• Agilent 53181A Frequency Counter
• HP 4395A Network Analyzer
• HP 8563E Spectrum Analyzer

Local Documentation and EPICS tools

• Local EPICS
  Access restricted to local network only.