ICALEPCS 2009
WEP037
Implementation of PIC-based Embedded I/O Controller with EPICS for RILAC Control System
J.-I.Odagiri (KEK) M.K.Fujimaki, M.Komiyama (RIKEN Nishina Center) H.Yamauchi (SHI Accelerator Service Ltd.) A.Uchiyama* (SHI Accelerator Service ltd.)
In the RIKEN RI beam factory project (RIBF), the accelerators are operated by the remote control system based on EPICS. On the other hand, for RIKEN Linear Accelerator (RILAC) of RIBF injector, the control system include not only EPICS-based controllers, but also handmade hard-wired controllers still in operation. It is required to replace the handmade hard-wired controllers with ones which can interface with the EPICS-based system on an ethernet interface. Since sequential logic control is not required on the controllers, costly Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are not the appropriate candidate. To implement the low cost embedded controller in our system, we developed EPICS device support using asynDriver for PIC Network Interface Card (PICNIC*). The characteristics of PICNIC is Microchip PIC16F877 based embedded I/O controller with a network interface, a serial port, DIO 8ch and AI 4ch. It is suitable to use this controller for simple control, such as on-off control using electromagnetic relay. In April 2009, we started to adopt PICNIC as one of the remote controller in RILAC control system. In our contribution, we report this system and present the status in detail.
*http://www.tristate.ne.jp/picnic-e.htm