Creating a new beamline

A beamline is a collection of devices that can be used together to run experiments, they may be read-only or capable of being set. They include motors in the experiment hutch, optical components in the optics hutch, the synchrotron “machine” and more.

Beamline Modules

Each beamline should have its own file in the dodal.beamlines folder, in which the particular devices for the beamline are instantiated. The file should be named after the colloquial name for the beamline. For example:

• i03.py

• i20_1.py

• vmxi.py

Beamline modules (in dodal.beamlines) are code-as-configuration. They define the set of devices and common device settings needed for a particular beamline or group of similar beamlines (e.g. a beamline and its digital twin). Some of our tooling depends on the convention of only beamline modules going in this package. Common utilities should go somewhere else e.g. dodal.utils or dodal.beamlines.common.

The following example creates a fictitious beamline w41, with a simulated twin s41. w41 needs to monitor the status of the Synchrotron and has an AdAravisDetector. s41 has a simulated clone of the AdAravisDetector, but not of the Synchrotron machine.

    from functools import cache
    from pathlib import Path
    from ophyd_async.core import PathProvider
    from ophyd_async.epics.adaravis import AravisDetector

    from dodal.common.beamlines.beamline_utils import set_beamline as set_utils_beamline
    from dodal.common.beamlines.device_helpers import CAM_SUFFIX, HDF5_SUFFIX
    from dodal.common.visit import RemoteDirectoryServiceClient, StaticVisitPathProvider
    from dodal.device_manager import DeviceManager
    from dodal.devices.synchrotron import Synchrotron
    from dodal.log import set_beamline as set_log_beamline
    from dodal.utils import BeamlinePrefix, get_beamline_name

    BL = get_beamline_name("s41")  # Default used when not on a live beamline
    PREFIX = BeamlinePrefix(BL)
    set_log_beamline(BL)  # Configure logging and util functions
    set_utils_beamline(BL)

    devices = DeviceManager()
    
    @devices.fixture
    @cache
    def path_provider() -> PathProvider:
        # Currently we must hard-code the visit, determining the visit is WIP.
        return StaticVisitPathProvider(
            BL,
            # Root directory for all detectors
            Path("/dls/w41/data/YYYY/cm12345-1"),
            # Uses an existing GDA server to ensure filename uniqueness
            client=RemoteDirectoryServiceClient("http://s41-control:8088/api"),
            # Else if no GDA server use a LocalDirectoryServiceClient(),
        )


    """
    Define device factory functions below this point.
    A device factory function is any function that has a return type which conforms
    to one or more Bluesky Protocols.
    """

    """
    This decorator gives extra desirable behaviour to this factory function:
    - it may be instantiated automatically, selectively on live beamline
    - it automatically names the device if no name is explicitly set
    - it may be skipped when make_all_devices is called on this module
    - it must be explicitly connected (which may be automated by tools)
        - when connected it may connect to a simulated backend
        - it may be connected concurrently (when automated by tools)
    """
    @devices.factory(skip = BL == "s41")
    def synchrotron() -> Synchrotron:
        return Synchrotron()


    @devices.factory()
    def d11(path_provider: PathProvider) -> AravisDetector:
        return AravisDetector(
            f"{PREFIX.beamline_prefix}-DI-DCAM-01:",
            path_provider=path_provider,
            drv_suffix=CAM_SUFFIX,
            fileio_suffix=HDF5_SUFFIX,
        )