fastcs-catio

CATio provides control system integration for Beckhoff EtherCAT I/O devices running under TwinCAT. It uses the ADS protocol to communicate with TwinCAT PLCs and exposes device data as EPICS Process Variables through the FastCS framework.

Source	DiamondLightSource/fastcs-catio
PyPI	pip install fastcs-catio
Docker	docker run ghcr.io/diamondlightsource/fastcs-catio:latest
Documentation	https://diamondlightsource.github.io/fastcs-catio
Releases	DiamondLightSource/fastcs-catio

Quick Start

# Install
pip install fastcs-catio

# Run the IOC
fastcs-catio ioc --target-ip 192.168.1.100

How the documentation is structured

Documentation is split into four categories, also accessible from links in the top bar.

• Tutorials
  • Installation
  • Getting Started with the Simulator
  • Customizing Terminal Definitions

Tutorials for installation and typical usage. New users start here.

• How-to Guides
  • Contribute to the project
  • Run in a container
  • Troubleshooting
  • Using the Terminal Editor

Practical step-by-step guides for the more experienced user.

• Explanations
  • CATio Architecture Overview
  • FastCS EPICS IOC Implementation
  • ADS Client Implementation
  • EtherCAT and TwinCAT Nomenclature
  • Terminal YAML Definitions
  • Composite Types in TwinCAT
  • CoE Parameters
  • Dynamic PDOs in EtherCAT Terminals
  • Useful Notes on ADS and TwinCAT
  • Architectural Decision Records
  • AI-Assisted Architectural Transformation of CATio

Explanations of how it works and why it works that way.

• Reference
  • API
  • DLS Terminal Types
  • Beckhoff ESI XML File Format
  • ADS Symbols and CoE Objects
  • EtherCAT Composite Types
  • Documentation Plan
  • TODO
  • Index
  • Release Notes

Technical reference material including APIs and release notes.