4.10. Pushing external data into the event stream
The slow controls port can also be used to send data that will be periodically inserted in the data stream. The mechanism for this is intended to monitor slowly varying values (for example magnet currents). Here's a brief sketch about how this works:
In your slow controls configuration file you specify Tcl variables whose values will be watched.
A slow controls client sets those variables to value that reflect the things to be monitored in the outside world (e.g. controlpush can set the arrays
EPICS_DATA,EPISC_UNITSandEPICS_UPDATEDto reflect changes in epics process variables).When the run is active, every two seconds the current values of any variables that were modified since the last update operation are pushed to the ring buffer as MONITORED_VARIABLE string list items. Note that towards the beginning of the run one or more ring items will be generated that have all monitored variable values.
4.10.1. Specifying variables to be monitored.
The key to monitoring variables is that the control server is really a Tcl interpreter executing commands that are poked into it by its client sockets. The Tcl server supports a new command watch which allows you to specify which variables should be monitored.
The example below specifies that the arrays
EPICS_DATA, EPICS_UNITS,
EPICS_UPDATED and the scalar variable
monitored should be monitored.;
Example 4-33. Specifying VM-USB monitored variables
array set EPICS_DATA [list] array set EPICS_UNITS [list]array set EPICS_UPDATED [list] watch EPICS_DATA watch EPICS_UNITS
watch EPICS_UPDATED watch monitored
- In order to monitor an array, the array must first be created. Note that this is not the case for a scalar variable.
- These commands specify that the three arrays we created with the array set command should be monitored.
-
Since
monitoredwas not created as an array only the single scalar value will be monitored.
For more information about the watch command see watch in the reference manual pages.