asynDriver: Asynchronous Driver Support

Module Owner:

Mark Rivers

Code Repository:

github.com/epics-modules/asyn

Description

asynDriver (also called Asyn) is a general purpose facility for interfacing device specific code to low level communication drivers.

A primary target for asynDriver is for EPICS IOC device support, but other than using the EPICS build system and libCom library, most of the code was designed so it can be used outside of an EPICS IOC.

If you're new to EPICS Serial I/O, the How-to Guide for Stream Device released in Asyn 4-21 and later is an introduction to using Dirk Zimoch's StreamDevice module and is the currently recommended way to implement reasonably complex serial communications protocols (the synApps stream wrapper module is also recommended). See the Documentation column in the table below for links to updated versions of this How-to document in each Asyn release.

If you're just getting starting with Asyn, our How-to Guide for the Asyn Record gives a step-by-step example of how to communicate with a message-based instrument using just an ASYN record.

Please email comments and bug reports to tech-talk, or to Mark Rivers who is responsible for coordinating development and releases.

Installation and Building

EPICS base must already be built. After Asyn is downloaded and the files extracted:

cd configure
vi RELEASE  Define the path for EPICS_BASE and optionally IPAC
cd ..
make

Modules Required

asynDriver provides a driver for the GreenSprings Industry Pack IP488 module and the octalUART. If these are to be used then IPAC support is required to build asynDriver. The asynDriver configure/RELEASE file has a comment about how to include IPAC support.

Related Modules

StreamDevice, a generic EPICS device support driver for devices with a "byte stream" based communication interface, comes with an interface to asynDriver. For most users the synApps stream wrapper module may be more useful than the PSI original, which must be checked out into an existing EPICS support module.

Releases

You can download the software from the links in the table below: