Beckhoff: Include IOC name in PV

[DominicOram]

As a user I may want to run two beckhoff IOCs on my instrument. Currently the prefix provided to tcIOC will not include the IOC name and so this is not possible. This is due to the PV name length being violated if it is included.

[rerpha]

As a note for planning, mirroring what Freddie said on the other ticket: the longer we leave this the more blocks etc may be put on tcioc-generated PVs which will lead to issues further down the line if a second Beckhoff is used.

[FreddieAkeroyd]

Are we exposing more PV's than we need to? Do we require a mapping file to say what to expose and that could also map to a shorter name? I guess this couldn't be done as part of the OPC tag?

[rerpha]

Yes, we could probably not expose ASTAXES_<X>:STCONFIG-* as I don't think any of them are useful. We could do that, but as we call tcLoadRecords() we'd have to modify it to use the mapping file.

As far as OPC tags go I'm not sure if you can exclude things from a nested structure by adding an OPC ignore underneath a top-level tag?

[FreddieAkeroyd]

Possible change ioc name to TC_01 from TWINCAT_01 ?

[FreddieAkeroyd]

char limit on PV is 60

[DominicOram]

Are we exposing more PV's than we need to? Do we require a mapping file to say what to expose and that could also map to a shorter name? I guess this couldn't be done as part of the OPC tag?

There is a provision in OPC tags for a user friendly name. Whether this is passed through to the tpy and subsequently used by tcIOC correctly I don't know, you will need to test.

Yes, we could probably not expose ASTAXES_<X>:STCONFIG-* as I don't think any of them are useful. We could do that, but as we call tcLoadRecords() we'd have to modify it to use the mapping file.

As far as OPC tags go I'm not sure if you can exclude things from a nested structure by adding an OPC ignore underneath a top-level tag?

OPC tags will let you hide a nested structure, we already do it with some of the Beckhoff internals.

Obviously up to you guys but trying to modify tcIOC to use a user friendly OPC tag if it doesn't already seems a lot nicer than a new mappings file.

[rerpha]

Cheers Dom, will have a look at the user friendly name stuff. Think we could use OPC_PROP_DESC for that but yeh would have to see what tcioc does with it. or maybe that gets used for the DESC of a field already?

with my pv prefix of TE:NDLT1542 using TC as the IOC name as a prefix it doesn't stop anything from working, there are more records that aren't loaded but they're all STERROR or STCONFIG fields which we aren't (currently) using and don't care about, it's things like gear ratios, distance to home, lag monitoring etc.

Anything from STSTATUS or STCONTROL is maximum 53 chars long so we can probably get away with that for now. assuming we have a 256 axis beckhoff (add 2 extra chars, which means we'd use 55 on my setup) that gives another 5 chars for a pv prefix.

@FreddieAkeroyd Is there a limit for the PVPREFIX? if not, what's the longest potential pv prefix, i guess its going to be a setup machine? not sure if those will ever have a beckhoff installed

for reference here is what ISN'T loaded for a single axis:

Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-FHOMEFINISHDISTANCE too long by 2
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-FWRITEAXISPARAMETER too long by 2
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-FREADAXISPARAMETER too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-BREADAXISPARAMETERVALID too long by 6
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-STMASTERAXIS_NINDEX too long by 2
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-STMASTERAXIS_FRATIO too long by 2
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFSLAVEAXISRATIO_1 too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFSLAVEAXISRATIO_2 too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFSLAVEAXISRATIO_3 too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFSLAVEAXISRATIO_4 too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFSLAVEAXISRATIO_5 too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFSLAVEAXISRATIO_6 too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFSLAVEAXISRATIO_7 too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFSLAVEAXISRATIO_8 too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFSLAVEAXISRATIO_9 too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXIS_1_NINDEX too long by 10
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXIS_1_FRATIO too long by 10
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXIS_2_NINDEX too long by 10
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXIS_2_FRATIO too long by 10
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXIS_3_NINDEX too long by 10
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXIS_3_FRATIO too long by 10
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXIS_4_NINDEX too long by 10
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXIS_4_FRATIO too long by 10
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXISLATCHED_1_NINDEX too long by 17
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXISLATCHED_1_FRATIO too long by 17
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXISLATCHED_2_NINDEX too long by 17
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXISLATCHED_2_FRATIO too long by 17
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXISLATCHED_3_NINDEX too long by 17
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXISLATCHED_3_FRATIO too long by 17
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXISLATCHED_4_NINDEX too long by 17
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-ASTMULTIMASTERAXISLATCHED_4_FRATIO too long by 17
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFMULTISLAVEAXISRATIO_1 too long by 6
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFMULTISLAVEAXISRATIO_2 too long by 6
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFMULTISLAVEAXISRATIO_3 too long by 6
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFMULTISLAVEAXISRATIO_4 too long by 6
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFMULTISLAVEAXISRATIO_5 too long by 6
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFMULTISLAVEAXISRATIO_6 too long by 6
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFMULTISLAVEAXISRATIO_7 too long by 6
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFMULTISLAVEAXISRATIO_8 too long by 6
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-AFMULTISLAVEAXISRATIO_9 too long by 6
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-BREADMCPARAMETERSVALID too long by 5
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-BREADMCPARAMETERSERROR too long by 5
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-FVELOCITYDEFAULTSLOW too long by 3
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-FVELOCITYDEFAULTFAST too long by 3
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-BENMINSOFTPOSLIMIT too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-BENMAXSOFTPOSLIMIT too long by 1
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-BENPOSITIONLAGMONITORING too long by 7
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-BENTARGETPOSITIONMONITORING too long by 10
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STCONFIG-FTARGETPOSITIONWINDOW too long by 4
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STERROR-NMOVEABSOLUTEERRORID too long by 2
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STERROR-NMOVERELATIVEERRORID too long by 2
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STERROR-NMOVEVELOCITYERRORID too long by 2
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STERROR-NGEARINMULTIMASTERERRORID too long by 7
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STERROR-FBWRITEPARAMETERERRORID too long by 5
Warning: channel name TE:NDLT1542:TC_01:ASTAXES_1:STERROR-FBREADPARAMETERERRORID too long by 4