EPICS soft IOC implementation for the LakeShore 336 temperature controller, tailored towards the in situ solar cell chamber created for the In Situ Nanoprobe (ISN) 19-ID beamline in the Advanced Photon Source (APS).

UI example

This installation requires a python environment, with setup done below using conda.

conda env create --file=environment.yml
conda activate lakeshore

To start up the IOC, run the python script:

python ./scripts/start_ioc.py

A .ui file (pictured above) is provided which can be integrated into your typical EPICS setup for interactive control of the associated PVs.

The PVs served by this IOC follow a LS336:XEOL:*/LS336:XEOL:*-RBV template, where LS336:XEOL:* is the PV you can update with caput and LS336:XEOL:*-RBV is the current device setting that you can readback with caget.

A list of the relevant PVs is below (edit start_ioc.py to change the names as desired):

• TSAMPLE_RBV / TCELL_RBV / TMOUNT_RBV: Temperature of sample, cell, and mount sensors (read only)
• TSET / TSET_RBV: Setpoint temperature
• STATUS / STATUS_RBV: Heater setting
  • True (on) or False (off)
• MODE / MODE_RBV: Heater mode
  • OFF, OPEN_LOOP, CLOSED_LOOP
• LOAD_RBV: Heater load in closed loop operation
• MANUAL_LOAD / MANUAL_LOAD_RBV: Heater load in open loop operation
• RAMP / RAMP_RBV: Setpoint ramp rate
• P / P_RBV: Proportional value in PID setup
• I / I_RBV: Integral value in PID setup
• D / D_RBV: Derivative value in PID setup

Edit start_ioc.py as needed for your setup, most likely the following lines:

Line 12: update the IP address to what your LakeShore is set to

ip = socket.gethostbyname('2idlakeshore336.xray.aps.anl.gov')

Line 17-18: update the output if your heater is not attached to output 3

# Let's stick to output 3
output = 3

Line 55-56: update prefix if desired

# Record prefix
builder.SetDeviceName('LS336:XEOL')

Calibration data for temperature sensors can be manually setup through the LakeShore front panel, however as that is tedious a python script is available to make this process much easier. This should only need to be run once:

python ./scripts/setup_lakeshore.py

The script may need to be updated based on your configuration.

Line 7: LakeShore IP address (if querying through the local network)

ip = socket.gethostbyname('2idlakeshore336.xray.aps.anl.gov')

Lines 18-20: sensor input names (this is tailored towards the 19-ID in situ experiments):

ls336.set_sensor_name('A', 'Sample Temp')
ls336.set_sensor_name('B', 'Cell Temp')
ls336.set_sensor_name('C', 'Mount Temp')

The calibration data is taken from the data/TH100PT_curve.txt file, change that as needed for your particular sensor.

• softioc: https://github.com/DiamondLightSource/pythonSoftIOC