Getting Started

This chapter shows how to install FcfSim and run an existing device simulator, before writing your own (covered in FCFsim SDK Description and the implementation chapter).

Installation

FcfSim is a waf project. Build and install it into your environment:

git clone https://gitlab.eso.org/ifw/ifw-fcfsim.git
cd ifw-fcfsim
waf configure
waf build
waf install

After installation the fcfsimServer and ifwFcfSimTmcExport commands are available on the PATH.

Running a single device

Every simulator is started by the same executable, fcfsimServer, pointed at a configuration file and an OPC UA port. To run one of the bundled example devices (a lamp):

fcfsimServer --cfg config/ifw/fcfsim/example/lamp.cfg.yaml --port 4840

This starts an OPC UA server on port 4840 exposing the lamp’s nodes and methods. The two mandatory options are:

--cfg / -c — the configuration file.
--port / -p — the OPC UA server port.

Run fcfsimServer -h for the full list of options (instance selection with --cfgname, logging control, external IP, debug shell).

The configuration file is plain YAML using the configng schema syntax. The lamp example is simply:

!cfg.include schema/ifw/fcfsim/devices/lamp/lamp.schema.yaml:

lamp: !cfg.type:FcfSimLampCfg
  device_name:  Lamp1
  prefix:       MAIN.Lamp1
  local_mode:   false
  sim_init_time: 2
  warm_up: 2
  cool_down: 2

Connecting a client

Once the server is running, connect any OPC UA client to opc.tcp://<host>:4840 to browse the namespace, read/write values and call methods. ESO’s uatools (UaExplorer for browsing, UaShell for a command-line client) work well for this, as does any generic OPC UA client.

A typical first interaction is to take the device through its state machine — for example calling its RPC_Init / RPC_Enable methods and watching the stat nodes change.

The debug shell

Adding --debug starts the server and drops you into an IPython shell with the running simulator engine bound to e. This is the quickest way to drive a device interactively while it runs:

fcfsimServer --cfg config/ifw/fcfsim/example/lamp.cfg.yaml --port 4840 --debug

In [1]: e.lamp1.init()        # call business-logic methods directly
In [2]: e.lamp1.stat.state    # inspect simulator state

Running several devices at once

The new manager (mgr) runs several device simulators in a single process, served by one fcfsimServer. A manager configuration lists the devices, each pointing at a device configuration file (optionally a named block via file.yaml::block), with per-instance overrides:

!cfg.include schema/ifw/fcfsim/mgr/simmgr.schema.yaml:
!cfg.include schema/ifw/fcfsim/devices/lamp/lamp.schema.yaml:

devsimmgr: !cfg.type:FcfSimMgrCfg
  update_frequency: 10            # OPC UA server update rate (Hz)
  devices:
    - name: lamp1
      cfgfile: 'config/ifw/fcfsim/example/lamp.cfg.yaml'
      overrides:
        - {name: prefix, value: MAIN.Lamp1}
    - name: motor1
      cfgfile: 'config/ifw/fcfsim/example/motor.cfg.yaml'
    - name: adc1
      cfgfile: 'config/ifw/fcfsim/example/adc.cfg.yaml::adc'

Run it the same way as a single device:

fcfsimServer --cfg config/ifw/fcfsim/example/mgr.cfg.yaml --port 4840

A complete example, exercising every standard device, ships at config/ifw/fcfsim/example/mgr.cfg.yaml.

Next steps

To implement your own device simulator, see the implementation chapter and FCFsim SDK Description.
To generate most of a new simulator from a Beckhoff TMC model, use ifwFcfSimTmcExport (run ifwFcfSimTmcExport help and ifwFcfSimTmcExport doc).