DALI User Manual: Board Setup

Overview

For each data acquisition board that the DALI server will be handling, there must be a board configuration file which tells the server how to initialize the board, what features of the board will be made available to Internet users, and the security policy for each feature.

DALI supports A/D, D/A, and digital I/O. These board features are identified in the board configuration file as channels. Channels can be configured as being "public" or "login" to restrict access to clients with a valid username and password. For example, an A/D channel monitoring a temperature could be "public" while a digital I/O input controlling a power switch for important equipment could be restricted to "login". If a channel is not specified in the board configuration file access to it is not available through DALI.

When the server starts it scans the board directory for board configuration files. By default this a directory in the DALI install directory called called /boards/. Each file in this directory is processed as a board configuration file. You can name these files however you want.

Example File

The board configuration files follow a simple key=value properties system. Example board files are included in the /boards-examples/ directory. These can be used as templates by copying the example file matching your board to the /boards/ directory and customizing it to fit your needs.

Here are the contents of an example board configuration file:

name=mydmm32
type=DSC_DMM32
baseaddress=0x300
ad0=public
ad1=public
da0=login

Supported Boards

Only Diamond Systems data acquisition products are supported. The following boards are supported by DALI:

Additionally, a special "virtual board" type is supported which emulates data acquisition features in software. This allows customers to experiment with writing DALI software without even needing a data acquisition board.

Board Configuration Directives

Directive Required / Optional
name Required
Sets a unique name for the board also called the board alias. DALI systems hosting multiple boards of the same type will specify different name directives for each. Composed of letters and numbers.


Directive Required / Optional
type Required
Sets a board type which identifies which Diamond Systems product is associated with this board. Valid board types are:

DSC_DMM32
DSC_DMM16AT
DSC_DMMAT
DSC_DMM
DSC_PROM
DSC_HERC
DSC_TEST



Directive Required / Optional
baseaddress Required
Sets a base I/O address for the board. See the Diamond Systems user manual for the board to determine the jumper settings on the board which configure this. Must be specified in hex, for example 0x280.


Directive Required / Optional
ad<N> Optional
Makes the AD channel N available to DALI users. Sets the security policy for that channel. Valid security settings are:

public
login



Directive Required / Optional
da<N> Optional
Makes the DA channel N available to DALI users. Sets the security policy for that channel. Valid security settings are:

public
login



Directive Required / Optional
dioin<N> Optional
Makes the digital I/O input channel N available to DALI users. Sets the security policy for that channel. Valid security settings are:

public
login



Directive Required / Optional
dioout<N> Optional
Makes the digital I/O output channel N available to DALI users. Sets the security policy for that channel. Valid security settings are:

public
login



Directive Required / Optional
dioconfig Optional
Sets the digital I/O configuration byte which sets the direction of digital I/O channels on the board. See the Diamond Systems user manual for the board for more information on this. Set to one or more bytes in hex format. For example:

dioconfig=0x80 0x80



Directive Required / Optional
loadcal Optional
Set to 1 to enable loading calibration settings for the current A/D range from the EEPROM and store it in the calibration circuit before performing A/D conversions. See the Diamond Systems user manual for your board to check if the board supports this feature. Improves accuracy of A/D samples but introduces delays if multiple DALI clients are requesting different A/D configurations simultaneously.