.. _ioPorts:

#######
ioPorts
#######

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
General Knowledge
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ioPorts represent and contain the linkage to the 'outside' world. All IO-cards (and other cards), mbus, modbus, etc. devices are brought into the system via ioPorts.  
ioPort points contain all the relevant information and configuration for the peripheral devices for them to work correctly.

Available settings differ from device type to device type; mbus ports have different options than modbus, etc.

.. important:: The ``device`` field in any of the serial based IOPorts is the most important part of the point. The ``device`` field
    determines which **physical interface** the serial data belongs to. If the ``device`` field is incorrectly set, no data will ever
    be correctly received or transmitted for that ioPort.

.. note:: The pointname (or path) of the IOPort point does not matter, but they are usually stored under ``ioPorts/`` in 
    Actiweb database

""""""""""""
About Device
""""""""""""
What the ``device`` field content can — or rather needs to — be depends on the device Actiweb has been installed on and
what serial interfaces has been made available.

When using Actiweb on Bithouse Integral controller and using the Modbus Extension Card, the ``device``
for serial ioPorts is determined by the slot the card has been installed into.
More information  :doc:`here </actiweb9_core/integral_extension_cards/modbuscard>`. 

Actiweb can also be installed on other devices which might not have integrated serial ports. In these cases
serial port can be added by adding a USB-to-RS485 adapter, which will become available as ``/dev/ttyUSBN`` where 
N is a incrementing number represeting the amount of USB-Serial devices currently connected. 


"""""""""""""""""""""
Autogenerated ioPorts
"""""""""""""""""""""
Modbus module, Mbus module and RPC (ioCard) module will create default ioPort-points to help user to start working with ioPorts.
These ioPort points will be created under ``ioPorts/`` in databse.
The ioPort points that will be always generated will use following naming pattern:

    Modbus:
        ``ioPorts/modbusRTU/P1`` for RTU based communication and ``ioPorts/modbusTCP/M1`` for TCP/IP
    Mbus:
        ``ioPorts/mbusSerial/P1``
    rpc:
        ``ioPorts/rpc/P1``

.. note:: These ports will be always regenerated if the points does not exists. That is, if the point gets renamed or deleted,
    the point will reappear after next restart.