This is a brief note about how to use the four basic command line tools from the EPICS package “CA Tools”.
Them gives to the user the possibility of command and control the Canberra 556 AIM interface directly.
You can download the version of CA Tools here: CA Tools official website
You can find here the complete guide about EPICS installation for Windows: Nuclear Physics Laboratory

First, you need to know the name of your ADC. You’ve set it into st.cmd. If you’ve followed the NPL tutorial without changing names the ADC zero first channel is called  aim_adc1.

Once you’ve the EPIC and CA Tools intalled and everything running, you can open an MsDos Window and send the following commands:

caput mcaTest:aim_adc1Start 1 –>Start aquisition adc1
caput mcaTest:aim_adc1Stop 1 –> Stop
caput mcaTest:aim_adc1EraseStart 1 –>Erase/start
caget mcaTest:aim_adc1 > C:\EPICS\test.txt –> Dump to file

It’s quiet interesting that you can dump ADC data directly to a file for further analysis.