diff --git a/slsDetectorSoftware/src/CtbConfig.cpp b/slsDetectorSoftware/src/CtbConfig.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d450ac5e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/slsDetectorSoftware/src/CtbConfig.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+
+#include "CtbConfig.h"
+#include "SharedMemory.h"
+#include "sls/ToString.h"
+#include "sls/string_utils.h"
+
+#include <algorithm>
+#include <fstream>
+#include <sstream>
+
+namespace sls {
+
+CtbConfig::CtbConfig(){
+    for (size_t i=0; i!=num_dacs; ++i){
+        setDacName(i, "dac"+ToString(i));
+    }
+}
+
+void CtbConfig::check_index(size_t i) const {
+    if (!(i < num_dacs)) {
+        std::ostringstream oss;
+        oss << "DAC index is too large needs to be below " << num_dacs;
+        throw RuntimeError(oss.str());
+    }
+}
+
+void CtbConfig::check_size(const std::string &name) const {
+   
+    if (name.empty())
+        throw RuntimeError("Name needs to be at least one character");
+
+     // dacname_length -1 to account for \0 termination
+    if (!(name.size() < (name_length - 1))) {
+        std::ostringstream oss;
+        oss << "Length of name needs to be less than " << name_length - 1
+            << " chars";
+        throw RuntimeError(oss.str());
+    }
+}
+
+void CtbConfig::setDacName(size_t index, const std::string &name) {
+
+    check_index(index);
+    check_size(name);
+
+    char *dst = &dacnames[index * name_length];
+    memset(dst, '\0', name_length);
+    memcpy(dst, &name[0], name.size());
+}
+
+void CtbConfig::setDacNames(const std::vector<std::string>& names){
+    for (size_t i = 0; i!=num_dacs; ++i){
+        setDacName(i, names[i]);
+    }
+}
+
+std::string CtbConfig::getDacName(size_t index) const {
+    return dacnames + index * name_length;
+}
+
+std::vector<std::string> CtbConfig::getDacNames() const {
+    std::vector<std::string> names;
+    for (size_t i = 0; i != num_dacs; ++i)
+        names.push_back(getDacName(i));
+    return names;
+}
+
+const char* CtbConfig::shm_tag(){
+    return shm_tag_;
+}
+
+} // namespace sls
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/slsDetectorSoftware/src/CtbConfig.h b/slsDetectorSoftware/src/CtbConfig.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6c17fadbf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/slsDetectorSoftware/src/CtbConfig.h
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#pragma once
+#include <string>
+#include <vector>
+namespace sls {
+
+
+class CtbConfig {
+    static constexpr size_t name_length = 20;
+    static constexpr size_t num_dacs = 18;
+    static constexpr const char* shm_tag_ = "ctbdacs";
+    char dacnames[name_length * num_dacs]{};
+
+    void check_index(size_t i) const;
+    void check_size(const std::string &name) const;
+
+  public:
+    CtbConfig();
+    CtbConfig(const CtbConfig&) = default;
+    CtbConfig(CtbConfig&&) = default;
+    CtbConfig& operator=(const CtbConfig&) = default;
+    ~CtbConfig() = default;
+
+    void setDacNames(const std::vector<std::string> &names);
+    void setDacName(size_t index, const std::string &name);
+    std::string getDacName(size_t index) const;
+    std::vector<std::string> getDacNames() const;
+    static const char* shm_tag();
+};
+
+
+} // namespace sls
diff --git a/slsDetectorSoftware/tests/test-CtbConfig.cpp b/slsDetectorSoftware/tests/test-CtbConfig.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..15a22e852
--- /dev/null
+++ b/slsDetectorSoftware/tests/test-CtbConfig.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+#include "catch.hpp"
+#include <string>
+
+#include <stdlib.h>
+
+#include "SharedMemory.h"
+#include "CtbConfig.h"
+using namespace sls;
+#include <fstream>
+
+
+TEST_CASE("Default construction"){
+    static_assert(sizeof(CtbConfig) == 360); // 18*20 
+
+    CtbConfig c;
+    auto names = c.getDacNames();
+    REQUIRE(names.size() == 18);
+    REQUIRE(names[0] == "dac0");
+    REQUIRE(names[1] == "dac1");
+    REQUIRE(names[2] == "dac2");
+    REQUIRE(names[3] == "dac3");
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("Set and get a single dac name"){
+    CtbConfig c;
+    c.setDacName(3, "vrf");
+    auto names = c.getDacNames();
+
+    REQUIRE(c.getDacName(3) == "vrf");
+    REQUIRE(names[3] == "vrf");
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("Set a name that is too large throws"){
+    CtbConfig c;
+    REQUIRE_THROWS(c.setDacName(3, "somestringthatisreallytolongforadatac"));
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("Length of dac name cannot be 0"){
+    CtbConfig c;
+    REQUIRE_THROWS(c.setDacName(1, ""));
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("Copy a CTB config"){
+    CtbConfig c1;
+    c1.setDacName(5, "somename");
+
+    auto c2 = c1;
+    //change the name on the first object 
+    //to detecto shallow copy
+    c1.setDacName(5, "someothername");
+    REQUIRE(c2.getDacName(5) == "somename");
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("Move CtbConfig "){
+    CtbConfig c1;
+    c1.setDacName(3, "yetanothername");
+    CtbConfig c2(std::move(c1));
+    REQUIRE(c2.getDacName(3) == "yetanothername");
+}
\ No newline at end of file