diff --git a/ch.psi.fdaq/src/main/java/ch/psi/fdaq/FdaqConfiguration.java b/ch.psi.fdaq/src/main/java/ch/psi/fdaq/FdaqConfiguration.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad0802f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ch.psi.fdaq/src/main/java/ch/psi/fdaq/FdaqConfiguration.java
@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+/**
+ * 
+ * Copyright 2010 Paul Scherrer Institute. All rights reserved.
+ * 
+ * This code is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ * 
+ * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of
+ * merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the
+ * GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
+ * 
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ * along with this code. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ * 
+ */
+
+package ch.psi.fdaq;
+
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
+import java.io.FileReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
+import java.util.Date;
+import java.util.Properties;
+import java.util.regex.Matcher;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
+/**
+ * Fdaq configuration file
+ */
+public class FdaqConfiguration {
+	
+	private static final FdaqConfiguration instance = new FdaqConfiguration();
+	
+	private String hostname = "mchip015.psi.ch";
+	private int port = 2233;
+	private int killPort = 2234;
+	private int nelements = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
+	private String filePrefix = "${yyyy_MM}/${yyyyMMdd}/${yyyyMMddHHmmss}_${name}/${yyyyMMddHHmm}_";
+	private String dataDirectory;
+
+	private FdaqConfiguration(){
+		loadConfiguration();
+	}
+	
+	public static FdaqConfiguration getInstance(){
+		return instance;
+	}
+
+	private void loadConfiguration() {
+		String config = System.getProperty(FdaqService.APP_HOME);
+		
+		if(config == null){
+			throw new RuntimeException("No configuration file specified via -D"+FdaqService.APP_HOME+"=...");
+		}
+		
+		Properties properties = new Properties();
+		try {
+			properties.load(new FileReader(config+"/config/fdaq.properties"));
+		} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
+			throw new RuntimeException("Configuration file "+config+" not found", e);
+		} catch (IOException e) {
+			throw new RuntimeException("Cannot read configuration file "+config, e);
+		}
+		
+		hostname = properties.getProperty(FdaqConfiguration.class.getPackage().getName()+".hostname", "mchip015.psi.ch");
+		port = Integer.parseInt(properties.getProperty(FdaqConfiguration.class.getPackage().getName()+".port", "2233"));
+		killPort = Integer.parseInt(properties.getProperty(FdaqConfiguration.class.getPackage().getName()+".killPort", "2234"));
+		dataDirectory = config+"/data";
+	}
+
+	public String getHostname() {
+		return hostname;
+	}
+
+	public void setHostname(String hostname) {
+		this.hostname = hostname;
+	}
+
+	public int getPort() {
+		return port;
+	}
+
+	public void setPort(int port) {
+		this.port = port;
+	}
+
+	public int getKillPort() {
+		return killPort;
+	}
+
+	public void setKillPort(int killPort) {
+		this.killPort = killPort;
+	}
+
+	public int getNelements() {
+		return nelements;
+	}
+
+	public void setNelements(int nelements) {
+		this.nelements = nelements;
+	}
+
+	public String getFilePrefix() {
+		return filePrefix;
+	}
+
+	public void setFilePrefix(String filePrefix) {
+		this.filePrefix = filePrefix;
+	}
+
+	public String getDataDirectory() {
+		return dataDirectory;
+	}
+
+	public void setDataDirectory(String dataDirectory) {
+		this.dataDirectory = dataDirectory;
+	}
+
+	public String replaceMacros(String string, Date date, String name){
+		String newString = string;
+		
+		// Replace scan name macros
+		newString = newString.replaceAll("\\$\\{name\\}", name);
+		
+		
+		// Replace date macros
+		Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\$\\{[a-z,A-Z,-,_,:]*\\}");
+        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(newString);
+        while(matcher.find()){
+        	String datePattern = matcher.group();
+        	datePattern = datePattern.replaceAll("\\$\\{", "");
+        	datePattern = datePattern.replaceAll("\\}", "");
+        	SimpleDateFormat datef = new SimpleDateFormat(datePattern);
+        	newString = matcher.replaceFirst(datef.format(date));
+        	matcher = pattern.matcher(newString);
+        }
+		return newString;
+	}
+}
diff --git a/ch.psi.fdaq/src/main/java/ch/psi/fdaq/FdaqService.java b/ch.psi.fdaq/src/main/java/ch/psi/fdaq/FdaqService.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2dc72e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ch.psi.fdaq/src/main/java/ch/psi/fdaq/FdaqService.java
@@ -0,0 +1,136 @@
+/**
+ * 
+ * Copyright 2013 Paul Scherrer Institute. All rights reserved.
+ * 
+ * This code is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
+ * the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
+ * Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any
+ * later version.
+ * 
+ * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any
+ * warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for
+ * a particular purpose. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more
+ * details.
+ * 
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ * along with this code. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ * 
+ */
+package ch.psi.fdaq;
+
+import java.io.BufferedWriter;
+import java.io.DataInputStream;
+import java.io.DataOutputStream;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileWriter;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.PrintWriter;
+import java.net.Socket;
+import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
+import java.nio.ByteOrder;
+import java.util.logging.Level;
+import java.util.logging.Logger;
+
+/**
+ * Fdaq service
+ * 
+ */
+public class FdaqService {
+
+	private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(FdaqService.class.getName());
+
+	public final static String APP_HOME = "ch.psi.fdaq.home";
+	private volatile boolean stopAcquisition = false;
+
+	/**
+	 * Start the acquisition
+	 */
+	public void startAcquisition(final File file) {
+		Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable() {
+			
+			@Override
+			public void run() {
+				try {
+					FdaqConfiguration config = FdaqConfiguration.getInstance();
+					stopAcquisition = false;
+					Socket echoSocket = new Socket(config.getHostname(), config.getPort());
+					DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(echoSocket.getOutputStream());
+					DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(echoSocket.getInputStream());
+
+					int nMessages = config.getNelements();
+
+					// struct fdaqbloc_in {int fnum;int nsample;};
+					ByteBuffer bytebuffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(2 * 4); // 2 times
+																		// Integers
+					bytebuffer.order(ByteOrder.LITTLE_ENDIAN);
+					bytebuffer.putInt(26);
+					bytebuffer.putInt(nMessages);
+					out.write(bytebuffer.array());
+					out.flush();
+
+					
+					// open file and write
+					try(PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(file)))){
+						
+						writer.println("# a" + "\t" + "b1" + "\t" + "b2" + "\t" + "c1" + "\t" + "c2" + "\t" + "d");
+					
+						for (int t = 0; t < nMessages; t++) {
+							// struct fdaqbloc_out {int trigindex;int adc1reg;int
+							// adc2reg;int encoder;};
+							ByteBuffer buffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(4 * 4); // 4 times
+																			// Integers
+							buffer.order(ByteOrder.LITTLE_ENDIAN);
+							int r = in.read(buffer.array());
+							if (r == -1) {
+								break;
+							}
+	
+							int a = buffer.getInt();
+							int b = buffer.getInt();
+							int b1 = b & 0xffff;
+							int b2 = (b >> 16) & 0xffff;
+							int c = buffer.getInt();
+							int c1 = c & 0xffff;
+							int c2 = (c >> 16) & 0xffff;
+							int d = buffer.getInt();
+	
+//							System.out.println(a + " " + b1 + " " + b2 + " " + c1 + " " + c2 + " " + d);
+							writer.println(a + "\t" + b1 + "\t" + b2 + "\t" + c1 + "\t" + c2 + "\t" + d);
+						}
+					}
+
+					out.close();
+					in.close();
+					echoSocket.close();
+				} catch (IOException e) {
+					if(!stopAcquisition){ // Ignore potential exceptions if stop acquisition was triggered before
+						logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "", e);
+					}
+				}
+			}
+		});
+		t.start();
+	}
+
+	public void stopAcquistion() {
+		try {
+			stopAcquisition=true;
+			FdaqConfiguration c = FdaqConfiguration.getInstance();
+			Socket echoSocket = new Socket(c.getHostname(), c.getKillPort());
+			DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(echoSocket.getOutputStream());
+
+			ByteBuffer bytebuffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(1 * 4); // 2 times
+																// Integers
+			bytebuffer.order(ByteOrder.LITTLE_ENDIAN);
+			bytebuffer.putInt(666);
+			out.write(bytebuffer.array());
+			out.flush();
+
+			out.close();
+			echoSocket.close();
+		} catch (IOException e) {
+			logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "", e);
+		}
+	}
+
+}