Remote startup and shutdown of of PXIe controller running Labview RT (WoL)

[gregoryng]

I would like to be able to remotely start up and shut down a PXIe-8133/PXIe-8130 controller remotely over the LAN.  

I can see that the hardware specs for the PXIe-8133 supports wake on lan (WoL), but I'm not sure about the 8130 (although it seems to respond to the network when asleep).

I have seen the guide for configuring WoL under Windows, but I do not have Windows installed on these controllers, so how is WoL configured if I only have Labview RT 2011?

And the 2nd part of my question is whether Labview RT supports a way to programatically shut down the controller?  I'd like the controller to shut down when the startup application terminates.  I've found the RT Restart Target VI, but not one for shutting down.

[Texas_Diaz]

Hey there.

Power management on a PXI controller isn't well supported (or supported at all, really).  WoL is only supported via Windows, LabVIEW Real-Time does not support the WoL feature.  Shutting the controller down is only supported in LabVIEW 2012 and newer via the power button on an express chassis; LabVIEW Real-Time cannot programmatically kill the power on the controller, but it can put itself into a safe state (i.e. shut down) when the power button tells it that, "it has 13 seconds to shut down or else."  

Power Management is on our roadmap, and is being considered for future versions of LabVIEW Real-Time.

-Danny

[Vadim_G]

Hi Danny and all,

looks a couple of years left. Is there any progress in programmatically controlling PXIe under LV RT?

For our running project it would be a very helpful feature.

Thanks,

Vadim.

[Bob_Schor]

Other than saving power (which is a perfectly valid reason for a feature, by the way), why do you want a remote power capability for your PXI?  It seems to me that something like "Wake on Lan" still requires power, as the remote system needs enough power to monitor and respond to the Lan inquiry and thereby switch on the power.

Which, of course, points to a way to solve your situation.  Take a system that has WoL capabilities (say, a Windows PC).  When it "wakes", all it needs to do is to power-on the PXI (surely there are ways of turning on and off Power Strips remotely or via a TTL signal).  The PXI, if it is running a LabVIEW RT system, will auto-start the program -- this solves "getting the system started".

How about shutting the system off?  Well, the PXI code can, on exit, reboot itself.  Just before that, it could send a TTL signal to the Power Strip that says "Shut off the power in 5 seconds" (or however long it takes to finish the shutdown and restart the boot process).

Something of a kludge, but eminently do-able, I think.

Bob Schor

[Sam_Sharp]

You can buy little wireless remotes that can remotely power on / power off a PC: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998141

I have also heard of people using things like Arduinos/Raspberry Pis to turn on/off their PCs/servers.

[Bob_Schor]

Sam,

     As your note points out, turning a PC on and off is pretty simple -- you basically "short" Pin 6 to Pin 8 on the PC motherboard's Power Cable (I think it is called something like JFP1).  However, doing this with a PXI is probably different -- my chassis has a mechanical on/off switch ...

Bob Schor

[Bullet]

Are there any NI solutions for this yet? Original post in 2013. Now 2019.....

Just curious.

[KeddyC]

Hi Bullet,

Thanks for reaching out. Yes there is!

Remotely Powering on a PXI Chassis