Unable to use MAX to connect to remote PXIe-8840 running RT

[h_yong]

Hi, I'm trying to set up a new PXIe-8840 as a remote RT system. MAX on the host doesn't list. If I explicitly specify the name, it return the error, "Unable to initialize connection to remote target(s)." If I specify by IP address, I get the error, "The device at this address is not supported by the drivers installed on this host."

I have been unsuccessful at finding what driver I'm missing.

The host and remote RT target are on the same subnet now and I can ping.

The PXIe-8840 came with Windows, and I used a USB stick to reformat and load the RT bootloader in preparation for VeriStand.

I've locked at many knowledgebases and the manual for this controller and can't seem to determine what the issue is. I've also tried connecting to it via different switches and different computers hosting MAX. It's not clear to me what software I'm missing. I also tried creating a USB boot drive with a different LabVIEW version, but that did not help.

One interesting thing I noted is that using the USB stick's PC evaluator for RT compatibility, it fails saying that there's no Ethernet ports with valid/supported chipsets. I wonder if this is why MAX fails to communicate fully with the PXIe-8840? What Ethernet driver do I need?

Thanks.

[BauerPower]

As for drivers, you should only need PXI Platform Services. If you do have it installed you could have a corrupted driver install so I would recommend downloading it and reinstalling it from the following location:

http://www.ni.com/download/pxi-platform-services-3.2.3/4186/en/

Let me know if that helps and if not we'll try some other steps!

[h_yong]

Thanks. I tried to install the PXI Platform Services, but there was nothing to install as everything already had a higher version.

[JoshuaP]

Do you have a monitor connected to the controller where you can see what it says on the console?  Its possible the USB driver that you used doesn't have the right network drivers for that controller.  The controller has to get an IP address for MAX to be able to detect it.

In addition, you shouldn't have needed to use the USB key to format the disk.  If the controller supports RT you should be able to go into the BIOS and change it from Windows to RT.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/597D83D21D5BDD1B862573150076B9BD

[h_yong]

It does have a monitor/console, and it is able to get an IP address or autoassign one as necessary. How do I select what drivers are on the USB stick?

The controller as not purchased as an RT or dual boot, so I assumed it didn't have RT so I reformatted. Next time I'll try to boot up directly into RT to see if that works.

[JoshuaP]

If the console shows that the target is able to get an IP address then you can probably rule out the USB.  Have you tried manually adding it in MAX by IP?  

Note it will probably show up as a generic desktop and not a PXI controller since you formatted with the USB stick instead of using the BIOS switch.

[h_yong]

Yes, when doing manually, if I explicitly specify the name, it returns the error, "Unable to initialize connection to remote target(s)." If I specify by IP address, I get the error, "The device at this address is not supported by the drivers installed on this host."

Is there a way to make it show back up as a PXI controller instead of a generic desktop? Functionally, what's really different about the two, if both end up running RT?

[JoshuaP]

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/860548B4F1C34B0A862576CF007135A9

[JoshuaP]

Have you tried opening a command prompt and trying to ping the target from the host?

[h_yong]

Thanks for the link. I have restarted into LabVIEW RT for sure, but never specified safe mode in particular. I'll give it a try. But then again, I've never needed to go into safe mode on any other controller that I've reformatted with a USB stick. Yes, pinging is no problem. The error messages suggest that it can find the host, except it's missing something specific that MAX is expecting.