Using Fieldpoint from Labview RT on a PXI System

[Ravid]

I have a PXI system with Labview RT (PXI 8186 controller with LVRT ver 7.1).

I wanted to connect a FP remote I/O system to this controller. The Fieldpoint system I have has a FP-1000 RS-232 Network module.

I was hoping to be able to connect the FP-1000 to the serial port of the PXI-8186, and use the standard Fieldpoint VIs to write/read data (as you would from a Windows-based Labview app).

It doesn't seem to be that easy, trying to download any code with a Fieldpoint VI down to my RT target gives an error ("failed to load shared library FPLVMgr.dll on RT target device"). Looking through MAX I see that Fieldpoint drivers are not loaded on the RT target, and there is no option to load them there either.

So: Ho
w do I control my Fieldpoint units from my PXI System using Labview RT?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ravid

[BoxTrooper]

Ravid,
The FP-1000 is a "Network Interface" (http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/nioc.vp?cid=2175〈=US) module, switch to a "Controller Interface" (http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/nioc.vp?cid=12164〈=US) module instead if you need to run LabVIEW RT on the FieldPoint controller.
..
I know that LVRT can access RS232 devices (I have done this to update an LCD display from LabVIEW RT), so I think if you just use the FP-1000 as a remote I/O device, not downloading any RT code to the FP-1000, you can read the input from it with LabVIEW RT.
..
From a regular LabVIEW you access the FP-1000 by defining channels in NI-MAX, then call them by name.

[GValdes]

Hi, Ravid.

Effectively, under LabVIEW RT, you cannot use the standard FieldPoint VIs to communicate to a FieldPoint module, since they are not supported. If you have a serial module, like the FP-1000 or FP-1001, you need to use Optomux commands to interface and communicate to it. You can find great examples on how to do the communication in the Example Finder of LabVIEW >> Hardware Input and Output >> FieldPoint >> Optomux >> and use any of the examples that use VISA to communicate to the modules. To run the examples, first target LabVIEW to your 8186 and open the example. Before running it, match the baud rate and address specified in your FP-1000 with the controls in the Front Panel. Also, verify that you have either an alias defined for COM1, or use AS
RL::INSTR1 for the VISA resource name. You will need to have VISA RT installed on your RT Target to be able to run this examples.

You can find the Optomux commands in LabVIEW under the Advanced FieldPoint palette. For more information on Optomux commands, you can take a look at the FP-1000/1001 Programmer Reference Manual

Let me know if you have further questions. I hope this helps!

Gustavo Valdes
Applications Engineer

[Ravid]

Hi Gustavo,

Thanks very much for the reply. I had a brief look at the reference manual and the examples and I'm sure I'll be able to make use of these.

Thanks again,
Ravid

[Ravid]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. As it stands I need to keep the PXI realtime controller as the fieldpoint unit is not all that is being controlled: the system has SCXI components, DeviceNet, GPIB, and some fairly intense code.

Your second scenario is more what I'm facing: using the FP-1000 as remote I/O, and communicating to it using RS-232. As Gustavo states in his answer, it looks like the best way to do this would be to use the Optomux VIs which are documented and have some associated examples.

Thanks very much for your answer,
Ravid

[Mukul J]

    Hello,

I am working with a cFP-2000 network module with a cFP-AIO-600 and 2 cFP-AI-100s on a Windows 2000 PC running a copy of LABVIEW 7.0. When i switch my RT target to the controller and then run the program, it stops downloading half way with the error message : "Failed to load FP Write (Float).vi'' and the next dialog box gives two instances of the following message: " Failed to load shared library FPLVMgr.dll on RT target device".

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[TreyB_NI]

Mukul,

What version of Fieldpoint are you using?  You can determine this by going to Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) and looking under the software tab.

Are you able to see it under remote systems in Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX)?  In remote systems, you should be able to right click on the cFP-2000's software section and select add/remove software.  A screen will pop up with a list of software.  What version of "Fieldpoint Drivers" and "Fieldpoint VI Manager" do you have?  If you click on those, on the right side does the version that is available on the host match the cFP-2000?

Trey B
Applications Engineering
National Instruments

[Mukul J]

Trey,

Thanks for that prompt reply. I found an excellent software version cross ref on the NI website and that has solved my issue for the moment. I was using LABVIEW RT 7.0 with:

1. FP control environment 4.1.7
2. FP VI Manager ver 2.0.1
3. NI VISA 3.0.1
4. NI Serial 2.5.2

This is weird because after i updated my software as above the VI execution to the target was flawless, but when i started to look up my system on MAX 4.1.0 I get errors saying i could have a possible broken connection and MAX cannot access my modules as it used to before. To verify my ethernet connection i pinged my controller IP and the data packets i get in reply suggest there could be no problems with the ethernet. Am i missing something here ? Is there a version conflict with MAX that i should resolve to have this fixed ?

Thanks again
Mukul

[TreyB_NI]

Mukul,

What did you upgrade to?

There is a known issue with MAX 4.2.0 that prevented unconfigured Real-Time targets from being detected, but you are using 4.1.0.

Did you recently upgrade MAX?  The other installations may have indirectly updated it.  I'm not sure if MAX 4.1.0 is compatible with LabVIEW 7.0.  I do know that the version of NI-DAQmx that installs MAX 4.1.0 is not intended for LabVIEW 7.0.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/97D574BB1D1EEC918625708100596848?OpenDocument

Trey B
Applications Engineering
National Instruments