PXI-8360 to PXI-8360 Connection Not Working

[ej]

All,

I have a PXIe-1062Q chassis that I am controlling with the NI-8353 1U controller via a PXIe-PCIe 8372 link (x4 PCI Express).  I would like to connect another chassis, my PXI-1056 chassis, to the PXIe-1062Q and control them both the the 1U controller.  I was told by my inside sales rep (who got the information from a tech) that this can be done by using two PXI-8360 MXI Express cards.  The first card goes into the last slot of the 1062 chassis, and the second card goes into the controller slot of the 1056 chassis.  I have confirmed this configuration with the KB article http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/5FB4ECBD292BB551862573F500021344.

The problem is that this configuration isn't working for me.  Both PXI-8360 units power up in their respective chassis, but the link lights on each remain off.  I am using the latest version of Platform Services (2.3.2), I am powering the chassis in the correct order, and I am using the cable I ordered from NI and making sure that it is inserted correctly.  I have also swapped the cards to lessen the possibility that the problem is with one of the cards.  I am able to see the PXIe-1062 chassis and its configuration, but I see nothing of the PXI-1056 chassis.  I thought that the 1056 might be showing up as on of the busses of the 1062, but it doesn't look like the 8360 card is being recognized by the OS (the Windows XP device manager configuration looks the same whether the 8360 card is inserted or not).  I wonder if the problem has to do with the front end PCIe to PXIe link not being compatable with the PXI-8360 card.  I would really like to know if this configuration of mine is valid, and if so what am I doing wrong?

Thanks,

Eric

[Torba]

Hello Eric,

Although much of the hardware appears to indicate that this will work, it turns out that daisy chaining of PXI Express chassis to PXI-1 chassis or vice versa using purely MXI Express is not available at this time.  This is due to architectural differences between PXI Express and PXI-1 technology.

The x4 MXIe link from the NI-8353 to the PXIe-1062Q chassis with the PCIe-8372 is valid.  Using the PXI-8360 in the PXI-1056 chassis is also valid being that it is PXI-1 compatible.  However, daisy chaining the 1056 to the 1062Q with MXI Express is where the issue lies. 

It turns out that the information given to you from the sales dept and the KB is incorrect.  The sales dept has access to the same resources that you have available so it is quite possible that they saw the same KB, which led them to believe this.  This is a mistake on our part, and I apologize for this inconvenience.  I highly recommend that you contact your sales representative referencing this forum response.  

Here are a couple suggested solutions if a second chassis is still needed for your application:

Instead of using two PXI-8360s and a x1 MXIe cable to daisy chain from the 1062Q to the 1056, use a MXI-4 solution instead:

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/13179  - copper link

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/13180  - fiber link

This will allow you to daisy chain the PXI-1 chassis to the PXIe chassis.  Please note that the MXI-4 daisy-chain solution is valid if the PXIe chassis is connected to the host and the PXI-1 chassis is a slave to the PXIe chassis.  The throughput is also going to be limited compared to x1 MXI Express link that you were attempting to make so I suggest to keep all high throughput cards in the 1062Q chassis if possible.  This chassis does still have the x4 link to the host.

If you need more throughput, then perhaps switching the 8372 to a 8362 in the host might be another alternative.  This would sacrifice the x4 link to the 1062, but you would still have a x1 link to each chassis in a star configuration.

There might be other alternatives not listed here that would still be feasible which is why I suggest for you to discuss this with your sales representative.

Once again I apologize for this inconvenience, and I am sure that the sales force will work with you on a solution to this problem.

Regards,

Mike Torba

PXI Platform Product Support Engineer

[Ivan.Chen]

Hi Torba,

I also trying to find the solution of connectiong PXIe chassis to PXI-1 chassis.

Your configuration is very good. But one thing I  do not quite understand is whay changing "8372 to a 8362 " can improve the throughput? As I understand, the throughput is limited by the MXI-4 (NI PXI-PCI8336 or NI PXI-PCI8331,78MB/s), right? if I try the following configuration:

Install one NI PCIe-8362 in the PC, one PXI-8360 in PXI-1 chassis and one PXIe-8360 in the  NI PXIe chassis,then connect them together. Is it valid? Can we achieve 110MB/s bandwith in this case?

[Jolly_Kuo]

Hi I know this is an old thread but I was wondering if anyone can help me out.

Background: We have a system that uses 3 PXI chassis and we were daisy chaining them together. But now we have a new computer (windows 10) using the NI 8361 connected to Chassis 1 (8360) and from Chassis 1 also using a second 8360 to connect to Chassis 2 8360 and then connecting a 3rd 8360 from Chassis 2 to the 4th 8360 into Chassis 3.

Our card slots are pretty populated and we may be putting on a 4th Chassis.

The Problem: is that whenever we have 2 8360 inside of any 1 Chassis the computer will not boot. But, if I pull out the second 8360 the computer boots just find and can be seen from the device manager.

Question: I was wondering does anyone have a solution to daisy chain (not star) the 3+ chassis together?

[MauraW]

Hi Jolly_Kuo, 

Thanks for posting on the forums! 

I was wondering if you had this configuration working in the past? It sounds like this problem has occurred after switching to a new computer and I wanted to confirm that it was working before. 

I would also highly recommend making a new forum post as you will get a lot more visibility. I would recommend adding the information from your original post along with the information from above to a new post so that you have the most people viewing your question. 

Thanks!