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Can't access CompactFlash via FTP on cFP-2220 with RT 8.6.1

Hi dfousek, 

 

I didn't think they worked in either. Also, I think I can get a hold of a Kingston 4GB later today and double check your card directly. I agree that this could be a bug, if we can reproduce it we can isolate the problem and get it fixed. Let me try some bigger cards and get back to you. 

Jesse Dennis
Engineer
INTP
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Message 31 of 58
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Hi dfousek, 

 

Just wanted to get you an update and let you know I was still trying to reproduce this. There is something going on with the 4GB cards but you should be able to detect anything smaller than 512MB with problems no matter what version of LV you have installed. Were you able to get a smaller card working off the list I gave you? 

Jesse Dennis
Engineer
INTP
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Message 32 of 58
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Thanks for the update Jesse. In fact I tried a Transcend 256 (industrial) and also had this issue.

 

Dimitri

 

 

Hi Jesse !

 

Nothing changed with the image you sent me.:smileysad: ... In fact, running just the NI-MAX reveals the problem:

 

I get a cFP-2120 (bios 10.4) and connect it to a PC running NI-MAX, with versions 6.08 (fieldpoint) and 8.5.1 (RT LV). I select 'Format Disk'. Then, in the 'Add/Remove' software, I install the (minimal) version. Finally, I go to NI-MAX's 'File Transfer' and there I can see the contents of all my CFlash cards (5 brands, FAT32 or FAT formatted).

 

If I repeat the procedure using NI-MAX with 6.09 (fieldpoint) and 2011 (RT LV) everything is fine except the fact that I can only see the root directory of the cFP-2120 and not the CFlash (either d: or D :).

 

The same happens also with the 3rd pair: 6.08 (fieldpoint) and 2010 (RT LV). As I have posted before, I can reproduce this with another module cFP-2120.

 

Consequently, I can find only one reason that the same module access a CFlash card using  6.08 (FP) and 8.5.1 (RT LV) and not with the last LV versions: Something has changed within the software responsible for the CFlash access. I guess that the FieldPoint driver is not guilty (6.08 works) and the problem resides to LabView. Don't you agree ?

 

Any further help will be really apreciated !

 

Kind regards,

Dimitri

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Message 33 of 58
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Hi dfousek, 

 

The Transcend may not work for all versions of labview, we don't test it and the architectures change from card to card. Do you have an small NI card you could test? 

Jesse Dennis
Engineer
INTP
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Message 34 of 58
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Unfortunately, Jesse, I don't have any NI CFlash. However, I just found a SanDisk 64MB and it works fine...

 

By the way, I suppose that by saying "Transcend changes architectures from card to card" you mean that, between LabVIEW versions, some CFlash architectures are not supported anymore and this causes the problem. Am I wrong ?

 

regards,

Dimitri

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Message 35 of 58
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Not all flash cards detect with a compact fieldpoint. There are so many types we can't test them all and for various reasons we can't find some of them. 

 

As you change versions of LabVIEW the cards that detect might change, but we really have no way to predict this.

 

However, you should definitely be able to detect NI flash cards smaller than 512MB in any version of LabVIEW with the 2120. We re-tested this in LabVIEW 2011 just to be sure. 

 

 

Jesse Dennis
Engineer
INTP
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Message 36 of 58
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Just want to add my two cents... I am having hte same problem with detecting cFlash. formatted a Sandisk 512 MB card, tried both FAT and FAT32 and I can't get the cFP to detect them, can't see it in ftp. I can access the card jsut fine from my laptop, however. THh setup is a cFP 2120 and LVRT 2011 with 6.0.9 fieldpoint drivers. 

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Message 37 of 58
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Hi Jesse !!

 

Following the issue that I described above (as analytically I could), I want to tell you that today I bought 2 brand new NI CFlash 4GB (778622-4096) cards to solve this compatibility issue and I realized that they don't work in all of our cFP-2120s.

 

I repeat that all our cFP-2120s, if formatted with RT 8.5 can access practically all CFlash cards (including NI's), if formatted with the current RT version they cannot, although the current RT version succeeds reading Transcend 4GB (not Industrial grade). Moreover, I concluded that it has nothing to do with the FieldPoint version.

 

So finally, I feel in the same way with other users (*) feeling that we have left behind (... When a company spends the money to buy 20+ cFPs and all the 6-7 modules per chassis, they see this as a capital investment. They expect it to be supported for 15+ years.   ...).

 

I really feel disappointed.

 

Dimitri

 

 

(*) http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=110&message.id=9881#M9881

 

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Message 38 of 58
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Hi Dimitri, 

 

Thank you for getting us an update, and I am sorry to hear the flash cards don't work in 2011. 

 

Another customer had a similar problem and I followed up with R&D on it. It turns out that the 512MB limit I mentioned earlier is the limit that we test to. There are underlying reasons in the RT-OS that file system larger than 512MB aren't supported. R&D will continue to support the 512MB limit but won't expand to 4GB because of those reasons.

 

I do understand your situation and concerns for long term support, but realize that getting a 4GB card working in older LabVIEW environments was a situation the cfp 2120 was never designed or tested for. 

 

Edit: Only the 2220 has a USB hub. The option below on valid for that controller

 

Something that I haven't seen mentioned thread that may help you on any 2220s you have is using USB drives. A KB here explains the size limitations (4GB) and the drive will be mapped to the U: drive. The manual contains supported USB drives on page 4 and mapping information on page 26. 

 

 

 

 

Jesse Dennis
Engineer
INTP
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Message 39 of 58
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Hello Jesse,

 

Although I couldn't read the broken KB link, I doubt that this is the reason, as the 4GB Transcend cards work well and I have confirmed this:

a) by copying many GB-size files and (checking afterwards any binary differences).

b) by writting up to the CF limit DAQ data (accompagnied by CRC codes) and reading them back to my PC.

 

If it was a matter of OS support, these tests would fail. Am I wrong ?

 

Therefore, R&D people should be asked if issues like "CF operation in 3.3V or 5V" or "allocation unit size"  have been changed with the newer versions of RT. 

 

Dimitri

 

 

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Message 40 of 58
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