cRIO (with scan engine) System Replication does not work

[viScience]

I am using the native RT replication vi's for my cRIO targets with 9144 extension chassis running the LV2009 scan engine.

I am finding that all files are being copied but for some reason the scan engine will not start up properly once the target

has been replicated.  All IOV's and NSV's appear in the DSM and NSV's all have correct default values.

I am wondering if I need to copy the FPGA image as well or force the project to rebuild the scan engine IP?

Any Suggestions?

[jkurtw]

Hey Mike,

Have you programmed the FPGA on either the local cRIO controller or the 9144s? The bit file for the local chassis is included in the FPGA Open Reference VI in your RT application, so you don't need to manually copy it over.

As long as you have exact same hardware/software on each controller it should work.

If you programmed the FPGAs on the 9144s, then you will need to deploy those bit files. Actually, now that I am thinking about it, you may need to deploy the settings to the 9144s from the LabVIEW project. I believe the 9144s receive configuration information from the project when you deploy, but I am not as familiar with the 9144.

Does replication work without the 9144 in the mix? I am willing to bet that replicating the RT target is not enough to get the 9144 setup and configured.

Kurt 

[viScience]

No, this is a pure scan engine project.  It seems to me that I will need to get the LV FPGA replication tools.  Somehow, the bitfile for the scan engine must

be transfered to the new target(s).  The errors that I am getting are -65581 pertaining to the fact the the fpga is not setup to perform scan engine functionality.

It seems that once I try to use the replication process on a new target then there is no way short of reformating to get it to reinstate the scan engine IP from the project.

[viScience]

Well, I added the LabVIEW FPGA module to my development environment but still cannot see how to get the scan engine bitfile.  Is this even possible?

I have read all the online documents on the subject but anything pertaining to cRIO's w/scan engine is conspicuously missing.

Am I really the first person who has ever tried to replicate this type of common configuration?

[jkurtw]

You can create a "scan engine bit file" by creating a blank VI under the FPGA target and compiling it. When you compile this blank VI it will suck in the logic needed to run scan mode on each slot that has a module in it, under the chassis in the project at compile time.

This white paper talks about it:

The RIO Scan Interface Under the Hood 

Message Edited by jkurtw on 04-06-2010 11:17 AM

[viScience]

Thanks for your suggestion...I searched around the cRIO file system and found a cache of

lvbitx files, all were zipped except for this one:

crio-9074_ce_fixedpersonality_1_3_0.lvbitx

which matches my cRIO chassis type.  I tried to load this file using the RIO Device Setup Utility

but it did not solve the problem.  I suppose I will have to try your suggestion but I think this file must

already exist somewhere.  I would imagine that the lvbitx file would have to be generic since it is not compiled

on the fly in the project based on which modules you have in your project.  It appears that the project includes

xml module description files for that purpose.   

[Ben_S]

sachsm,

Hello!  If you are doing scan engine on a normal cRIO chassis (not EtherCAT) the RT replication tools should do everything you need. Have you been able to replicate a cRIO RT System with scan engine (not using EtherCAT w/ 9144)?

I found a CAR (Corrective Action Request) (ID #19078) that talks about how the RT Create Target Disk Image VI doesn't correctly copy MAC Addres information in the netconf.ini from one cRIO to the other. The notes indicate that this doesn't cause issues with normal use, but that issues can come up with the 9144 EtherCAT chassis.

Can you check the netconfi.ini files on your working 9144 and the non working 9144? An example of what we're looking for can be seen below.

 - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -

[00802F1103A0]
Mode=EtherCAT

[General]
MACAddresses=00802F11039F;00802F1103A0;
PrimaryMAC=00802F11039F

  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -  - -

If the mode is disabled instead of EtherCAT, or the MAC Addresses are identical, then this might be the issue. If so, then the steps below might help out.

• Using FTP, manually remove all of the files from the second system.
• Using FTP copy all of the files from the original system to the second system.
• Reboot the controller.
• Using FTP go to the ni-rt/system/ethernet folder and change the netconf.ini file from disabled mode to EtherCAT.
• Correct the MAC Addresses if they are incorrect.
• Reboot the controller again.
• The system should now work. If it does not verify that your startup application is running. If it is not, verify the ni-rt.ini file in the root directory contains the following tokens:
  
  • RTTarget.LaunchAppAtBoot = TRUE
  • RTTarget.ApplicationPath=/c/ni-rt/startup/startup.rtexe

Let me know if this helps!

[viScience]

Summary:

System consists of cRIO-9074 w/9144 ext. chassis

LV2009SP1

Using the RT System Deployment Utility I create an image of a basic working system (no app just the scan engine)

Using same utility I redeploy to same target and observe that the 9144 etherCAT IOV's are not working (Unknown Error)

If I undeploy and redeploy the EtherCAT Master within the project then the etherCAT IOV start working again.

I have checked the netconf.ini and ethernet.ini files and they are correct.

[viScience]

It turns out that I also need to redeploy my collection of NSV's that are hosted by the cRIO

in order for my RT Startup app to work correctly.

Could someone enlighted me...I thought that deploying a NSV library consisted of compiling and deploying an XML file

to the target.  In my case the xml file is there and the DSM shows the existence of these libraries but they are not viable for such things

as opening a reference to a NSV variable within the library, which is why my app will not work until I manually redeploy the libraries.

[Gharb]

I face problem like you which i have cRIO project with scan engine enabled the program running without any errors,but when i create RT image from cRIO

then deploy this image from RT image utility, the start up give me the same error you have -65581

but when deploy the start up from project it working fine