Stand alone driver for minimal application installer MyRIO

[Ceslav]

Dear All,

I am trying to deploy a complete installation package for a student lab, which would include:

1. exe application file compiled from a VI. This VI connects to the MyRIO via network streams. 

2. labview run-time engine

3. driver for the USB LAN on the MyRIO device.

First 2 steps have been successful, and the VI communicates with the MyRIO device via WiFi. However, I would like to connect trough the USB and need a driver on the host machine. Installing a complete driver package is definitely an overkill for this occasion.

Therefore, I am looking for someone to point me out to a minimal installation package which would ensure proper communication with MyRIO through the USB.

With kind regard,

Ceslav

[Kristoff2]

Hey Ceslav,

The only official way to install the myRIO USB Drivers is to install the LabVIEW myRIO Module.  This is the only method tested by NI and this method will provide the best user experience.

That being said if all of the computers have the same OS (ie same version and bitness of Windows) you can probably pull the driver form one machine and install it on another.  By default the driver installs to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\CompactRIO\Staging\USBLAN\

I have not tested this and I don't know that anyone has done it so please make sure to fully test the new PCs after performing these steps.  I highly recommend you install the myRIO modele rather than these steps.

1. Copy and paste the driver folder above from a PC with the myRIO module installed one PC to another without myRIO module installed.
2. Connect the myRIO via USB to the new PC.
3. Launch Device Manager
4. Find your NI myRIO [NI-myRIO-19xx-] under Other devices
5. Right click the device and select "Update Driver"
6. Select Install from a specific location
7. Enter path to the driver you copied from the other system. Windows might warn you regarding lack of Windows Logo testing. Click continue. Windows should successfully install the driver and the NI myRIO US Monitor should pop up.
8. Thoughly test the new PC with myRIO.

Let us know if that works for you.

Thanks!

-Sam K

LabVIEW Hacker

Join / Follow the LabVIEW Hacker Group on google+

[Ceslav · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the fast reply Sam K

.

After all, I found the msi files corresponding to the LAN drivers on the myRIO DVDs. There is a separate driver for win XP apparently, which did not work on my Win 7 64 machine. The following file actually worked fine "NiRio_USBLAN64.msi" with the associated cab file. Without the rest of CompactRIO drivers it does not appear as MyRIO device, but as a generic USB LAN adapter. The connections work properly though, exactly what I was looking for :-).

To bad is that when creating an installer in the build specifications, .msi files are not considered executables, and cannot be integrated into a single installation procedure. Students will have to make several more clicks.

I also noticed that CompactRIO drivers can be integrated into the installer completely which makes the procedure easier, but adds another 150MB to the installer compared to the 3.5MB for the LAN driver only.

Maybe this thread will help someone else.

Greetings,

Ceslav

[weeksmr]

Hello Ceslav and Sam K,

This worked really well for a distributed myRIO application that I am working with, thank you!

I'm curious, would the same approach work with single board RIO's and cRIO's? For the cRIO, would anything special have to be done to not use the scan engine and use a custom FPGA personality?

Thank you again!

Mike

[Ceslav]

Dear Mike,

I believe you interact with SBRIO and cRIO via a "real" Ethernet connection which normally does not require drivers, drivers may be required to work with the scan-engine, but I'm not sure. In my project, custom FPGA personality is used, and the communication is done either via Network Streams with a remote App running on an NI Runtime-Engine, or TCP/IP with a generic application that does not use the Runtime Engine. As in this case all the communication with the FPGA personality is not exposed beyond the local application running on the RT controller, no other drivers are necessary. However, if you would like to access the FPGA personality transparently from your remote application, further drivers may be necessary.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Ceslav

[weeksmr]

Hello Ceslav,

Great, thank you very much for this detailed explanation. This is exactly the information that I needed.

Mike