LabVIEW Real-Time Idea Exchange

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Could we have SSL on by default in the standard software sets for RT targets? It is not like there is much security in the default setup anyway, so having SSL active as well as the web interface with default passwords is just more practical (if that is the rationale for not having it on...(?)).

Background:
Whenever I have loaded a default software package onto an RT target using NI MAX, I run into this little snag; I try to log onto it using SFTP or PuttY - only to rediscover that this is disabled. So then I have to go to the web interface or NI MAX to enable it. Most of the time we use RAD to replicate PACs anyway, but this is still another little thing we have to remember every time when dealing with the very first setup.

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I really miss the ability to debug reentrant VIs in LabVIEW real-time. Currently there is no way at all, short of indirect probing by programming your own debug functionality (logging of some sort).

I understand there are inherent difficulties in this, since LV RT systems are typically headless, and definitely GUI-less (except for maybe www-access).

But, maybe if we had a way to send a BD reference to a Host PC, the block diagram could be opened there? Something like an Open.BD method with a "destination" input on it? Then the reentrant VI could open its own BD on another LabVIEW instance running Desktop LV.

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Sometimes, you really just want a RT front panel. Of course, there is no real front panel, but when you run in interactive mode Labview is automatically setting up network communication to pull data from the RT target and push data to the RT target. Wouldn't it be great if you could just convert that whole front panel into a basic host VI? Right now, you have to manually convert all controls and indicators to shared variables. Granted, this does force you to be very careful about limiting the number of network-shared items that you have, but sometimes you really just want to run the VI in interactive mode...but deployed.

Or, better than that, convert everything into a web service and automatically build a silverlight UI (using Web UI Builder) which is hosted on the cRIO. Anything that provides you with a quick and easy way to convert from the rt debugging UI to a basic host VI would be great.

Currently, on the cRIO-903x series controllers, the Chassis Temperature and the USER1 push button are only available on the FPGA http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/75E039282A8B691886257E450049C7B6 and require the chassis to operate in a Hybrid Mode in order to use both the Scan interface and those chassis I/O options.

The cRIO-902x series allowed for both of these I/O options to be accessed in the real-time OS directly. This small feature would add convenience on the cRIO-903x series controllers.

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Hello,

It would be nice to had the ability to create more than one RT target in a project with the same IP address.

For the moment, if you try to use 2 same IP address, The LabVIEW IDE don't let you save your modifications !

You may say WTF !!!! The manu has so curious ideas !!!!

My need is for example to had 2 configurations for 1 only RT CRio.

1 configuration in Scan Interface
1 configuration in FPGA interface

Or an other way to use multiples targets ...

1 project linking to Version 1 sources
1 project linking to Version 2 sources

Yopu may say this can be done by using different build specifications.

I will say yes ... But my need is to separate the two versions of LabVIEW sources !

=> 1 project/target linked to an autopopulating folder in version a

=> 1 project/target linked to an autopopulating folder in version b

=> So my need is to be abble to use RT Targets as "Target versions"

=> To be abble to do this ... i need to create multiple targets with identical IP addresses.

Thanks for reading.

Manu.

Given a project topology like this:

Windows PC Host <-> cRIO-9024 <-> NI-9114 backplane <-> NI-9144 EtherCAT #1 <-> NI-9144 EtherCAT #2 which is run in hybrid scan mode, during development I wish that it were possible to, for example, tell the project to run without EtherCAT #2 being physically connected, instead using virtual/simulated IO. As things stand now, when I try to switch from Configuration to Active mode, I get an error saying that "the slave device cannot be found".

More generally, I often find myself thinking that the project explorer needs a good way to "comment out" various pieces of the project without having to resort to "Remove From Project".

I use "Set System Image" to set an image on freshly manufactured units. Every now and then, the imaging process fails for one reason or another (possibly a hardware/networking failure). I know that the image process in my case usually takes about 4 minutes. Unfortunately when the imaging process fails, there's no way for the application to gracefully stop "Set System Image". The only option is to wait a really long time or use the task manager to force-quit the application. The abort button on the VI doesn't work

So, I'd like one of two things. Either, an input so I can adjust the timeout based on my application or some way to let "Set System Image" know that the application would like to stop if possible (maybe nothing had been written yet). For example, it could take in a DVR and the application could feed it a "true".

System Image Escape.png

Streaming data is an important part for many applications. If the amount of data is very large, a RAID can improve system performance significantly.

Sadly, RAID is currently not supported for RT so Real Time Applications cannot use this valuable tool for enhancing streaming performance.

On Hypervisor systems, RAIDs can be used, but data has to be passed from the RT to Windows first. So streaming does not work like/with DMA but it uses CPU load which is in fact a waste of resources.

Norbert

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On all of the RT platforms, if the CPU maxes out at 100% the RTOS goes through a sort of "load shedding" and begins suspending non critical threads to lower the CPU overhead and hopefully maintain determinism. One of the first threads that gets suspended is the TCP thread which essentially cuts off the RT target from the ethernet and outside world.

While I understand the concept of the load shedding, I believe that if you have the CPU pushed that hard, then your determinism is out the window anyway. Dropping the TCP thread only serves to disconnect the RT system from the development environment or the built application with no real benefit. I have yet to see a single application that was actually able to accomplish anything substantial after the point that the TCP thread was suspended. In most cases, the high CPU usage happens during the development of the application or when something is critically wrong with the setup of the deployed app. In those cases, it wouldn't matter how many threads you suspended, the CPU will still be maxed out.

It is akin to blowing out a match in the midst of a forrest fire.

I would propose that the RTOS be reconfigured to show the TCP thread as one of the critical threads and keep it from being suspended during high CPU excursions OR give the developer the option to turn this feature on or off throgh the device properties.

Currently viewing, testing or configuring NI-9862 Modules in a cRIO using NI-MAX needs a lot of effort. It requires:

- Installation of the complete Labview Realtime and FPGA development suite on the connected PC

- Setting up a Labview project including the NI-9862 Modules and an empty FPGA VI

- Compiling the emty FPGA VI to a FPGA bitmap file

- Starting the FPGA VI

Without these steps the NI-9862 Modules are invisible in NI-MAX

Proposed improvement:

- NI-MAX should include a default FPGA bitmap file that includes the communication with NI-9862 modules

- When the user connects to the cRIO with NI-MAX, the current cRIO configuation should be automatically saved to a backup and the default bitmap file should be activated

- When the user disconnects, the backup should be restored

Advantage:

- viewing, testing or configuring NI-9862 Modules in a cRIO could be possible just by starting the NI-MAX and connecting to the cRIO, as simple as with any standard I/O modules.

I'd like to see NI develop a bullet proof way of communicating with a cRIO over TCP/IP to command that it reboot with no startup program, etc. I'm sure it can be done. The question is whether the cost to do this is warranted. I've had the cRIO lock up because of a corrupted deployment and it would not respond over the network until someone physically attended to it by setting the "no app" switch. This cRIO was mounted on a bridge over the Delaware river and was a real hassle to get to, and throw, that switch.

Suggestion: Dedicate a portion of the processor code to servicing the Ethernet ports that can't be consumed by the startup program. The user needs to always be able to reboot the cRIO and download new code.

Any controller that contains either a USB or SDIO card would have a bootstrap loader, available when the controller is in safe mode, that would allow the controller to be loaded up to operational status (OS, Drivers, RTEXE, etc...) from a deployment image contained on the removeable media. This would allow a replacement controller to be unboxed and installed in a stand alone system without the need to install software from a development computer.

This is one of those things that sort of bridges between a hardware and software request.

I do not know about most people use cases with RT system, but I have the reflex to click the run arrow to test all my VIs. When I am on site and I do have access to the hardware, everything is rosy. But, when I do not have access to the hardware, and depending on the system complexity, I now have to wait up to over a minutes before I can resume working. It would be nice if somehow once I realized my mistake I could notified LabVIEW (right away) to run my VI in the main application instance instead of attempting to deploy it on the missing target.

Alternatively, once I made the mistake once, LabVIEW could automatically run the VI in the main application instance.

I do not know what is the best approach to fix this, but I know that I am very annoyed every time I make that mistake.

If you have an RT target set up with a startup application (ready to be deployed in the field), running a VI on it from the IDE should not change anything permanently.

Today (LabVIEW RT 2013), doing this will not just temporrarily stop the VIs running on the target (from the executable) - as you get warned about, but also cause the RTTarget.LaunchAppAtBoot=True line to be removed from the ni-rt.ini. So the startup application will not be launched the next time the device is started up, rendering your device useless in the field. Why?

- We had an incident where we narrowly escaped such a scenario. The RT target was embedded into a cannister that was about to be sealed, but an unforseen issue made it necessary to run a special test on it, with a VI from the IDE. The startup application in this case provides the only way into the system once the cannister is sealed (no Ethernet access, just RS485), so having it no longer start would be a catastrophy. No one expected running the VI would actually change anything permanently. We tested it of course, and saw that it stopped the startup application (and so we loaded an image of the correct setup afterwards to be sure all changes were removed), but it would be much better and more intuitive if no such permanent and fundamental changes occured (if actually possible to implement in a such a way).

Create an RT FIFO Primative similar to the Get Queue Status VI that returns the number of elements in the RT FIFO. Currently RT FIFO Read and RT FIFO Write return the number of elements in the RT FIFO, but calling these VIs will affect the contents of RT FIFO.

A workaround for this would be to maintain a count on a shift register and increment/decrement it each time the RT FIFO Write/RT FIFO Read VIs are called. This solution does not work when trying to monitor the size of an RT FIFO in a running VI in another VI that is used to detect memory leaks.

In some critical installations, it is absolutely unacceptable for the cRIO to be able to "go to sleep" (as it can do now) and be unreachable via its Ethernet connection, especially when it runs out of real-time in the software. Currently when a cRIO becomes unresponsive, it requires manual intervention to kill power, push buttons, and/or set DIP switches, etc. to bring it back to life. Our company is dealing with cRIOs that are located in places that are very difficult, expensive and time consuming to reach.

I strongly recommend that NI add, Ethernet accessible, hardware based reset/restart functions to the cRIO. These functions should be completely separate from current cRIO software and hardware and should allow remote control of the cRIO power supply, and setting of the dip switches and reset buttons mounted on the cRIO front panel. NI-MAX should be enhanced to allow a user to remotely control cRIO reboots via these functions.

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LabVIEW Real-Time Idea Exchange

Enable Secure Shell Server by default

Debug reentrant VI in LV RT

Configuring multiple IP addresses for SNTP or TimeSync on cRIO

Convert RT front panel into host VI

Allow Chassis Temp and USER1 Button to be accessed in Real-Time OS without FPGA Programming

Multiple RT target in a project, with the same IP address ...

Simulate (or comment out) EtherCAT devices within a project

There should be a way to stop Set System Image.vi if possible

Add RAID support to LabVIEW Real Time

Support newer hardware devices for ETS Real-time targets using Desktop PC

Don't suspend the TCP thread when RT gets busy

Update and extend NI System Monitor

Easier NI-MAX access to CAN-Modules NI-9862 in cRIO

Failsafe Remote Control Of cRIO

Field installed RT target

Build on deploy, if necessary

Smart switching to main application instance.

Running a VI from the IDE should not touch the application launch flag

Get RT FIFO Status

cRIO Remote control of reboot or restart