Boot LV RT from CF on PC!?

[iHapenciuc]

Hi All,

My name is Andrei and I am big fun of LV.

I am trying to transform my old PC intro a mighty real time machine...

I am currently writing LV software for RT PXI, I program them using LV RT 6.1 so I am not completley foregn to RT machines and LV RT.

But on my old PC I had a problem when I've tried to use a CF and a CF to IDE adapter instead of a HDD: it dosen not boot into RT. In fact the message is the one from the attaced picture: "Loading Labview Real-Time".

And it stay like this forever!

 I did not tryed yet an ordinary HDD, because in the end I will still want a CF there.

I must say that if I set-up the bios to boot from A: , and I insert a "LV RT boot flopy", everything is working great. But I hate to use floppys!

Obviously I have used first the "format disk" to format the CF, and this worked ok. After booting (buy using boot floppy) I installed on the CF the LV RT, LV VISA, and some other LV stuff.

The mother board is a baby-ATX Gigabyte board (I don't know the exact model) with a Celeron on 500MHz.

The network board is on PCI and is a proper Intel type as it is specified on www.ni.com

I admit, on the mother board I also have some PCI to USB expansion boards, and sound board (I did not intend to use them in RT 🙂 )

The CF was initialy formated using a USB card reader as a FAT32 using other PC with Win XP.

It is very immportant for me to make this system work using the CF.

Please Help!!!

Andrei

Message Edited by iHapenciuc on 10-08-2007 07:54 AM

[Eric A. · Accepted solution]

Hi Andrei,
Thank you for posting on NI's discussion forums.  The reason your RT target freezes is due to how the BIOS recognizes cf drives.  National Instruments doesn't support cf drives with RT.  Why is a cf drive your only option for your RT system?  Here are the requirements for a desktop ETS system.  I hope this helps but I am sorry I wasn't able to provide a better solution.

[iHapenciuc]

Hi Eric,

Thank you for answering me.

Yet I am a bit puzzeled, because I also work with PXI's and one of them doesen't have a HDD but a CF. It doesn't have a IDE to CF adaptor, but it is a 128Mb CF: NI PXI-8145 RT 

I need to put the sistem in a car and I dont want to be sensitive to vibrations, and to be a light weigh as posible.

Andrei

[JR_A.]

Andrei,

You might find KB: 2UDE586W "Removable Hard-Drive Options for Deploying PXI Systems in Classified Areas helpful. That would provide you with a solid-state PXI solution that would be guaranteed to work out of the box. Another important thing to not is that documents states that LabVIEW RT 7.1 and later support solid-state drive in PXI controllers and I noticed in your post that you mentioned LabVIEW RT 6.1. I have heard of others successfully using CF cards as hard drives in RT systems, however most of the time it was a single-board computer with a CF slot built in. You can find some examples here. I'd be suspicious of the IDE/CF adapter. You could try one of the solid-state drives used in PXI controllers which doesn't require an adapter if you really need that motherboard or you could try a motherboard with CF built in.

Good luck,

JRA

[iHapenciuc]

Thank you JR.A for you're very helpfull links.

I think I will go using a HDD, probably one of those solid state I see in one of you're links.

For me the matter is clear, I hope is the same for other peoples that will want to try this.

Thank you very much for all the help,

Best regards

Andrei

Message Edited by iHapenciuc on 10-11-2007 05:38 AM

[maji]

Hi

i have a same problem with CF,but i use a PC as RT target.

How can i do for message:"Loading Labview .....?"

Help me please

[iHapenciuc]

Hi Maji,

I have found that some CF are having a thing called "ID" setuped as: "Removabale", while some have that thing setuped as "FIXED".

Most comapct flashes bought from computer shop are "Removable". It seem you will never be able to install an operation system on those. I have a feeling that is mandatory to have a "FIXED" CF. Apparentlty is imposible to change the ID you're self.

I have found 1 Cf "FIXED" after I have bought 10 CFs "removable".

To check the ID is simple: put it in a CF to IDe adaptor (is just a conector adaptor, no electronics on it) and put it in you're Windows PC.

After starting Windows the "REMOVABLE" CF will look like a removable media (CD, USB mem etc.) while the "FIXED" CF will look and behave like a real HDD.

I have stoped tring to put LV RT on the PC, but if you are succesfull please let me know how you did it.

Good luck,

Hapenciuc