Do I really need RT engine when I use datasocket?

[DN]

Do I need RT engine to read data from a remote computer? I'm wondering if I can control a remote computer with JUST Labview6i and datasocket through the internet? Please help.

[Aaron Marks]

Technically, you can design an application to handle datasocket of other communications like VI Server and run it on your RT machine. Once the application is there and running, you should be able to communicate with it the same way you would a normal LabVIEW application accross the Web.

[DN]

Thanks for your help, Aaron. As you can see in the attached VI, the instructions asked to select:Operate>>Switch Execution Target then select RT engine on the network of the target. I could not find this function in my Labview6i. Is this a different program that I don't have? Please advise. Thanks.

[Aaron Marks]

Well, remember I said that it would work once the application was there and running. generally, you need the LabVIEW RT or the RT Engine to connect to the remote machine, download and run the application. But lets say for example that we download the DS Writer VI to our RT target using LabVIEW RT and connect it to a DS Server on computer A. You can set up the DS Reader on Computer B and have it communicate with the RT computer through DataSocket without having the RT engine on computer B. You can also terminate the LabVIEW RT connection with computer A but leave the application running on the RT machine and computer B will still be able to communicate with it. If you wanted to pull this off without any RT Engine at all, you would have to
create a stand alone executable application to run on the RT machine. That executable can be put in the Startup Folder on the RT machine and added to the NI-RT.ini file so that it is started when the system first boots up. You could then establish a DataSocket communication with it from another computer without an RT engine at all. However, it is far easier to just use LabVIEW RT to launch and manipulate applications on an RT machine.