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Having a Difficult Time Installing LabVIEW FPGA Module

I am trying to install LabVIEW FPGA Module.

 

I am done with the installation but anytime I try starting LabVIEW FPGA Project, I get this error message which reads

 

"Unable to load FPGA Project Wizard"

"Possible causes:"

"-LabVIEW FPGA not installed."

"-The LabVIEW FPGA installation is corrupt."

 

Can I get any help on how to fix this?

 

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You have told us nothing about your installation.  Are you running on a PC, a MAC, a Linux box?  Are you running LabVIEW 7, 8.2, 2014, 2023 Q1?  Are you running 32-bit or 64-bit LabVIEW?  What modules have you installed?  What FPGA Compiler?  Is this your first LabVIEW installation?  Are you a student and this is your first LabVIEW experience?  What do you mean by "starting LabVIEW FPGA Project"?

 

Bob Schor

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Hello Bob,

Below are the details of my setup as requested:

Computer setup: PC

Running LabVIEW: Yes Version 21.0.1f2 (64-bit)

Modules installation: None. Trying to install an FPGA module and that is not even working.

FPGA compiler: None

First LabVIEW installation: Yes

Student and first LabVIEW experience: Yes

What I mean by starting LabVIEW FPGA Project: I was trying to start a new FPGA project by going to Create New Project and selecting "LabVIEW FPGA Project" template. After clicking on that to start a new project, the computer returns an error message.

 

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@lquarshie wrote:

Hello Bob,

Below are the details of my setup as requested:

Computer setup: PC

Running LabVIEW: Yes Version 21.0.1f2 (64-bit)

Modules installation: None. Trying to install an FPGA module and that is not even working.

FPGA compiler: None

First LabVIEW installation: Yes

Student and first LabVIEW experience: Yes

What I mean by starting LabVIEW FPGA Project: I was trying to start a new FPGA project by going to Create New Project and selecting "LabVIEW FPGA Project" template. After clicking on that to start a new project, the computer returns an error message.


There are three very different "levels of LabVIEW Learning" you need to do.  First, you need to learn LabVIEW, pure unadulterated LabVIEW, with no LabVIEW Real-Time, and no LabVIEW FPGA to muddy up the picture.  And no LabVIEW Vision, either.  It would help if you had access to some LabVIEW DAC, (Data Acquisition and Control) hardware, such as a myDAC, or a USB-6000-series module so that you could learn how to use LabVIEW for Data Acquisition and Control (the purpose for which LabVIEW was developed).

 

Does your school offer classes in LabVIEW?  If not, are there experienced LabVIEW users (faculty or graduate students) to whom you could "apprentice"?  If you are already an accomplished Text-based language programmer (C, C++, Java, Python, etc.) so that you know some things about I/O, branching and looping, subroutines and functions, etc., then you might do well with some tutorials, but having someone to clue you in on how to work the User Interface and how to "design" with Graphical Programming can be a big help (one of my students, when I was first learning LabVIEW, showed me the importance of using the Shift key when moving a wire or function or Front Panel object by using the arrow keys).

 

Expect to spend several months getting familiar with what LabVIEW has to offer.  Besides being Graphical, it is a Data Flow language, which requires "thinking in parallel" (as you may well be programming in parallel).

 

Note I've said nothing about FPGA.  Basic LabVIEW can do nothing with FPGA.

 

When you get "into" Data Acquisition and Control, you will sooner or later run into the issue of critical timing issues, particularly when trying to sample data at reasonable rates (say, in the low kHz range) and integrate this with controlling equipment with "reasonable" time precision (say micro- to milli-second accuracy/precision).  Now you need a different (non-Windows!) operating system, one that "doesn't do fancy I/O" (no Front Panel, no, or little, file I/O, just accurate, predictable Real-Time handling of DAC gear.  Welcome to NI Real-Time LabVIEW, designed to be run with NI Real-Time Linux OS (I'm not 100% certain that his is the correct name, but it's close ...).  You write your LabVIEW program on your PC, including the code that you will deploy to the Real-Time Target (which requires additional hardware, as it involves a second processor running the Real-Time OS, maybe a CompactDAC or a CompactRIO).  You connect to the RT Processor and communicate using TCP/IP.  Once your Real-Time code is written (on the PC), you deploy it to the RT Target and start it running, completely asynchronously to anything you are doing on the PC.  Getting up-to-speed on this technology might be another few months.

 

Some of these Real-Time devices (the RIO family) might have an FPGA Chip on them, one that you can "reprogram" (or run "canned programs" that take advantage of already-compiled routines installed on the FPGA Chip.  Now we're talking really advanced, and software that is running on three totally indepdendent Processors (PC Host, RT Target, and FPGA Chip on RT Target).  The FPGA Chip cannot run LabVIEW -- it can only run its "own language", which requires a very sophisticated compiler to take even simple code and basically "reprogram" the logic inside the FPGA Chip.  It is the ultimate in parallel processing and Real-Time determinism, and is going to set you back another couple of months years.

 

But to answer your question:

 

The reason you cannot run an FPGA Project is several-fold.  I'm guessing you installed LabVIEW with the recommended Device Drivers (DAQmx, VISA, not sure what else) and a few "Additional Features".  You probably did not (and should not at this point in your learning) install LabVIEW Real-Time.  You probably did not (and should not) install any FPGA Compilers, or support for FPGAs.  You probably did not (and should not) install Device Drivers for devices that include FPGA Chips (such as CompactRIO).

 

So learn LabVIEW.  It's fun, it is powerful, it is a whole different way to "look at" computer code.  The LabVIEW Forum is here when you "get stuck" ...

 

Bob Schor

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