LabVIEW
LINX + Startup Executable
Solved!
Hello Niklasson,
I am sorry to hear you are stuck with your question for some time already.
Maybe I can provide some insight, however I am not sure if I understand your question fully.
In general, your hardware indeed needs to run an OS; most (all?) are Linux-based. Every OS I know can launch a third-party application (here: your LabVIEW application) on system start-up. Main question is if your development environment can set up such an automatic startup automated, or if you have to do it manually.
Two examples of platforms provided on the website are BeagleBone or Raspberry Pi. Are there any other that can be used in startup executable mode?
Which webpage exactly are you referring to? Raspberry is a piece of hardware that support different OS's, e.g. Raspbian, Ubuntu Mate, CentOS, gentoo, Kali, OpenWRT, OctoPi etc. Therefore I wonder if that sentence you quoted means to refer to default Raspbian only.
if I want to use startup executable [...] I need an unit that supports an OS. Is that correct?
This is the part I don't fully understand. My answer would be "yes, you need an OS on your unit", but I am sure that's not what you wanted to know. Could you please help me to understand by rephrasing your question?
Hi,
Thanks for your elaborate reply. The page you linked helps a lot. You are right. Using the LINX firmware (technically now this is the OS), you can use the target as a "dumb sensor" only. All your code will be executed on e.g. an external PC. With a "real" OS like Linux in place, the target itself can execute your code.
It seems that the two modes LINX implements are closely related to the normal LabVIEW workflow. You can develop on your PC, click "Run", and have the code executed on the target interactively ("Local I/O"). This helps a lot during development, as you have a Front Panel showing all information on your PC, you can step through your code, debug etc. (Note: In normal LabVIEW, you can even start code, disconnect your PC, and reconnect to the target later-on.) When you are done with development, you can "compile" the code, transfer it to the target as a "Startup exe", and have the target execute your code whenever it is powered ("Local I/O with a Startup Executable").
Main question is if your development environment can set up such an automatic startup automated, or if you have to do it manually.How do you understand "manually" in this context? The host starting a program on a target?
I meant the deployment process. You compile the startup exe in LabVIEW. Automatical would be: It copies the exe to the target, sets it up as startup, and you are done. Manual would be: You compile the exe, copy it to the target (via FTP, USB drive, SSH...), and then configure a startup script in Linux to execute it when the device boots.
The last sentence on the page you linked states that it can do automatically: "Creation and deployment of the startup app is controlled from the development PC."
My conclusion, considering the LINX FAQ you linked is, it seems like the workflow resembles the normal LabVIEW / cRIO workflow very closely.
What are you experiences ikaiser with RaspberryPi/BeagleBone or other boards?
Only Raspberrys, 3B and 3B+. All headless with Raspbian. Mainly for networking stuff, firewall, DNS filter, VPN server, nagios.
Have you developed LabView applications for them?
Never.
What OS did you have on Raspberry? I assume that the standard is Raspbian, but I am wondering whether the LINX target configuration work regardless which OS one has (for example Windows 10 IoT?).
From How does the LINX Target Configuration dialog work?: "The Target Configuration dialog connects to a BeagleBone Black or Raspberry Pi 2/3 via SSH and then runs a series of commands just as you might do through a SSH terminal." Sounds like this works only on Linux-based OS's. (I know that newer versions of Windows 10 include an SSH server, but other information shows it will not work)
From How do I start/stop the LabVIEW run-time daemon on a BBB/RPi2?: "[...] If you SSH into the target you can also run sudo systemctl stop labview.service to stop the LabVIEW run-time and sudo systemctl start labview.service to start the LabVIEW run-time." These commands are clearly Linux, not Windows.
Also What is a chroot? Why does LabVIEW run within a chroot instead of as a normal Linux application on t...: "The LabVIEW run-time engine is compiled with options that make it incompatible with the system libraries that are included in the default operating system images used with the BBB and RPi2/3, so the chroot allows us to include a set of system libraries for LabVIEW to use that are compiled with options that are compatible." Chroot is Linux as well, definitely no Windows-compatible LabVIEW executables here.
