LabVIEW 2022 Q3 not supporting NI R Series Multifunction RIO devices (yet)

[patric.j]

Dear all,

Since we wanted to upgrade our codebase to LabVIEW 2022 Q3, I noticed missing support for all "NI R Series Multifunction RIO devices" (eg. PXIe-7846).

This is because the "NI R Series Multifunction RIO" driver has not been updated for LabVIEW 2022 Q3! The latest released version only supports LabVIEW up to 2021.

According to NI tech support, a new version should be released "soon"!

@NI: What is the point of this release without full support of your hardware?

Best regards,

Patric

[TattWee]

I thought drivers are backward competible. The tech support didn't recommend other versions other than asking you to wait? O_O hmm... 

[patric.j]

Slide taken from https://www.ni.com/content/dam/web/pdfs/niconnect/2022/austin/NI_Connect_2022_What_is_New_in_LabVIEW...

As far as I understand, drivers versions pre 2022 are not backwards compatible.

Yes, tech support has recommended to just wait!

I don't understand why they are releasing LabVIEW 2022 Q3 and advertise FPGA Improvements (see linked slides) but do not release updated drivers😤

[crossrulz]

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@patric.j wrote:

Slide taken from https://www.ni.com/content/dam/web/pdfs/niconnect/2022/austin/NI_Connect_2022_What_is_New_in_LabVIEW...

As far as I understand, drivers versions pre 2022 are not backwards compatible.

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Be careful there.  The LabVIEW feature is to allow drivers to be installed into a special folder that can be used by any LabVIEW version (after 2022 Q3).  The drivers still have to be updated to install to that folder.  I never did get a roadmap as far as when drivers would be updated to use this feature.

Even then, NI kept backwards compatibility for 3 previous versions of LabVIEW in the drivers.  A 2022 Q3 driver is still compatible with LabVIEW 2019.

[patric.j]

Thank you crossrulz for the clarification.

This new capability is much appreciated. However, it does not help me now. It would certainly help in the future (eg. I'd have drivers with version 2022 installed and want to install LabVIEW 2023).

[patric.j]

According to NI tech support, a release of "NI R Series Multifunction RIO" driver will be released in the fourth quarter of 2022, between October and December.

This is definitely not the timeline I am happy with. To summarize: It takes NI up to 5 months from releasing LabVIEW 2022 Q3 (July 23rd 2022) until it is actually usable for FPGA (R-Series) development!

[crossrulz]

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@patric.j wrote:

This is definitely not the timeline I am happy with. To summarize: It takes NI up to 5 months from releasing LabVIEW 2022 Q3 (July 23rd 2022) until it is actually usable for FPGA (R-Series) development!

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It could be worse.  I've been waiting for a VirtualBench update for 3 years.  I know at least a few who have been waiting for an update to the myRIO software for just as long.  At least the myRIO people got a 2021 update last month.

[patric.j]

Sorry to hear you are waiting even longer. At least I am not alone waiting for NI. These moves certainly don't make it any easier to justify the high costs of an Software Service Agreement or a subscription in the future.

[TattWee]

It could be due to the recent Vivado 2022 upgrades breaking some of the previous architecture, and the team need more time to fix it. My impression is that this delay is not usual. 

[patric.j · Accepted solution]

Update: NI has released a driver on 10-12-2022 which supports LabVIEW 2022 Q3 (https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/downloads/drivers/download.ni-r-series-multifunction-rio.html#46456...)