PXI-8145RT user1 light blinks 18 times

[TommyB]

Hi all:
This is related to a previous post of mine regarding losing connection to the RT engine. I also noticed that when the connection is lost the PXI-8145RT goes into Safe Mode (software Error) according to MAX. I can't figure out what the heck is causing this error. Also I noticed that this question was posted on 1/11 but not answered. Therefore, does anyone know what the meaning of the PXI-8145RT user1 light blinking 18 times means? After losing connection it blinks 18 times, pauses, and then resumes blininking 18 times again and again... Or blinking for any other number of times for that matter?

[Chad_H]

Tom,

Has the controller ever worked properly? Using FTP, look at the NI-RT/STARTUP folder (type ftp://x.x.x.x/ni-rt/startup in Internet Explorer, where x.x.x.x is the controller's IP address). What is there?

The LED blinking is documented in the PXI-8140RT Series User Manual on page B-1. It says:
The USER1 LED indicates LabVIEW RT status:
• If this LED blinks one time every 2–3 seconds, the IP address is 0.0.0.0 (the device is unconfigured).
• If this LED blinks two times every 2–3 seconds, the software on the PXI-8140RT is corrupt or missing, and the box is in safe mode. (Reinstall the software from MAX.)
•
If this LED blinks three times every 2–3 seconds, you have flipped the safe mode switch, causing the box to go into safe mode regardless of whether it could otherwise boot.

Obviously what you are seeing is not documented there...How long does it take to blink 18 times?

We can start from scratch by uninstalling the software on the controller and reinstalling it. To uninstall it, manually put the controller in SAFE MODE (switch S2 - see the PXI-8140RT Series User Manual pp.2-6 and B-2 for details). Right now, booting with S2 switched uninstalls the software. Put the switch back to normal and then reconfigure the controller.

What IP settings are you giving the controller? What version of LabVIEW Real-Time are you using? Which drivers are you putting on the controller? What are the IP settings of the host PC? What is in the program you are using? Are you calling any C code or DLLs?

Regards,

Chad H.
Applications Engineering
National Instruments
http://www.ni
.com/ask

[TommyB]

I answered this in the other similar post but here it is again... I was able to corect the problem by un-checking the "deallocate Memory as soon as possible" setting under RT Target Options. I was fortunate enough to have two (2) PXI chassis where one worked while the other didn't. This was the only difference that I found between them and it corrected the problem.

[JasonWB]

My USER1 LED blinks four times and I have a 8140-RT. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jason

[Ben]

This sounds like a memory leak.

Monitor your memory usage before the incident.

If memory is climbing toss "build arrays", stringsn and anything else that does not sit in a fixed sized memory space.

Ben

[Kristi_P]

The User1 LED blinking 4 times means the same thing as when a [c]FP controller status light is blinking 4 times: unrecoverable error. This may likely be caused by a memory leak in your program.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Kristi H
National Instruments

[JasonWB]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I did get info from NI that it is simply a CPU crash that was caused by in sufficient memory in the CPU module. This error occurred during downloading of software from the PC to the controller, so it definitely wasn't a memory leak in the program. It appears as if there are no safeguards that indicate to the user that there is insufficient memory in the controller to download the requested software. This is something I believe NI plans on fixing in the future.

Thanks,

Jason

[Aussie]

Hello,

My PXI-8146RT also has the same symptom as Tom. This occured while trying to upgrade NImotion to 7.2.

An attempt to do minimal installs didnt work and the controller is stuck in safe mode.

Has anyone fixed this problem by replacing the Flash drive with a larger capacity Flash?

If not, what is the remedy?

regards

frank

[Ben]

Hi Frank,

Do I understand you correctly in that your PXI-8146 was running OK until you updated NImotion?

I would like to hear more details of what went on in what order from the time it was working until it stopped.

Ben

[Aussie]

Hi Ben,
Im using LabViewRT 7.0
I could no longer communicate  successful with the 8146RT  after upgrading to NI-Motion 7.2
I tried a larger Flash 256M drive. This didnt work. (32M was fine only 24M inuse)
Im using a PXI-1002 chassis and was using NImotion 6.1.2

Dell Windows XP laptop in use via a netgear F120 USB to ethernet adaptor.
I have escalated this problem to NI but as yet no solution.  They are finding that the 8146RT  goes into safe mode then disconnects.

I dont know if its a SW or a HW problem.

Any ideas
frank