Real Time PC target ethernet problem

[Herod]

Hello,

I'm trying to convert a PC into a real-time ETS target, with a direct ethernet cable connection to my host PC.  I'm using a Dell OptiPlex GX270 as the target, with a supported 82540 ethernet chipset.  I have tested the PC compatibility with the pceval utility provided on the NI web site.  The test confirms the detection of the correct ethernet device but states: "unable to configure primary network device", "IP stack configuration error".  Everything else passed the test.  I have read on NI's website that the Dell GX270 has actually been validated to be fully functional with the LabVIEW Real-Time Module.  Any suggestions?

Thank you.

[bburress]

Hey Herod,
    The PC Eval utility gives you this error?  Is the NIC functioning properly on that PC?  Have you tried installing ETS on this PC and gotten this same error?

[Herod]

Hi Brian,

thanks for the reply.  Yes, I used the PC Eval and my supported NIC is functioning properly.  The error didn't show when I just installed ETS, but then I could not see the target from my host PC.

I finally solved the problem by connecting the target to a network first (before running PC EVal or installing ETS), and THEN connecting the target directly to my host.  I can now see my target on MAX and name it and set its IP to 0.0.0.0.  However, when I reboot the target, I cannot see anything listed under the target name in MAX (even after refreshing), so I can't install any software on my target.  Any idea what's causing the problem?

Thanks,

Herod 

[bburress]

Hey Herod,
    What IP address are you assigning to the ETS system?  If it is not on the same subnet as your host PC, you will not be able to see it in MAX natively.  In order to see items that are not on your same subnet, you will have to right-click on remote systems, and create a new remote device (not on same subnet).  Then you can enter the IP address of your system, and you should be able to see it in MAX after that.

[Oliver Lingk]

Actually I know this question is quite old, but we ran into the same problems and solved them finally.

Using a Dell Optiplex GX270 we encoutered the following problems while verifying our system using the "pceval" utility:

1) Stuck during hard drive checking
2) (after fixing Problem 1) ) "Starting up IP Stack" failed

1): Reason: FAT32 Hard drive required!
Although it's mentioned somewhere, we didn't relialize that you always need a FAT32 formated hard drive, also if you only want to verify the compatibility of your system using pceval. So just formating the drive to FAT32 solved problem 1).

2): Reason: DHCP server required!
We connected the PC to our network, because as stated somewhere a network connection to a DHCP server is required. But during the testing procedure we always ended up with a message, that the IP stack could not be configured.
As we figured out, the pceval utility has problems with "more sophisticated networks". So, buying a simple DSL router (1 WAN, 4 LAN ports, 38 € ~ 50 US$) with DHCP server and connecting it to the PC worked fine.

Hope that helps (at least some readers who have/had the same hard time getting ETS to work...),

Oliver

[bburress]

Hey Oliver,
      These requirements for the LabVIEW Real-Time PC Eval utility are now documented in the KnowledgeBase article containing the utility.  Thank you for posting your results here for the community to utilize!

[Odryx]

Good Moorning,

I would konw how Install ETS.

Where could I find a download of this application?

Thanks

[Kevin_H]

Hi Odryx,

Thank you for contacting National Instruments.  If I understand your question correctly, I believe you are looking for a link to download and install an ETS OS.  Unfortuanetly, it is not that simple.  If you reference this KnowledgeBase article, you can see the hardware and software that is required to get a system like this up and running.

Let me know if this helps you out, and do not hesitate to let me know if you need more information or if you have any questions.

Regards,

Kevin H.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[cjlandry]

After days of experimenting with various motherboards and ethernet cards I finally setup a desktop computer as a RT target that MAX recognized and I could load software.  I used 4 floppy disks to setup the hard drive. This is what I did:

Equipment:
1. A Pentium III or higher processor.  I used an old Dell Optiplex GX110 computer system.
2. A network card with an Intel 8255x chip on the card.  This is a mandatory!!
3. A simple 4 or 5 port 10/100 ethernet switch (the DHCP server portion)
4. a keyboard and monitor.
5. internet connection to NI.com.
6. I was using the LV Real Time 8.5 license.

Process:
1. create 4 floppy disks in MAX/Tools/RT utility... format, boot, safe mode and then the pceval.exe file for the last diskette
2. Format the HDD on the Dell to a DOS system using Fdisk and Format c: (the HDD was a Seagate 10.2Gb)
3. Boot the computer using the format utility diskette and format the HDD to boot using the RT engine.
4. connect the RT system's ethernet card to my 5 port switch.
5. connect my computer to another port on the 5 port switch.
6. Run the pceval.exe from a floppy boot disk and verified the ethernet was recognized.  Remember, the router/switch must be connected if you are goinf to connect from computer to computer.... I couldn't get a network connection without the switch in between the two computers.
7. Boot to the HDD and MAX recognized the RT system.
8. Loaded RT software.

This reads like it was a breeze... i can tell you it was anything but.  It took lots of patience and experiementing to realize what was needed and the NI support techs were very helpful as well.  I used the other 3 floppy diskettes to experiment and verify my system was working or not working. You may want to do the same and I hope this post helps others.

Christian Landry