LabVIEW

Using VI Server and Source Distribution on a cRIO breaks if there are bitfiles

Hello.

We have a project in LV 8.5 that runs on a 9014 cRIO. It uses some custom FPGA code to communicate with several modules. We are upgrading to LV 2010 SP1 and have run into a snag. Our plug in that loads the FPGA code does not load.

We use VI Server techniques to have a plug in architecture. The plug ins where distributed as executables or dlls, but they were used like LLBs. This is because back in 8.5 an exe or a dll was essentially a llb with some interface code tacked on.

Now in LV 2010 this is not an option. The contents of executables and dlls are not accesible with VI server Open Reference calls.

This leaves us two choices, Source Distribution and Packed Libraries. We are going with Source Distributions because our attempts to use packed libraries have failed. (I could explain, but frankly that is another issue.)

Source Distributions work for plugins that are not loading bitfiles to the FPGA. When the main code (our Framework) loads the plugin that would load the FPGA, it gets error 1003 at the Open VI Reference call. (This error says that the vi it is trying to open is broken.)

When we copy the plugin back from the cRIO and open it, the IDE looks for and cannot find the two bitfiles the VI uses. Presumably then, the RTE on the cRIO is failing to open the VI because it cannot find the bitfiles.

Various questions:

Do we need to copy the bitfiles over to the cRIO for the plugin to load, and if so, where? We already tried putting them in the LLB only to discover this is not allowed.

This is the second time we have tried to upgrade to 2010. Last time we did not have this problem, but other concerns pushed back the schedule and when we came back we decided to go with SP1. Does that make a difference? Or is there something crucial we did right the first time that we did not make proper notes on?

Please let me know if I have not explained anything. Thanks for any help!