not able to boot sbRIO

[wilburwu]

Hi there,

we have developed a system on sbRIO 9612. For the last half year it has good performance. But a few weeks ago it appeared to be unstable. 

The sbRIO started just in random cases, once it didn't start it could not be found on the measurement &automation explorer. In the last few days the case became worse. The sbRIO don't even start after the board is switched on. (also in the measurement &automation explorer cannot be found)

If I switched the "no App" on DIP to "ON" it boots but without real-time application, though the FPGA works. If the "no App" on DIP keeps "ON" I may start the real-time exe on the laptop and the system works. If the "no App" is switched back to "OFF", the sbRIO will not boot. 

How comes the problem and how to solve?!

Thx,

Wilbur 

[Ruhmann]

If you can get a computer with a serial port near your system, you should connect your computer to your sbRIO using a null modem cable, switch on the consule out DIP switch (switch 2, I believe), and read the output from the serial port using a terminal program on your computer like hyperterminal.  Consule out works at 9600 baud, 8 bit, no flow control or parity.  If you see nothing on the terminal program when you reset the sbRIO, you don't have it hooke up correctly.  If you see any errors after LabVIEW RT boots, post the errors on this message board and hopefully someone can help you.

[Elmar_NI]

Hey Wilbur,

please switch to the Measurement & Automation Explorer and check the different software versions on the controller.

Because the software version of the sbRIO and your developement pc should always be the same.

Kind regards,

Elmar

[wilburwu]

Hi Elmar,

I've checked the versions and that make no difference.

On the other hand I'm sure it is a problem by using the RS232 serial to control a component. Once I frequently (2-3 times per sec) send messages through COM1 on the board, my program exits and the sbRIO reboots!

The Image shows the RS232 controlling in the program:

(the delay by VISA write is according to the specification of my component)

Can anyone give me some advices?

Best Regards,

Wilbur

[Elmar_NI]

Hey Wilbur,

thanks for the feedback.

You posted bevor: If I switched the "no App" on DIP to "ON" it boots but without real-time application, though the FPGA works. If the "no App" on DIP keeps "ON" I may start the real-time exe on the laptop and the system works. If the "no App" is switched back to "OFF", the sbRIO will not boot.

The dip switch control the behaviour of the rt exe on the sbrio and the status will change after the reboot.

Push the NO APP switch to the ON position to prevent a LabVIEW RT startup application from running at startup. If you want to permanently disable a LabVIEW RT application from running at startup, you must
disable it in LabVIEW. To run an application at startup, push the NO APP switch to the OFF position, create an application using the LabVIEW Application Builder, and configure the application in LabVIEW to launch
at startup.

For more information about automatically launching VIs at startup and disabling VIs from launching at startup, refer to the Running a Stand-Alone Real-Time Application (RT Module) topic of the LabVIEW
Help.

So you have to setup the application in the project explorer as a start up to use the feature.

If it dosent work as in den description please send the hardware to NI germany for a test.

Kind regards,

Elmar

[wilburwu]

Hi Elmar,

after a few days of trying out, I 've make the sbRIO start normally. The problem (maybe) was in the initialization of the RS232 in the program. Anyway, it works now.

But the sbRIO sometimes crashes during sending messages on the RS232 and reboots into safe mode with software error!

Best regards,

Wilbur 

[Elmar_NI]

Hey Wilbur,

for tracking a serial communication you are able to use the ni spy software.

So that you are able to see some communication errors on the interface.

You will find the ni spy under Start/Programme/National Instruments/NI Spy

Kind regards,

Elmar

[Spex]

Hi Wilbur,

I haven't seen your entire application, but based on the screenshot you posted, you may be having issues with stability because you are not closing references to your serial port.  In the screenshot, you are not closing the maroon VISA reference after you write to the serial port.  If the code you posted is a subVI that you are calling repeatedly, then you can build up an excess of references to the serial port until you fill memory and crash.

You should either close the serial port within the subVI or re-architect the application so that you only open the reference once and reuse that reference until the application completes.

Regards,

[wilburwu]

Hi, Spex

Thanks for your suggestions! I've tried to use the close VISA VI, but it had no differences.

[wilburwu]

Hi everyone,

so this time I've used the NI Spy to check the VISA communications on the port. It returns an error 0xBFFF0072, if (as I've seen) the messages will permanently sent. In the attachment is the log from NI SPY. It looks like the COM always waits for timeout if two messages are sent in sequence.