CentoS 7.6 NI-Serial PXI-8433/4 support

[RVallieu]

The fix for this in Linux is to add the user to the dialout group.  Unlike on Linux RT where the user is lvuser, the LabVIEW development instance is run under the logged in user, so add your dev account to the dialout group.

[RVallieu]

oops - delete double post

[RVallieu]

The next issue is that despite the documentation stating otherwise - the default mode of the cards does not appear to be 4-wire.  Checking through NIvisaic through the Linux Terminal, the ports are default RS232_DTE.   With the Wire Mode property being unsupported in Linux, it looks like I am out of luck correcting this.  NI is looking into this, so maybe there will be a solution.

My system is LabVIEW 2018, Linux 2018 Drivers, CentOS 7.6.

I do have a LabVIEW 2019, with the LabVIEW 2019 drivers that were just released and CentOS 8 set-up coming to test out.  I will definitely follow up if that fixes or doesn't fix the issue.

I tried a simple Loopback test, and it did not work.  I then tried the same loopback test on the Rs422/485 DB9 loopback dongle on a USB-RS485 with my PC, and that worked, so the wiring on the dongle is correct for loopback (per NI wiring in their Serial Reference Guide).

[RVallieu · Accepted solution]

As a follw-up: the Serial cards are now working, we did have to make sure the driver was properly installed originally, as noted above.  Then we found an issue with the online instructions for the serial loop back test and the recommended cable to connect the RJ50 to a DB9 breakout for loop back wiring.  The incorrect cable was called out on the instructions.  The 192190-01 is not the correct cable.  The 182845-01 is the correct cable that matches the usual serial pin outs. 

You can use a 192190-01 but you need the pin outs to determine the correct pins.

I have attached the pin outs for the 192190-01 (192190A-01) and the 182845-01 (182845C-01) that were provided to me.  I could not for the life of me find the pin outs on ni.com when I searched for any documentation on the 192190A-01.  If I had a DMM with continuity capability I could have found the pin outs - but based on the NI documentation I was wiring them up correctly...

[~knightwhosaysNI~]

Can anyone in NI look into this : https://forums.ni.com/t5/Instrument-Control-GPIB-Serial/PCIe-8431-16-in-Linux/m-p/4160872

I am having the same problem, and even after following the steps outlined in this thread, the PCIe 8431s are not showing up on the NI Visa Interactive Control.

lspci shows that I have two PCIe-8431 installed

[JasonSmith]

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@~knightwhosaysNI~ wrote:

I am having the same problem, and even after following the steps outlined in this thread, the PCIe 8431s are not showing up on the NI Visa Interactive Control.

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The older NI-Serial driver only supported PXI/PXIe RS-485 boards, and not PCI/PCIe. It also had several other limitations, especially on RHEL where I believe you could not even configure RS-485 wire modes.

For version 21.5 the NI-Serial driver has been completely replaced. This more closely aligns with the features found on the drivers for Windows and older pre-Linux LabVIEW RT controllers. This should support all NI-Serial PCI/PCIe/PXI/PXIe devices, with much improved performance and many features which were missing from the previous Linux release.

You can obtain this from the latest Linux Desktop drivers feed:
https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/downloads/drivers/download.ni-linux-device-drivers.html#442674

[~knightwhosaysNI~]

Thank you! I am able to access all the ports once I installed the latest drivers. 

[RVallieu]

Is the wire mode setting available now in the new driver?

Am I able to update my instrument drivers to 21.5 or higher and leave LabVIEW at 2019?  Usually I think this is possible.

[JasonSmith]

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Am I able to update my instrument drivers to 21.5 or higher and leave LabVIEW at 2019?  Usually I think this is possible.

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Yes. NI-Serial doesn't install any LabVIEW support directly, as the VISA support it relies on is already included with the LabVIEW installation.

For other drivers, any of the NI Linux Device Drivers 2022 releases still support LabVIEW 2019.

[RVallieu]

What about compatibility with RHEL 7.9 with Device Drivers 21.5?

It is unclear from all the compatibility charts if this works on RHEL before RHEL8.