Swap PXI-6281 cards

[xl600]

I have a PXIe chassis with LVRT.  It contains two PXI-6281 cards.

One card has the bulk of my channels defined.  I use a VI to setup all the global channels, but I also define some standard tasks for that card.

While that card is out for calibration, I want to swap in the second card so I can keep testing.  What needs to be done for this temporary swap?  Would just moving the cable and changing the card name be sufficient?  Do I physically have to move the new card to the same slot as the removed card as well?  And where is all of the Max configuration stored on a LVRT controller anyway?

Thanks,

XL600

[lagelian]

I would export the configuration files for the original card and import them to use with the new card. For consistency in the way you reference the card in the code, I would make sure the card is in the same slot and confirm that it appears under Devices and Interfaces under the RT PXI. 

Configuring Devices in RT PXI - http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/A43DD6F680D123DD86256F870002B6A2

Exporting and Importing MAX Config Files - http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/0E0D3D7C4AA8903886256B29000C9D5A

[xl600]

Is there a way to do this programmatically using a VI running on the host PC?  I'd like to give my users a simple button that says something like "Swap cards 7<>8" or "Setup new card 7"... Trying to make it dead simple since this needs to happen every 6 months or so.

[crossrulz]

The way I see it, you have 2 options

1. When one card comes out for calibration, put a replacement in the same slot.  This should show up as the same device.

2. Always have 2 installed and put something in your code (config file, user input, etc) to state which one to use.

[xl600]

That's pretty much how I'm doing it already.  I was thinking only the name would need to be changed and any external calibration data swapped over.  A programmatic way to perform the max configuration export and import would be a good way to make that happen in any one step.

Is there any description of what gets saved on the card itself?  I can guess it from the max export, but an actual NI white paper would be much better.

thanks,

[xl600]

I've been looking into the System Configuration API to perform programmatic export and import.  There's not much in the way of examples on how to use these VIs.  No examples at all for card or alias specific export and import.  Does anyone know how to use the Create Filter VI to limit the export available through the Export VI?

[lagelian]

You can use the Create Filter VI to specify the type of hardware or the slot where the device resides, and then use the Find Hardware VI, which will output the resources that you can wire to a hardware property node or to any of the other hardware management VIs. However, it doesn't look like the Export VI will accept resources for a specific device type, and only has an import for the system session (ie: local host, remote target)

[xl600]

That's what I found as well.  Thanks for taking a look.

[xl600]

Well, I've done some investigating and it seems I actually don't have to do anything at all to swap cards of the same type.  Nothing is stored (Configuration wise) on the card other than the eeprom based external calibration.  The card name is actually an alias mapped to the PXI resource name and (By way of c:\ni-rt\system\pxisys.ini) to the PXIe slot itself.  Channel calibration data is stored in the Max files (Indecipherable) in c:\ni-rt\system\config*.mx*.

The more you know, right?

Thanks for all the input!