Need to verify PCI-8336 Connectivity

[pxidan]

We have acquired an older used PXI-1045 chassis with PXI-6254, PXI-6733, PXI-6511 and PXI-6512 cards, my task is to verify that the PCI-8336 in our desktop can talk to one or more of the cards.  If I could run a simple script on the desktop to ping the status of maybe the PXI-6254 it would be great!  If we can ping other cards as well it would be a bonus!  I have no experience with Labview or any NI software.

There is no NI software installed on this desktop.

Once I have confirmed that there is some connectivity then our IT guy will re-image a windows and install that and the other software on this dedicated desktop.

In a couple weeks we will arrange for someone from another group to install(port) his application to our desktop and PXI-1045, he wrote it in C Sharp to control his PXIe-1095 chassis and set of cards.  We have ordered a set of hardware similar to his PXIe-1095 setup but it will be a long, long time before that arrives and we need to make progress developing soon.

Any suggestions on how I can quickly do connectivity tests on this PXI-1045 would be appreciated!!!

[Robert__R]

Hi pxidan,

The quickest/easiest way is to look in device manager. Since you don't have drivers installed for the cards they will be flagged. If you select view -> by connection they should show up near each other (possibly with 1 or 2 bridges between depending on how they're arranged in the chassis).

The 4 cards will also have NI IDs (double click on one, select the Details tab, select the "Hardware IDs" property). They should have "VEN_1093" in the strings shown.

If you can see the boards then the PCI/PXI-8336 boards are working.

- Robert

[pxidan]

I have looked at the device manager, there was a bit of info, but the IT guy said he installed an NI app which we started, and as you can see from the screen shots, it has some info like it knows there is an unidentified chassis out there, so that is good but since it's unidentified it's not as good as I was hoping for.

Notice in one of the screen shots there is a pull down list, so I guess I could tell it which chassis to treat it as, but was a bit surprised it did not give PXI-1045 as one of the selections.  Maybe I should choose one of the others, like maybe the PXI-1042?  Should I do that?

Is there driver software I should ask the IT guy to install? Can you provide a link?

Any suggestions would be welcomed!

[pxidan]

I went ahead and tried to select PXI-1042 as the chassis, instead of the unidentified chassis but it did not act any differently, I'm not sure how I would test that.

Also, I tried to click on the "Open VISA test panel" but it produced and error, see attached screen shot.

any ideas of things to try would be great!

[Robert__R]

It's weird that the 1045 doesn't show up in the list of possible chassis. I'm not sure what's up with that.

It doesn't look like the devices are showing up in device manager. If you select "NI MXI-4 Connection Monitor" then go to view->devices by connection it will expand the tree to the MXI 4 card. There should be a PCI-to-PCI bridge below that, expand it and there should be another bridge. The devices should show up there. If the bridges aren't there then the MXI cards aren't working.

What are the LEDs showing? For MXI-4 you need to have PWR and LINK both lit, with occasional flashing of the TX and RX lines.

- Robert

[pxidan]

the PWR and LNK leds are on and the TX is on.

in the device manager it allowed me to see the PCI-to-PCI Bridge under the NI MXI-4 Connection Monitor but was not able to expand it or "View devices by connection" on it, but was able to show properties on it, see screen shot.

[pxidan]

the screen shot got lost, here it is....

[Robert__R]

Hi,

It looks like your MXI kit isn't working. If the TX light is on then it means it's trying to find the other side. You could try verifying your cable by shining a light in one side and looking for a glow in the other.

The cable is a crossover so, if you have the two ends facing the same way in the same orientation, a light on one side should cause a glow on the other end on the other fiber. That's hard to say it words, so here's another attempt: if you imagine plugging the cable into the port, the top fiber on one end of the cable is connected to the bottom of the other end.

- Robert

[pxidan]

I have asked our IT guy if he could test the fiber cable.

Also, there is a person very knowledgeable about PXI usage, he said we probably need to install a driver or a different driver, however the PCI-8336 user manual seems to say the MX-4 software in the hardware coupled with the installed MXI-software can provide ability to get the info about the PXI-1045 chassis as well as the cards in the chassis.

The attached screen shot shows what software is installed, do you think we need a driver or different version?

[Robert__R]

You don't need a different driver for MXI-4. It's showing up in MAX which indicates that the driver is installed and working.

You'll eventually need drivers for the PXI cards if you get past the hardware issue. Your earlier device manager shots (pxi_chassi_setup_05 specifically) clearly show that there's a hardware issue, and the description of the LEDs corroborates it. The driver doesn't affect either of those two cases.

- Robert