06-13-2016 08:55 AM
I need some additional USB 3.0 ports but we do not want to use a hub. Is there a PXIe USB moduel available?
06-14-2016 04:22 PM
To my knowledge, there is no way to add USB ports to your controller without using a hub. I’ve done some asking around and looked through our various modules, and cannot find a dedicated USB peripheral module.
You could try looking around for a third party PXI/CompactPCI module; I did a quick Google search and found the following pieces of hardware:
VX Instruments PXIe3004 PXIe USB 3.0 Card
http://www.vxinstruments.com/en/pxie3004-usb-card.html
EFK CompactPCI USB Solutions
http://www.ekf.de/c/cusb/cusb.html
I certainly cannot guarantee our ability to support third party hardware such as these cards, but this should help get you pointed in the right direction.
11-07-2016 10:44 AM
I'm interested in using the VXI PXIe3004 to add USB 3.0 ports to my PXI system, but I am concerned that there may be some technical limitations to what I want to do...
I have a development system consisting of a PXIe-1075 chassis and PXIe-8820 controller. I want to be able to "easily" boot this controller from a different hard drive and use the system as a pre-production testbed. “Easily” booting means I don’t want to swap out the hard drive on the controller itself - I’d rather plug in an external hard drive via USB 3.0. Unfortunately the PXIe-8820 doesn't have any USB 3.0 ports.
An engineer at VXI attempted this with a PXIe-8105 controller, but he was unsuccessful in getting the controller to boot from the hard drive tethered off the PXIe3004 module. Plugging the hard drive directly into the PXIe-8105 controller worked fine, although it was limited to USB 2.0.
Is there a BIOS setting that can be adjusted to enable the PXIe-8820 to boot from a hard drive tethered from a module like the PXIe3004?
11-08-2016 04:19 PM
Hi awooster,
As this thread is already pretty old, you might get more visibility by posting a new comment!
Regarding the BIOS setting, you might be able to alter settings in the BOOT tab that specify boot sequence priority (see the link below), but I again cannot guarantee functionality given that the hardware is a third-party device.
http://www.boot-disk.com/boot_priority.htm
Best regards,
11-08-2016 04:43 PM
Ross,
I'm familiar with the boot priority settings in a system BIOS. Here is the question I'm really getting after:
Will the PXIe-8820 controller recognize the presence of additional USB ports hanging off the backplane of its chassis and include these USB ports in its boot priority list? While the PXIe3004 is a third-party module, the chip at its core is a Texas Instruments PCI Express to quad-port USB 3.0 controller (TUSB7340). I wouldn't think this chip should present anything mysterious to a standard host with a PCI Express bus.
11-09-2016 03:45 PM
Hi awooster,
At this point your question has transitioned into a general computer question, one that is not specific to the PXI controller. The controller itself is a computer in a different form factor, so it is not necessarily something that comes specifically down to NI products. I've done a search for boot priority from PCI bus and was not able to find anything definitive. Here is an unofficial article that discusses changing the priority to boot from another drive.
How to Change Boot Priority
http://www.euask.com/topic/2617-How-to-change-boot-priority
Given that NI does not make any USB PXI modules (such as the 3004 you've referenced) its tough to say how the ports will be recognized in the BIOS. This may be a question to ask the manufacturer.
Regards,
Finch Train