Configure DAQ cards in RT PXI system

[EdDickens]

Greetings all,

I'm just trying to learn how to use Real Time and I'm having trouble setting up the DAQ cards in the PXI chassis.

I am able to successfully connect to the PXI RT system and run simple VI's that have no DAQ or VISA access.

What I can't any info on is how to setup and access the DAQ and serial ports on the RT system. A quote from teh help file says,

"To configure remote DAQ devices, select your DAQ device from the Devices and Interfaces category under My System. Select Tools»NI-DAQ Configuration»Remote DAQ Configuration from the MAX menu to launch the Remote DAQ Configuration dialog."

I've tried this and it wants to see the RDA server running on the PXI, which of course isn't there sin
ce it's running RT.

What am I doing wrong here?
I'm running a PXI-8156B with a PXI-6071E and PXI-6713. This also has NT4 installed. Both PXI and host machine have LVRT 6.0.3, NI-DAQ 6.9.1
The host is running Win200.

Thanks
Ed

[Bob_Preis]

Ed,

You can access DAQ devices on the PXI RT system by downloading DAQ VIs and running them on the PXI controller. To run a DAQ VI, you must know the device number of the DAQ device you are trying to program. The device number of all your PXI DAQ devices can be obtained by following the instructions in the help file that you quoted earlier.

If you don't see a new window containing a list of a all the remote PXI DAQ devices after following those instructions, it's probably because you didn't install the DAQ firmware. In MAX, go to Help>>Help Topics>>Remote Systems>>Remote System Configuration>>Firmware Installation>>Downloading Firmware....

Make sure you have downloaded the DAQ firmware; otherwise, your PXI RT system won't know what to do with the DAQ devices w
hen booted into the real-time OS. Note: Even though you installed NI-DAQ in the Windows OS on the PXI system, the real-time OS needs it's own copy of the driver, which is what the help files refer to as firmware.

[Matt_Dennie]

I'm using:

• LabVIEW 6.1


• NI-DAQ 6.9.2f4


• MAX 2.2.0.3010

This may be obvious to others, but it certainly was not to me...

I wanted to configure devices on my remote PXI RT system, and I experienced the exact situation described above.

All the instructions and help I could find seemed to suggest that I should select the following menu item:

Tools >> NI-DAQ Configuration >> Remote DAQ Configuration...

But when I went there and entered the name or IP address of the Remote System, MAX couldn't find it. The PXI system was listed in the "Remote Systems" folder, and I could set up its networking parameters and software downloads from the "Remote Systems" folder.

It turns out the
key is to:

1. right-click on "Devices and Interfaces" in the "My System" folder


2. select "Create New..." to bring up a dialog<\li>
   
3. selec "RDA/Ethernet Device" then click "Finish" to bring up yet another dialog


4. specify the remote systems address, then click "Next"
   
   The List of Remote Devices Appears!!! (Hallelujah!)
   


5. select a device, "Next", specify a local device number, "Finish"
   
   
   Now the Remote Device is listed in the "Devices and Interfaces" folder of "My System" (strange that it's not listed under the Remote System - but who cares at this point).
   


6. repeat for each device

Now you can go back and select that original menu item (Tools >> NI-DAQ Configuration >> Remote DAQ Configuration...), specify the address, and (Behold!) there are those pesky remote devices.

(NOTE to NI... If this process is described anywhere in documents or help files relating to configuring devices on a remo
te RT PXI system I couldn't find it. Perhaps my trouble is that I've never used a PXI system or remote devices prior to trying to us LabVIEW Real-Time, but I'm probably not the only person in this situation.)

[hrobitaille]

I don't understand why you need to configure the remote device in the "Devices and Interfaces" before to be able to acces to the "Remote DAQ Configuration".

With my configuration, I am able to access to the "Remote DAQ Configuration" using the Internet address of the remote RT PXI system, even if I don't have a Remote Device entry in the "Device and Interface" folder.

In fact, you need to add entries in the "Device and Interface" folder if you want to use a "Remote Device" from a LabVIEW VI running on the host system.
When you download and run the VI on the target RT system, you are using local devices which you have configured with the "Remote DAQ Configuration".
With the first case, you are using remote device on a RT system, but you are not ru
nning with real-time determinism.
For example, with my configuration, I am using the "Remote Device" entries to be able to use the diagnostic program from MAX.

[Matt_Dennie]

I don't understand why I needed to either. But Remote DAQ Configuration was unable to connect to the remote PXI-RT system and configure the devices on that system.

After I added the local device pointing to the remote device (as if I were going to access it with VIs running on the Host, even though I'm not), I could access the PXI-RT system from Remote DAQ Configuration (to set up devices I would access with VIs running in real-time on the PXI-RT system).

I don't know why. It doesn't make sense to me. But that's how it works. That's why I thought it might be helpful to others if I explained what I had to do.

- Matt