How can I fix "Inconsistent IP Settings" in NI MAX?

[cmorris89]

It's great to hear this has now been patched, I wish this patch was available when I first ran into this problem! Will update the Solution as the link to the patch, thanks for the input 🙂

[Alex2012]

Hi!

I have the same issue on NI-9035. I have tried both direct USB connection or Ethernet, the same issue: after several hours of idling I get "Inconsistent IP Settings" in MAX and cannot connect to target anymore even via NI DSM manager.

The only thing which helps is to reboot computer (not NI-9035). See attached screenshot with installed software (all is up-to-date). I thought that maybe there is a standby USB problem, but disabling power savings on USB did not help.

Any ideas how to fix it?

[Alex2012]

.... and here is a snapshot after PC reboot (HW info and installed software). I did firmware upgrade to the latest 5.0.0f1 for 9035, but the problem still exists.

[cmorris89]

Hi Alex,

That’s strange... So it looks like all of your software is up to the same version (2017) so it won’t be the problem I had, which was a version incompatibility. Just to clarify, you don’t get the problem at first, only after a few hours of idling?

Also, has it ever stopped working while you have been actively using it? Are you able to test this on a different PC? That could help to eliminate the current PC as being the issue. It seems strange for it to work fine and then switch to this error.

I haven’t used one of these before, but you mentioned both USB and Ethernet; you can connect to your PC with either method? If so have you tried setting the IP of your target to be discoverable by your PC? For example if a PC has an IP of 10.158.20.8 then the target would need to have 10.158.20.x where x is not 8.

One final question, can you still run code when this problem presents? When I had it, I could. I just could not configure software on the target, but it actually worked fine, effectively. Sorry for the barrage of questions, just trying to brainstorm!

[Alex2012]

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@cmorris89 wrote:

Hi Alex,

That’s strange... So it looks like all of your software is up to the same version (2017) so it won’t be the problem I had, which was a version incompatibility. Just to clarify, you don’t get the problem at first, only after a few hours of idling?

Yes and it is a bit stochastic, I did not notice any specific period before it happens

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Also, has it ever stopped working while you have been actively using it? Are you able to test this on a different PC? That could help to eliminate the current PC as being the issue. It seems strange for it to work fine and then switch to this error.

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No, I just installed all software on this PC. It took a while to install all components and drivers.

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I haven’t used one of these before, but you mentioned both USB and Ethernet; you can connect to your PC with either method? If so have you tried setting the IP of your target to be discoverable by your PC? For example if a PC has an IP of 10.158.20.8 then the target would need to have 10.158.20.x where x is not 8.

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NI cRIO software installed driver "Ethernet over USB", so target gets two IP addresses as you can see in the snapshot after reboot when target is detected.

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One final question, can you still run code when this problem presents? When I had it, I could. I just could not configure software on the target, but it actually worked fine, effectively. Sorry for the barrage of questions, just trying to brainstorm!

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I have not tested it yet because I just unpacked hardware, installed all drivers and NI software. Sure, I will make some code and run it there. However, I did another experiment: for some hours I left NI DSM with target CPU/memory etc monitoring and later on it stopped monitoring.

In anyway, thank you for brainstorming and suggestions, I really hope that problem lies in PC (Lenovo) hardware (which I can change easily) and not in target or NI software because, if otherwise, it will slow down my work significantly.

[cmorris89]

Hi Alex,

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@Alex2012 wrote:

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I have not tested it yet because I just unpacked hardware, installed all drivers and NI software. Sure, I will make some code and run it there. However, I did another experiment: for some hours I left NI DSM with target CPU/memory etc monitoring and later on it stopped monitoring. 

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Ok so I see you have System State Publisher installed, without that, this data would not be visible, so looks like you have everything in order there.

I looked at the previous screenshots and I was wondering could you post a screenshot of what you see on the "Network Settings" tab in MAX?

I've found a few things that may help, let's say in descending order of potential usefulness:

This white paper talks about configuring devices with Ethernet over USB. One particular highlight was that it talked about plugging in with USB at first, to get the initial config up and running.Then it suggests that you actually deploy applications via Ethernet, instead of USB. It also says that USB can be used later on as a means to add or remove software, or other configuration tasks, without having to interrupt the ethernet connection. The theme is that Ethernet is a more robust means of connection than USB, but the USB connection here definitely has some great usage scenarios, but overall shouldn't be needed for actually deploying applications.

So, I wonder, have you left your device monitoring while it is connected via both USB and Ethernet? Could you try just with Ethernet? Pardon the conjecture, but perhaps there is something related to the USB that means it enters some kind of timeout or sleep mode, where it stops transferring messages. Perhaps then, if the USB times out, and MAX is looking for Ethernet and USB, but can only see the Ethernet then this could cause inconsistent IP settings. I would imagine it is far less likely you would have to worry about anything to do with the Ethernet side of things.

This thread is about a 9073, so not exactly the same scenario, but it might be worth checking out for any pearls of wisdom in there.

This page gives some information about re-configuring a target, IP settings and so on, if it appears that you might need to do anything on that front (though the USB over Ethernet sounds like it greatly simplifies this process, and you have been able to connect to the target no problem).

One final thing I recall from one of my past applications was that every now and again I would notice a network "drop out" when I was using LabVIEW Ind Com Ethernet/IP to read tags from an Allen Bradley PLC, into LabVIEW. It was random, sometimes it never happened, other times it happened early and I would miss a bunch of data (could not safely stop and restart at the time). I recently spoke to a colleague who mentioned he has had occasional trouble in that regard, and we had both found only going into the Services (Windows+R, type services.msc and hit Enter), and right clicking "LabVIEW Variable Engine" and clicking "Restart". This however is pretty unacceptable, users should not have to be doing that kind of thing just to read data that should be easily readable. Could be totally unrelated to you, but perhaps out of curiosity next time you see "Inconsistent IP Settings" try restarting the Variable Engine and just see?

So let's summarize:

• Can I see your "Network Settings" tab?
• Have a look at those links, particularly the first one, lots of USB over Ethernet info in there.
• See if leaving your device connected only via Ethernet circumvents the problem.
• See if you can run some code deployed to the target during "Inconsistent IP settings"

Hope this helps!

[Alex2012]

Dear cmorris89

Thanks for your help!

Here is screenshot of the "Network settings" tab (well, after PC reboot when target is visible, I will then post screenshot when connection is disappeared).

I will try to disconnect USB and see if Ethernet will be alive on Monday. I will let you know. In fact I would prefer Ethernet communication rather than USB.

[Alex2012]

Over the weekend, target was connected only via Ethernet, no USB. Indeed, connection can be established in MAX.

However, I need to program target, debug communication target<->PC, configure EtherCAT devices connected to target etc., can I do that without Ethernet over USB?

[cmorris89]

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@Alex2012 wrote:

Over the weekend, target was connected only via Ethernet, no USB. Indeed, connection can be established in MAX.

However, I need to program target, debug communication target<->PC, configure EtherCAT devices connected to target etc., can I do that without Ethernet over USB?

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Hi Alex, just to confirm so the "Inconsistent IP Settings" did not appear while left only connected via Ethernet? I think you should be able to program, debug and all that stuff via USB just fine, especially if this error only occurs after an extended period of idling. It does sound as if having both of the connections at the same time were causing an issue.

With the target, will you debug/configure etc, from the same target that will control it? If so, you should be able to just have it connected only via Ethernet and be able to do everything.

[Alex2012]

I ran a small program on target. Target is connected physically via both Ethernet and USB though USB was active in this case. As you can see, program was only showing some CPu usage updated every second. The connection worked for 3045s (~51min) only. After that indeed, MAX showed Inconsistent IP address (2nd attachment).

I will try now to disconnect Ethernet cable from the target and see if USB connection will survive.