eisa-mxi interface error

[tom2726]

This is probably a long shot....

We are haveing dificulties with an old piece of dedicated test equipment. It is testing a proprietary pcb that is plugged into a VME bus. We are monitoring the VME bus with a VME-MXI bridge card that is connected to a MXI-EISA in an old PC(386) running DOS code. Is there any software from NI that we can use to verify that we are indeed talking to the VME bus? RESMAN looks like it does, but there is no indication on the bridge card that it is talking to the VME bus (VME led does not light). All the software I can find on the NI site is for Windows OP systems, not DOS.

If all else fails, is there a new configuration of NI interfaces that will allow use to get this test rack back up and running? I assume that it would have to be some sort of MXI2 system, but the need to run the test s/w in DOS will be a hurdle....?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

tom

[Michael-B]

Hi Tom,

What kind of tests are you running?  Is it practical for you to not use the VME hardware at all?  How complex is the DOS code and how difficult would it be to reimplement with modern technology?  Could you use newer hardware to test the same PCB?

You could look at this MXI-2 device:  https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/category/pxi-platform-completion-hardware.html?productId=118206  

However, I would strongly encourage you implement your test with modern technology.  An upgrade would probably end up saving you a lot of time in both the short and long term.

Best Regards,

[tom2726]

Thanks for the reply

We are definitely looking at that option. The challenge is duplicating the test functions with both limited knowledge, staff, and time.

This is an old legary test rack (built by another company in the mid 80's) and we have literally no documentaion on the hardware, let a lone the software. As it is configured now the PC (a 386-33) is (aparently) both acting as a terminal to trigger the board under test (via a serial port) and using the VME-MXI & AT-MXI pair to monitor the generated VME bus activity. This is apparently reported back to the test program on the PC. The end product is also nearing end of life......

We will be looking at the MXI-2 products, they offer a much newer hardware option along with a much more modern PC platform.

Again, thanks for the response......

[Michael-B]

Hi Tom,

Even if you don't have the documentation on the testing hardware and software, perhaps there is documentation on the test itself?  In other words, perhaps there is documentation on the current and voltage values that need to be applied to the PCB?  And perhaps there is some information on what voltage levels the PCB should output?  If so, it would almost certainly be easier to just reverse engineer the test with modern technology.  If it's just simple current and voltage measurements, then it would be pretty easy to implement that kind of test with modern hardware.

Best Regards,