Running a VS system "Headless" without a PC

[brent2004]

I have a customer considering using VS for R&D/testing of a control system for long term testing of an energetic physical system.  They like VS for the HW flexibility and ease of programming.  They are considering using the cRIO platform, and will make heavy use of the VS RT sequences feature for their control system logic. 

Question:  Once deployed to the cRIO and running, is the RT sequence logic implemented completely in the RT system, such that if the PC went down (like totally offline, bluescreen, lost AC power, etc.) the RT sequences keep running?  Or is it in anyway dependent on the PC?

Follow-up Question:  If the RT sequences keep running, is there any downside to just running the system without a PC long term?

[ZYOng]

Question:  Once deployed to the cRIO and running, is the RT sequence logic implemented completely in the RT system, such that if the PC went down (like totally offline, bluescreen, lost AC power, etc.) the RT sequences keep running?  Or is it in anyway dependent on the PC?

Yes, the nivsseq will keep running. It is being designed to run on RT target. The nivsseq is usually deployed from the host PC, using API from TestStand or Python. You can configure a nivsseq to run on startup, but you need a host PC to change the nivsseq file.

Follow-up Question:  If the RT sequences keep running, is there any downside to just running the system without a PC long term?

None that I know of. Most of the use cases I have seen use TestStand or Python on the host PC to deploy the nivsseq.

[brent2004]

Excellent!  Thank you so much for the quick help...  If I can ask one more, any point in the right direction for how to do this:   "You can configure a nivsseq to run on startup, but you need a host PC to change the nivsseq file"

[ZYOng]

I think I might have remembered it wrongly.

You can set a startup system definition file. Deploy VeriStand System Definition to Target Like Standalone

I am not sure about the RT sequence. Maybe you can try it with the startup procedure. 

To deploy the RT sequence from the host PC:

• TestStand: See ASAM XIL Target Script Steps Reference of ASAM XIL Steps for NI TestStand
• Python: See run_deterministic of Engine Demo Examples — niveristand-python 3.0.0 documentation

[thumble]

You can ask VS to "self-deploy" at target startup, but I don't think an RT sequence will.

When I need a logic to run automatically, I will program it in a custom device or at least in models.

I will reserve the RT sequences for specific tests, but, for that, I need a PC to deploy them with at least the VS Gateway engine running (even if no MMI is required).