Using Console Out on cRIO 9075

[Macgomes1]

Hello everyone,,

I wanted to use the Console Out on the cRIO 9075 I have for a quick check of status messages and possible errors.  I was able to find RT Debug String VI from the following page.

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370622K-01/lvrtvihelp/rt_debug_strings/

But for some reason I am getting the following error.

Error# -1073807246

VISA: (Hex 0xBFFF0072) The resource is valid, but VISA cannot currently access it.

I can see the normal output from the port when the cRIO is started.  So is the port just blocked for this type of access on this particular cRIO model or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for your help

[DuncanW.]

Hi Macgomes1,

What port are you referring to when you say Console Out? Are you talking about the 9-pin port on the front of the controller? (If you are, that is a RS-232 serial port so you'll need to have whatever is on the other end expecting RS-232)

As a suggestion, this kind of tag monitoring of status messages and errors is typically handled by a VI running on a host PC (called a Human Machine Interface or HMI in the documentation). The cRIO can then communicate with the PC over Ethernet and send status messages using LabVIEW shared variables. I would recommend checking out the cRIO Developer's Guide for a guide to the canonical FPGA VI, RT VI, and HMI VI architecture. Chapters 1 and 4 are probably most helpful in answering your specific question.

Best,

Duncan Waldrop

Tech Support Engineer

National Instruments 

[DuncanW.]

I refreshed my memory of the documentation in this area and I see what you're talking about now. I'm pretty sure you're getting that error because the serial port is reserved by the controller for outputting system information at boot. You should be able to use the port as you are anticipating if you boot the controller normally.

In either event, my recommendation would still be to use a network-published shared variable and communicate over Ethernet. Console Out isn't really intended for standard debugging and communication. It's more for instances where the Ethernet communication is not working for whatever reason.

Apologies for the slight misdirection in my previous post. If you boot it normally and are still getting this error, "resource reserved", or something similar, let me know and I'd be happy to try to help.

-Duncan