Additional NI Software Idea Exchange

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Hi,

the company I work for designs automotive infotainment products, and we used products from NI extensively in product validation an testing, including TestStand, Labview, DIAdem, FPGA, RT. etc...

In order to simplify license management, we chose to used the NI Volume License Manager (VLM). This provides centralized managment of licenses, including easy addition and removal of licenses, as well as license recovery from PCs no longer in service (broken or decomissioned by IT).

Since I am the technical lead for test system development, it falls to me to perform license capacity planning, request disconnected licenses, manage license groups, and all the other administrative things that go with license management. I am not, however, in the IT department, and since the VLM runs on a Virtual Machine inside the VM park, I always have to request license changes from our IT specialists.

I would very much appreciate it if there were a tool to remotely administer the VLM. This would allow the IT department to give me access to just the VLM to perform administrative duties there, sort of like the MMC in Microsoft Windows Server lets users administer remote servers.

When CSV file is imported to stimulus profile editor, VeriStand outputs the 0th-order signals drawn in blue. However, my customer wants to output the 1st-order signals in red. That would be best to select 0th/1st-order hold depending on the applications. Do you have a plan to support this feature in the near future?
According to this link, the Stimulus Profile Editor generates a real-time sequence from a CSV file. So it would be very nice to have this feature in VeriStand 🙂

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When migrating to a new server with an updated license File I loaded a large backup files from a server with a 1000+Computer based licenses. The process of loading the back up took around 1 hour, which got me unsure if the process of restoring the backup was going correctly or not. It doesn't has a loading progression bar to see how much time left is needed for the backup to finish, or even just a progression bar of the percentage left. In the end the process was successful, but very stressing... I think having a progression bar would be an excellent feature to have.

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I was asked to post this here instead of in the VLM forum:

Every time there is a new update of LabVIEW we typically hunt down the installation disks from ni.com as soon as they are available, and start the process of making volume license installers...(Or, if the update seems less exciting, we wait patiently for the shipped DVDs).

I wish it the whole provcess could be made smoother. Based on the volume license installers we have, the VLM could simply subscribe to newer versions.

When 2014 comes out, the package would automatically go out to all the VLMs out there, and new volume license installers would pop up on our local VLM as soon as the software was ready...OR, alternatively, the VLM could be hosted by NI instead (possibly supported by a local VLM for offline use), so that the process of creating new installers were really done by NI (or automatically by NI hardware that is) based on whatever setup we as VLM admins had chosen...and the source material from NI.

(This idea came about as a side note to this related discussion about LabVIEW cloud services).

MTO

PS. Why do I have to assign this idea a label when the only available labels (I'm not allowed to create a new one) is unrelated to MAX, Veristand or the System Config API?

Say I have profileA which calls sequenceB which calls sequenceC. sequenceC needs to access UserChannelX defined in the system definition. Currently, the only way to do so, I believe, is to pass UserChannelX into sequenceC as a parameter which means it needs to be defined as a parameter in sequenceB as well, even if it's not used in sequenceB. This greatly increases the number of arguments of a sequence which may never be used but is necessary in order to give the lowest sequence access to system definition channels. It seems like we should make sytem definition channels directly available at any subsequence level (sort of like how global variables can be referenced anywhere). Thank you.

Recommended Install Set for Veristand

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The only way to change channel mappings to control and indicators is to right click on each control to change the channel. The work around is to use alias for each workspace item and them modify the alias from the system definition.

I think another more convenient option would have the operator use the manage items window from the screen tab to select which channels to display on the workspace. It already shows all the channels connected but it would add plenty of functionality if you could change the mappings from this window also.

tldr: Screen>>Manage Items... - ability to change channel mappings

I wrote this idea after having spent a lot of time trying to understand a strange connection problem between MAX and NI-cDAQ 9188 ethernet chassis.

As a matter of fact I discovered that MAX uses the proxy settings made inside Internet Explorer (in Tools >> Internet options >> Connections >> LAN settings). If you set a proxy inside IE, MAX uses this proxy trying to connect to a NI cDAQ ethernet chassis.

If you set the same proxy inside Firefox (for example), MAX doesn't use this proxy settings.

For this reason you must tell the customer how to configure the proxy inside IE in order to be sure that MAx is able to connect to the NI cDAQ ethernet chassis. And if the customer has already set the IE proxy as requested for network connection, it could happen that he must change this settings, and this could be a problem.

I suggest that MAX (and other NI software) should have its own proxy settings (has Firefox has) so that it would be possible connecting to cDAQ ethernet chassis even with "strange" settings of IE proxy.

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Although many examples exist for VeriStand. They are not easy to find for new users unless they are shown where they are. If they have been using other NI Software , they would likely go to the Help>Find Examples option in the splash/development menu options. In LabVIEW,

This menu option does not exist in VeriStand.

Giving access to these Examples from the load screen would be helpful for new customers who are getting started and existing customers looking to do a quick test. Navigating for a specific example can be a bit tedious at times because they don't all exist in the same level. Like Sinewave Delay and Engine Demo for instance.

<Public VeriStand>\Projects\Example\Sinewave Delay.nivsproj

<Public VeriStand>\Examples\Stimulus Profile\Engine Demo\Engine Demo.nivsproj

Hello

I have encountered problems while converting the Embedded Data Logger Receive Time information from VeriStand in double format into a Excel time stamp.

When I am introducing my logging data in .tdsm format I was not able to convert it into a "normal" time stamp with date and time information using the excel cell categories concerning time and data options. My solution to that was a exectuable which the NI support has generated for me. Otherwise it was not possible to me to make this conversion.

Either NI should publish the algorithm how to convert this double value into a "normal" time stamp or there should be a possibility to log the data in a easiliy understandble way for Excel to convert it.

Best greetings

Lukas Nowak

Copy and paste task in MAX

VeriStand Deployment error logging

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NI Drivers for Debian Based Linux Distros

First time poster here so please excuse my ignorance if I am posting incorrectly.

I know NI supports CentOS and SUSE GNU/Linux distributions, but Debian distros are the most popular according to distrowatch. I would like NI to consider creating 488.2 driver support for Debian based distros. Specifically Linux Mint and Ubuntu. I have been using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and recently switched to Linux Mint 18.3. Mint 18.3 works so well, I abandoned Windows 7 on my personal computer and only use Windows 7 at work (because I must). I can use NI USB devices on Mint (and Ubuntu) by installing the driver in a Windows 7 virtual machine and passing through the USB in VirtualBox. However this does not work for PCI cards. Drivers are a big roadblock to migrating our test equipment off Windows so I am hoping NI considers better GNU/Linux development in the future. Thank you.

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I would like to be able to simulate XNET devices in MAX (with minimal support). I would not expect these devices to simulate data on the bus. They could help us developers catch some bugs before we integrate with the actual HW.

It would be easier for a developer to be able to create configuration files, databases and test them out without connecting to the actual HW. In most cases, the HW is on a rig which is in use, or the HW is not yet delivered for the rig. We would not need any data on the bus in these cases.

I have been struggling over the past few months, to be able to define databases or use databases and test my configuration UI without the actual HW. And I have faced lot of error with creating multiple sessions, opening sessions after the HW is reserved etc.

I would hope that such errors could be tested and fixed using a simulated device, where the actual messages on the bus are not important.

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Additional NI Software Idea Exchange

XNet Database Editor hex mode for arbitration ID

List License File Name in License Manager

Remote Management of the National Instruments Volume License Manager

Support All Byte Aligned Fixed-Point Datatypes

Search and filter tool in stimulus profile logging

Output 1st-order signal with Real-Time Sequence calling CSV files

VLM- Add progression bar when loading back ups in NI VLM

VeriStand : Logging : Make Filename Timestamp Coherent

Automated creation of volume license installers when new software is released by NI

Veristand - Resizable System Explorer Windows

Subsequences of stimulus profiles should be able to access system definition channels directly

Recommended Install Set for Veristand

Edit Workspace Channel mappings through the manage items window

MAX: add an option to specify the proxy settings

Add an Example Finder for VeriStand in the Help Menu

NI VeriStand Embedded Data Logger Receive Time should be saved in a format such that Excel can display it directly as a time stamp

Copy and paste task in MAX

VeriStand Deployment error logging

NI Drivers for Debian Based Linux Distros

Simulate XNET devices with minimal support