VXI BTO test failure

[rodthole]

I have a  GPIB-VXI/C board that is failing the VXI Bus Timeout Unit test. (Test #260 on the onboard diagnostic menu).

Are there any possible solutions to remedy this error?

[Andy-K]

Hi rodthole,

You can control the bus timeout if the controller is an NI controller configure for slot 0.  The following excerpt from the Getting Started with Your NI-VXI Software for the VXIpc-486 Model 500 Series manual explains a little further about the timeout of the bus.

I hope this is helpful!

[rodthole]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your reply. In our current system, we are not using a VXI-pc486 controller board in slot 0 of the VXI chassis. Slot 0 is occupied by a GPIB-VXI/ C board that controls some subordinate VXI switching modules. The controlling host computer (NI PXI-8110) resides in an adjacent PXI chassis and communicates to the VXI by GPIB.

Is there a similar BTO setting that we can look at on the PXI-8110? Or is there a configurable setting on the GPIB-VXI/C board itself?

Thanks in advance,

Rod Thole

Test Equipment Specialist

Lockheed Martin 

[Andy-K]

Hi Rod,

Sorry about the confusion on the controller.  I understand your setup now!

One thing to check is to make sure the bus timeout is enabled which is based on hardware switch 22.

Also, does test 259 (local BTO test) pass?

Finally, was the system working and passing the BTO test 260 before?  Did anything in the system change?

[rodthole]

Hi Andy,

Test 259 has always passed.

Test 260 will pass if (and only if) I relocate the GPIB-VXI/C board to an empty VXI chassis (no other cards installed).

At the Labview level, we are receiving an error during the test rack initialization routine that reads (in part):

  Initialize.vi:1->VXI_GPIB_Controller Initialize.vi.ProxyCaller Error Message:

  VISA: (Hex 0xBFFF0015) Timeout expired before operation completed

See Attachment for screen snapshot

Best regards,

Rod Thole

[Andy-K]

Hi Rod,

It sounds like there is an issue with the hardware.  The controller works in another chassis so it may have to do with the chassis or the modules.  Is this a new configuration that has not been working before?

You can try removing all of the modules from the problem chassis to test if the controller works with the chassis alone.  If the chassis is able to initialize properly without the modules then we would need to identify which module is causing the controller to not initialize.

The LabVIEW error you are receiving is a VISA timeout error that is most likely cause by the underlying hardware issue.