LabVIEW Real-Time Idea Exchange

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At any one time, we have several complex LabVIEW-RT projects that run behavior experiments for us, taking multiple channels of analog and digital data while providing a complex series of audio and visual stimuli. For each project, there is an RT part that "runs" the Experiment and a tailored Host part that runs the UI, handles an Excel Workbook that specifies the various trials being performed, displays the data, and saves the sampled results to disk.

Each of these projects are developed using LabVIEW Project, and each LV Project has its own, unique name. When we build UI and RT executables, we would like an "automatic" way to associate them with each other. A "natural" way would be to use the "shared" information of their joint Project. There are ways to get the Project name in the Host UI code, both in Development mode and from an Executable.

I would like to propose that NI provide a Property or something similar for the RT side so that the RT code, at Run Time, could determine the Project from which it came. With both sets of code knowing their shared "ancestor", they could use this information to ensure they are talking to their proper counterpart. They could also use it to "mark" data structures (such as Files or Folders) that belong to them. For example, there could be multiple configuration files, one for each Project, but they could be uniquely identified as "<Project> Config.xml" (where "<Project>" is the name of the Project containing the VI, allowing the appropriate Configuration file to unambiguously be chosen at Run Time).

Bob Schor

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rt strings

Allow ip address sharing within a project

We have some software which runs in different versions on the same hardware and in testing, we often need to have the software running for benchmarking or debugging from the development environment.

A major pain is the inability for devices within a single project to share an IP address (when not connected). I would suggest that multiple targets within a single project should be allowed to have the same IP address set (although of course only one can be connected at a time).

Shane.

SFTP support for Real Time Targets?

As cRIO's are deployed in ever growing applications, it would sure be nice if there was an option to use SFTP (and disable FTP altogheter) on the controller. Ideally it would be supported at the OS level, i.e. the existing cRIO FTP server is upgraded or extended to include SFTP as well.

If this is already supported, try searching for "sftp" or "crio sftp" and you'll see only one 3rd party tool-kit, but I confirmed with that company (Labwerx.net) that it (labSSH) does not support cRIO/FPGA/RT targets and there are no concrete plans to add support to other targets.

NI: I call on you to either create the FTP toolkit I need to write my own SFTP server, or better yet, update the cRIO FTP server to include the "s". . . It is only one letter, how hard can that be!? 😉

If this is already possible through some (obscure?) way, please update your site-search engine to reckognize sftp and/or crio sftp, and/or link to a KB or Whitepaper on the topic as I did not find any.

(Note: cRIO safety and security IS covered in pretty good detail in the article series starting with Overview of Best Practices for Security on RIO Systems and the linked 3 articles.)

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Given a project topology like this:

Windows PC Host <-> cRIO-9024 <-> NI-9114 backplane <-> NI-9144 EtherCAT #1 <-> NI-9144 EtherCAT #2 which is run in hybrid scan mode, during development I wish that it were possible to, for example, tell the project to run without EtherCAT #2 being physically connected, instead using virtual/simulated IO. As things stand now, when I try to switch from Configuration to Active mode, I get an error saying that "the slave device cannot be found".

More generally, I often find myself thinking that the project explorer needs a good way to "comment out" various pieces of the project without having to resort to "Remove From Project".

Build on deploy, if necessary

It would be very convenient if we could format and install the OS/RTE on a target directly from the project window.

Currently, if I'm about to deploy a new application I typically format the target, install the OS software on it, then I deploy the application onto it...and finally I make an image of it that will serve as a way for others to deploy the application to production targets.

This involves use of NI MAX (format and install OS), LabVIEW (deply app) and RAD (make image). Doing all these operations (image-making as well would be great) from LabVIEW would make the workflow much nicer.

PS. In the project window today you have Utilities>>System Manager. The described operations should be available directly from the menu, but it would also feel natural to have these options from the system manager.

Hello,

I have recently to work with a RT application.

In this application, i used a property node in order to get all values of an ENUM.

=> This feature works fine when you debug your application using LabVIEW on the host !

=> But the same code doesn't work in real RT execution.

I know very well that some property nodes doesn't work in RT programming, but when you have to go from windows application, to FPGA, to Crio, ... you often forgot this point ! LabVIEW should help us to limit this kind of mistakes !

It would be nice, if LabVIEW could break RT VI's, or generate a list of warning during RT application build, when an application is using non RT compatible property nodes !

It would be nice to get this warning during the compilation time, and not only at runtime !

It would also be nice, if the LabView RT debug tool could generates the same errors than a real RT target.

Thanks for help.

Manu.net

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Hello,

It should be nice to be abble to duplicate a CRio target easily.

=> Be abble to duplicate the Target

=> Be abble to duplicate the backplane configuration

=> Be abble to duplicate a FPGA target

It should also be nice to be able to change easily ...

=> The CRIo type

=> The CRio backplane type

Some commands to manipulate targets are missing ... or are hidden ...

For example the copy/paste commands are available by key stroke ... but are not visible thru the Labview project treeview context menu.

I think that the usability of the targets manipulations should be improved.

Thanks for help.

Manu.net

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The best thing about Pharlap is that it will run dll's like Windows.

Making shared libraries for VxWorks (*.out files) is quite an arduous process if you don't have Wind River software. The GNU toolchain, that used to be the free alternative, does not work on Windows Vista or 7, leaving those of use who have chosen to upgrade out of luck.

It would be great is LabVIEW could provide a way to compile *.out files from the Application Builder and thereby provide more complete support for development on the CompactRIO platform.

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Reconfiguration from console (mode)

I think the configuration property pages for SoftMotion axes are missing the parameters for maximum velocity, maximum acceleration and deceleration for individual axes.

When performing single axes moves it is somehow easy to control these parameters because they are wired to the appropriate property nodes when configuring the move itself.

But when performing moves with axes in a coordinate space the move parameters given are for the resulting vector, resulting in unknown velocities for the individual axes.

When configuring the maximum velocity and acceleration/deceleration for an axis there should be the option to

a) Generate an error when the requested move can not be solved within the limits

b) Coerce the limiting value to its maximum and solve the move using the new values, generate a warning

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crio get image

Currently, if you have hardware in a LabVIEW project (e.g. a cRIO controller, cRIO chassis, or R-Series PXI card), the only way that you can change this to another product is by adding a new one to the project and deleting the old one. It would be nice to be able to use a configuration window to change the model number of a piece of hardware to a different, but similar one. For example, if you have a 9072 in the project but wanted to change it to a 9073. Another example would be the ability to change, via menus, a PXI 7813R to a 7854R. Of course the user would have to update any code written to account for changes due to the new hardware. This is especially convenient when you are simulating and configuring test systems but aren't quite sure exactly what hardware you need. Currently, for each new piece of hardware (similar or not) you have to create a new device and copy all of the IO, VIs, libraries, etc. under the new device in the project.

Currently, when you add a new (not existing) cRIO controller and chassis to a LabVIEW project, there is no check as to whether this is a valid configuration or not. For example, you can successfully add a cRIO 9072 controller with a 9112 chassis to a project, even though the 9072 is a controller with an integrated chassis. I believe that the LabVIEW Project interface should notify the user (via dialog box) that this is not a valid configuration before they can add modules and start developing code to use an invalid configuration.

It would be nice if LabVIEW RT could give more output during the startup process of a LabVIEW real-time executable. For example if the rtexe is started at all or not, if there are missing dependencies during the loading process or other usable stats.

In my case I had problems with the German codepage. The build process was done without failure. But the rtexe didn’t start at all. I used special German characters like “öäü” in some VI names. And the rtexe couldn’t be loaded for that reason. But I didn’t get any message.

So please improve the debug output for LabVIEW RT.

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LabVIEW Real-Time Idea Exchange

Provide a method for RT code to determine the name of its Project (such as a Property Node)

rt strings

Allow ip address sharing within a project

SFTP support for Real Time Targets?

Simulate (or comment out) EtherCAT devices within a project

Build on deploy, if necessary

Format and install OS on target from LabVIEW project

Generate warnings in case of property node usage, during a RT application build !

Remove LabVIEW feature which generate error no. 1502 during RT project compilation

Easily duplicate CRio target in LabVIEW project ...

Make the RT Console Easier to View from MAX

Support for Building VxWorks Shared Libraries (*.out files)

Reconfiguration from console (mode)

Add maximum velocity and max. Acceleration/deceleration to SoftMotion axis property page

crio get image

Allow Dynamically Launched VIs to be marked as "Always Deploy"

Modify Hardware Model in LabVIEW Project Without Having to Create a New One

Remove Ability to Add Invalid cRIO Controller / Chassis Combinations in the LabVIEW Project

Allow Create Network Stream to reopen a existing reference.

LabVIEW RT - Improved Debug Output