Cannot update LabVIEW Real-Time on Smart Camera

[VPS]

Hello,

Recently I have upgraded my pc to LabVIEW 2013. Now I would like to use my 1764 Smart Camera with this pc. Strangly I cannot update the software on the camera. It complains that it needs LabVIEW RT 13.0. This has been installed on the pc, but it does not appear in the list of available software for the camera (in MAX). Instead it says that LV RT is not available on the host. Any ideas?

Kind regards,

Steven

[JohannesM]

You not only need the RT 13 Modul but also the RIO13 device driver.

[VPS]

Thank you for your answer. NI RIO 13 device drivers are installed. Also the necessary Vision drivers.

I also have a cRIO system connected to this pc. This one I could upgrade without any issues.

[JohannesM]

And you are sure, that you have all these packages installed in LabVIEW 13?

LabVIEW
LabVIEW Real-Time Module
NI Vision Development Module
NI Vision Acquisition Software

Make sure you installed the drivers in the right order also, that might also lead to that behaviour. You can read more about it here:

http://digital.ni.com/manuals.nsf/websearch/AFC9C476027BE94386257B020057EEED chapter 2-4

[Texas_Diaz]

The Readme includes information as to why you cannot make it work.

http://download.ni.com/support/softlib//vision/Vision%20Acquisition%20Software/September%202013/Visi...

"NI Vision Acquisition Software September 2011 was the last version of NI Vision Acquisition Software to provide support for the NI 1762 Smart Camera and the NI 1764 Smart Camera. New software features of NI Vision Acquisition Software will not work on these devices. Backward compatibility for existing applications is maintained."

NI dropped support for the 1764 in the Vision Acquisition software.

-Danny

[VPS]

Do I understand this correctly: I will not be able to program my 1764 Smart Camera with LV2013? This camera is not yet that old! 

The idea is to run both my cRIO and Smart Camera using the same PC as interface to both systems. So I would need to downgrade back to 2011?

Steven

[Texas_Diaz]

---

VPS wrote:

The idea is to run both my cRIO and Smart Camera using the same PC as interface to both systems. So I would need to downgrade back to 2011? 

---

This is indeed the case.

-Danny

[ErnieH]

If you want long term support and compatibility, use NI parts. Oh wait

It is getting worse every year/release. Kind of makes you wonder about upgrading in general.

[Texas_Diaz]

The ultimate issue is that the NI-1764 is a very low-memory target; probably too low for its own good, especially since it does not have user-upgradable (nor factory-upgradeable) memory components.  This means our software stacks for the hardware platform don't have very much room for growth, but innovation must continue!  Therefore, we held out as long as we could, squeezing the software so it would fit on the target, but we eventually had to say, "Nope, enough is enough."  So we will continue to "support" the platform in LabVIEW 2011, and the Vision 2013 components even install a 2011 "archive" for the 1764 so you can upgrade your overall system to the Vision 2013 Module and still keep LabVIEW 2011 software support for the hardware.  This may change in future versions, however - we've obsoleted the hardware for a while already (so you cannot purchase it any more) and we'll likely stop shipping software support soon.  If you've purchased an NI-1764, you can always get LabVIEW 2011 and Vision 2011 Modules, and continue using the hardware with those versions of our platform.  But, because of memory limitations, we just can't reasonably fit all our software components on the hardware any more.

-Danny

[VPS]

Thank you for your extended answer.  I understand the problem.

However, I would like to point out that I am somewhat disappointed by this practice. I have a hard time understanding why some of the realtime systems (at least both my Smart Camera and cRIO system) are given so little memory. Surely for a component of $5000 dollar it must be possible to add a bit more memory then what was strictly necessary at the time of purchase (or at least it should be given as an option) ...

Last question related to this issue: I have been reading (also on this forum) about installing multiple versions of LV on one pc, but I found contradictive conclusions. Would it be feasible/recommendable to have both LV2013 and LV2011 (+ the necessary modules) installed on one pc? Can the Smart Camera (RT2011) communicate with the cRIO (RT 2013) over shared variables?

-Steven