CompactRIO Module no longer recognized by VI

[JWH2]

I'm taking over updating a LabVIEW project designed to control a chassis that acts as a safety interlock system in a lab. The chassis is already up and running and has a computer connected via ethernet that runs the software to read status and give some commands (like bypassing certain safties). The previous person left the company a year ago and didn't leave much in the way of documentation. My company wants to update everything to Windows 11, so I am responsible for getting this software working on a new computer.

I originally copied and pasted the project and software onto a second computer and the labview program recognized the chassis and modules (an NI-cRIO-9064 module and three 9350 modules). I could connect this second computer to the chassis via ethernet and it could read statuses and do some small controlling, but it wasn't properly receiving all the statuses from the 9350 modules (it couldn't see firmware, certain bits that indicates status of the safing interlock system). I'm trying to learn how to do this and was kind of stuck. So I decided to instead revert to Labview 2019 (the version the software was written in) instead of 2025, to see if it was the version that was the problem.

After I did so the labview project/VIs no longerunderstand what the CRIO chassis is. Picture is attached below. Before, even when I was disconnected from the chassis, the project had a drop down at the 9064 that listed the different modules in the project. But now they seem all gone. Frankly I've read around and have no idea how to approach this or fix it.

I've verified I have Real-Time, FPGA, and NI DAQ all installed and licensed. I'm hoping someone on this forum can point me in a direction with guidance or documentation on how to set this up.

The chassis itself already has its software loaded on it and currently works with the previous computer so I'm hoping to not have to touch it other than connecting through ethernet.

[GerdW]

Hi jwh2,

did you install the RT module and the cRIO hardware drivers?

[JWH2]

Yes RT is installed. Maybe I missed something with cRIO. I have CompactRIO installed if that's what you mean. Is there another layer I need to install?

[softball]

Hi

RIO hardware controlled by LabVIEW RT ( and LabVIEW FPGA ) is locked to whatever LabVIEW version it is developed in. It is a system and the versions must match.

This means that your RIO system being based on 2019 can only be modified/accessed from computers running LabVIEW 2019.

So connecting your RIO 2019 based system from a LabVIEW 2025 based computer will not work.

You can update the RIO hardware to 2025 through MAX by updating the base image on the RIO to 2025. But then you cannot access the RIO hardware from LabVIEW 2019.

While not officially supported by NI ( meaning they have not tested it ) then LabVIEW 2019 runs fine on Windows 11. At least up to and including 23H2. Microsoft made security changes in 24H2 and 25H2 which may ( not will ) spoil the show. I would try that as the first action.

Regards

PS : When you look for base images, observe that NI started messing around in 2020 and later. Introducing base images where parts of them could support multiple versions of LabVIEW. A silly no purpose concept that they have abandoned in the latest releases. Also notice that these images by default will be downloaded online while updating. Again silly, but fortunately you can make an offline download of the base images, to make the subsequent update process the same as it was earlier.

PPS : I advice against installing LabVIEW 2025 on the same partition as LabVIEW 2019. It is just asking for trouble.

[JWH2]

Thanks for the thorough reply. I'm not able to access/change the software on the RIO so I guess I'll be sticking with 2019. I'm uninstalling my 2025 components now and I'll repair/reinstall the 2019 components and see if that fixes thing.

[Bob_Schor]

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@JWH2 wrote:

Thanks for the thorough reply. I'm not able to access/change the software on the RIO so I guess I'll be sticking with 2019. I'm uninstalling my 2025 components now and I'll repair/reinstall the 2019 components and see if that fixes thing.

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I predict that if you first uninstall your 2025 components, LabVIEW will cease to work, and you'll end up having to uninstall all National Instruments software twice (once to get rid of everthing except NIPM, the second time to get rid of NIPM).

Adding a newer version of LabVIEW to your PC is simple.  Adding an older version is problematic.  In my experience, deleting LabVIEW versions works best (and fastest) by doing a "Remove ALL NI Software, then install what you want, newest first".  Note that I have yet to install LabVIEW 2025, so things might have changed since 2016 ...

Bob Schor