Installing Multi port serial card on RT target

[alini]

Hi,

I am using a dekstop pc as a real time target.

I use realtime module 2015 on the host and pharlab 13.1 realtime OS on the target device.

I have to use a 1×DB44 serial port for 4× RS232 (Serial PCI card made by MOXSA company) in RT target.

But the mentioned serial ports of PCI card are not recognized in NI MAX software (It is not visible in Device and Interface tree).

How can I install the driver of the PCI card on the target device?

Does the PCI card must necessarily be from National instrument?

Best regards

[Norbert_B · Accepted solution]

Have you installed NI VISA on the computer?

It is possible that this specific device requires drivers which are not working in LV RT. You should ask the vendor of the device if that is the case.

Norbert

[Bob_Schor · Accepted solution]

I went on the Moxa (is that the correct name of the company?) Web Site to look for 4-port Serial Cards.  Most talk about providing Drivers, which will interface with Windows, but probably not with Phar-Lap.  

One solution would be a device that accepts four Serial devices on one side, and "talks" standard TCP/IP on the other.  These things are called Serial Device Servers, and as it happens, Moxa makes them!  I don't know the details of how one uses TCP to communicate with such a device and actually acquire the Serial data, but because such a device uses standard TCP/IP (which should be supported on LabVIEW RT), it might be a way to get 4-port serial data into your PC/RT system.

Bob Schor

[Dennis_Knutson]

Or get the NI serial card.

https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/model.pci-8430-4.html

[Bob_Schor]

Dennis's Solution is almost certain to work (or you really have a good case for NI to help you directly or give you a refund!).

BS

[alini]

Thank you for your answer. I hope this solution works in my application.
I have installed the NI VISA.... and the correct name of company is MOXA.
Now I want to know that is it possible to work with CAN PCI card made by a company other than National instrument?
I whould appretiate if someone help me.
Kind regard

[Norbert_B]

Again, it's the question if the vendor of the device provides drivers which do work on LV RT targets.

I know some companies who make CAN interface devices which include drivers working on RT targets. My recommendation: Ask the vendor directly. Also you should ask about support if things are not working out correctly.

Norbert

[alini]

Thanks again....
If the driver be provided, how can I install it on the target?
Generally, Is it possible to install linux OS instead of pharlab on the target? It seems that the linux driver is provided.
Is there a list of PCI cards which support the pharlab or linux driver?

[Norbert_B]

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@alini wrote:
Thanks again....
If the driver be provided, how can I install it on the target?[...]

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This has to be instructed by the vendor of the driver. For NI devices, you are using NI MAX to transfer all software items from the host to the RT target.

3rd party drivers do not show up in NI MAX, so this is not the way for 3rd party devices.

You can install Linux on your target, but this voids the target as RT target for LV. Therefore, you cannot add it as RT target in your LV project. Developement hence would require some weird hook ups and is not supported by NI.

If you select a NI support non-RT Linux for your desktop target, you can purchase LV for Linux and develop directly on the machine.

If you refer to RT Linux as it is used on new cRIO devices from NI, i am not aware that this RT Linux is available for desktop PCs as target. Still, this is a personal information and i might be wrong on this....

NI drivers do list if they support LV RT. All drivers which do not state LV RT module as supported ADE will most likely not work on RT.

Norbert

Norbert

[rolfk]

Well, while it is theortecally possible to port NI Linux Realtime to a normal PC that is definitely not a task for the faint hearted. And even with that done you have no license to run LabVIEW runtime and the whole NI driver software stack on that system, apart from the fact that you would have to hack the LabVIEW Realtime support too, to make it recognize such a platform.

So no it's not an option either.

And while networked serial port servers may seem like a good idea first, they have the same problem than the PCI cards. They need a driver that hooks into the serial port driver of the OS and communicates over the network with the server device. This driver has to be specifically developed for the target OS, here Pharlap and if Moxa doesn't have Pharlap drivers for their PCI cards they very likely won't have according drivers for the network based serial device servers. Maybe if they document the TCP/IP protocol to their server device you could develop your own driver on top of the LabVIEW network nodes, but that would be a significant development task too.

How many of these systems do you plan to build? The few 10k$ development costs for such a driver really only make sense if you plan to build at least a few dozen systems. Otherwise NI hardware is always going to be cheaper.