You might do a Web search "Getting Started with myRIO". There's new stuff there, and it might help you at least get the proper software (including the myRIO Software Toolkit 2019, which is still the most recent to be released, though rumors of the 2021 Toolkit are floating around the Community).
Here are some Useful Facts about LabVIEW and the myRIO.
- LabVIEW (as you may have already discovered) is different from other Programming Languages you may have experienced.
- It is Graphical, rather than Text Based.
- Accordingly, its "structure" is (at least) 2-D, not 1-D.
- It adheres to the Data Flow model. Among other things, this makes LabVIEW inherently capable of "Parallel Processing".
- The myRIO is based around a self-contained Computer running NI Real-Time Linux software. It is capable of running LabVIEW code on its CPU.
- You program the myRIO on your Host PC (the one running Windows 10, on which you've installed 32-bit LabVIEW).
- I do hope you installed 32-bit LabVIEW on your PC -- I've had lots of experience with the LabVIEW Real-Time Module (which you use to program the myRIO), but only with 32-bit LabVIEW. I suspect (??) most myRIO users use 32-bit LabVIEW ... [Sorry for this digression ].
- You will need to install the myRIO Software Toolkit, as well as drivers for the myRIO (the Getting Started with myRIO, I think, walks you throught the steps to do this).
- Real-Time Targets (such as the myRIO) differ from Host PCs (the ones running Windows) in lacking a formal User Interface. They neither have a Keyboard/Mouse input nor a Screen Output. When you program the myRIO, you basically do it from the Host using a TCP/IP connection (initially through the USB cable that connects the myRIO to your PC) -- it looks like you are interacting with the myRIO directly, but that's really the Real-Time Module sending data back and forth to the Host PC to make it appear that the myRIO has Keyboard, Mouse, and Display. [Try finding a Display connector, say VGA or HDMI, on the myRIO ...].
- And if that wasn't interesting enough, there's a third computer in the mix! The myRIO has not only a conventional microprocessor running inside it, it has an extremely powerful and fast chip called a Field Programmmable Gate Array, or FPGA, which is capable of true parallel processing, multiple data/instruction streams running at exactly the same time. You don't need to worry about it when getting started, but it enables the myRIO to give you access to such things as SPI and I²C communication protocols.
My advice to you is to spend a few months learning as much LabVIEW as you can. Learn how to get LabVIEW to talk to NI peripherals (if you are a student, see if your school has any NI Hardware, such as the USB-6000 series modules that let you do A/D, D/A, and simple digital I/O. Learn about NI-MAX, the Measurement and Automation Explorer. Learn DAQmx, the API that NI uses to communicate with Data Acquisition and Control hardware. Once you have the basics under your belt, plug in your myRIO and start your first myRIO Project!
Bob Schor
