Trouble setting up PharLap ETS LabVIEW RT 8.2

[ndo]

Hello,

I am trying to set up my desktop PC as a real time system.  

PC eval says everything is fine.

Able to format drive with “Format Hard Drive Disk.”

Able to configure IP address

Installed software (LabVIEW Real-Time 8.2 & Ethernet drivers only) seemed to go ok.

Upon reboot after software install, system hangs after:

Initializing network…

Device 1 – MAC address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx – xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (primary)

I can ping the RT.  I can also connect via ftp, but “ls” command will not complete. MAX also hangs when trying to access RT after software install.

I checked \ni-rt\system\errlog.txt, which is empty

Upon further digging, I found that if I remove the line:

“EarlyStartupLibraries=C:\ni-rt\system\lvuste.dll;C:\ni-rt\system\tsengine.dll;C:\ni-rt\system\nisl_emb.dll;”

In the [STARTUP] section of “ni-rt.ini,” the system starts up correctly and I am able to run a simple “Hello world!” program.  I’ve also able to confirm that starting ONLY “lvuste.dll” or “tsengine.dll” individually results in the same hang up.  However, starting only “nisl_emb.dll” does not.

Does anyone know what these DLL’s do?  How could these two DLL’s cause a hang up? Is there any harm in not starting them?

Any insight will be appreciated.

Ndo

LabVIEW RT version 8.2

LabWindows/CVI 8.1

MAX 4.3

Intel Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz, FSB 533 MHz

Main board: ASUS P5S800 VM

BIOS: American Megatrends, Inc. v02.54

Ethernet: Intel Pro 100, Chipset 82551QM

[NicoLeach]

I don't know about the dll you mentioned

I don't know either about the PC eval program.

But:

*You may have too much memory on your target (I think 2Go is the limit)

*Is your hard disk formatted as FAT32 and of a size under 32 Go

*Have you disabled in BIOS the Hyper threading?  (you should)

*Have you disabled in BIOS the USB controller and any integrated network adapter? (you should)

Best regards,

Nicolas

[ndo]

Hi NicoLeach,

Thanks for your reply.  I have gone through all the documentation I can find regarding compatability and installation and tried everything they suggested.

I have 1 GB of RAM

IDE hard drive with one Primary FAT32, 10 GB partition

I have disabled hyper threading

I have not tried to disable USB controllers as I am using a USB keyboard at the moment.  I'll give that a try.  Although, the documentation only mention jitter issues and not incompatability problems.

Thanks,

ndo 

[NicoLeach]

What about the integrated network controller (the MB you use has a realtek one that is not supported by Labview RT 8.2)

Best regards,

Nicolas

[ndo]

Oh yes.  Neglected to mention that I've also disabled the integrated network controller.

[Sappster]

Hi Ndo,

Those 2 dll are related to timed loop structures. It's possible that the installation was corrupted and reinstalling might fix it. But you might try just copying those dlls over to the locations where the RTOS it is looking for them. You can find those dll in your LabVIEW directory under vi.lib\Platform\TimedLoop.

Let me know if this corrects the issue, or if I can help with anything else.

[ndo]

Hi Mark,

Thank you.  It's helpful to know what those DLL's do (at least generally).  I checked the version numbers of the DLL's in the RT director "/ni-rt/system" and found that they do not match those in my "vi.lib\Platform\TimedLoop" directory.  However, they did match the DLL's in my "RT Images\LabVIEW\8.2" directory. 

"tsengine.dll" was not even in my "/ni-rt/system" directory.  I deleted lvuste.dll & lvalarms.dll and re-installed them (copied them over) from "RT Images\LabVIEW\8.2" and also added tsengine.dll.  No luck.

FYI:  I am targeting the RT OS with LabWindow/CVI 8.1.  We have two other systems that uses industrial PC's as real time controllers and they work fine.  I am trying to set up this new system in a similar manner.

ndo 

[Sappster]

Hi Ndo,

I have attached newer versions of the 2 files in question. You can try these and see if there is a different result. I found some documentation on a issue with a previous version of these files so this may resolve it, however I understand that this will be a pain to keep up with these files everytime you reinstall the RTOS, so I will see if I can find any other information.

In the meantime, have you let the system run for a long period of time to see if it will create an error? Also, do you have anything other than the RTOS installed? You mentioned having LabVIEW RT installed, did you have the same issue prior to installing LabVIEW RT?

[ndo]

Hello Mark,

The DLL's you posted cased the system to say 

"Unable to load timing engine.

Tim sync startup failed." 

The good news is that it did not cause the system to freeze.

Also, I've just come to realize that those DLL's are needed in order for me to use the asynchronous timer library.   (Got a surprise when I tried to call NewAsyncTimer()! )

Ndo 

[Sappster]

Hi Ndo,

Have you tried reinstalling the LabVIEW RT (LVRT)? Or different versions of LabVIEW RT, if you have any available? The only thing I can think of outside of a corrupt installation is possible bad sectors on the drive. Do you have the ability to run a disc scanner on the computer?

The dlls are part of LVRT not RTOS, so you should be able to just reinstall LVRT from within MAX.

Let me know if that changes anything