AIT 1553 RT support

[manderson]

Has anyone used the NI endorsed AIT MIL-STD-1553 PXI interface?  When you attempt to install the driver, it says you need LabVIEW 2009 or 2010, I have 2011 so it does not let you install.  Calling AIT support left me less than confident this card "works", certainly expected more from buying the one prominently included in the NI web site.

[Drew_T]

manderson,

I just got off the phone with AIT and they informed me that a new driver was released on Friday which supports LabVIEW 2011.  If you go to their website, in the Download Area, you should be able to find the newest 1553 driver (version 2.18, I believe) which should resolve the difficulties you are experiencing.

Have a great day!

[manderson]

thanks, but I also spoke with an AIT support person on Friday 11/11/2011, who directed me to the 2.18 installer.  Yes, it did successfully install with LabView 2011.  But, I'm still not there:

- RT target deployment utility apparently cannot work if your RT target has a password, it expects to use anonymous FTP.  There does not seem to be a way to remove the password from an RT target, so I used an FTP client to log in and copy the files (at the direction of the AIT person) to the right place.  Now the card is seen in MAX as a VISA device, but does not show up in the PXI chassis slot list.  Attempting to write a small CVI/RT program to just initialize the interface with m1553Init() compiles (after manually adding the headers and libraries to the project, not a "seamless" process like using DAQmx devices from CVI/RT), but when you try to download to the target it fails on attempt to load ati_mil.dll, looking for a reference to GetUserNameA from ADVAPI32.DLL.  This looks like the problem described for AIM (not AIT) 1553 at http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/AEFCB564A19D8763862576940080EB11 but still working on this.  There does not seem to be any guidance (from NI or AIT) on what must be done to use CVI/RT with this driver kit.  I had to manually FTP the ait_mil.dll myself to the right place, CVI/RT does not appear to have any place to tell it additional DLL files to download to the target.  I can't believe that I'm the first person to travel down this path, this 1553 card was purchased with a PXI chassis and processor, from NI, as a recommended solution.

[DiscoBall]

Hi Manderson,

I am sorry that you have come across these issues. I worked directly with AIT and will very much like to get you up and running as quickly as possible. Your feedback is very much valued.

Can you clarify which environment you intend to use with the AIT 1553 card, LabVIEW or C? Much of the development for using the AIT product in Real-Time has been focused on LabVIEW and there may be a few kinks to work out with CVI deployment. Let's make sure that the correct files are on the RT target. According to the AIT MIL-STD-1553 LabVIEW Instrument Driver User's Guide the files that are need to be deployed to the ni-rt\system folder are:

Driver Files
PXI-PMC-1.inf
PMC-1553-GC.inf
PMC-1553-4.inf
PC104-1553.inf

Dynamic Link Library Files
owl1553.dll
owl1553Serialization.dll
aiMil_LVRT.dll

I believe the ait_mil.dll is a Windows only DLL. Just a quick note that the AIT 1553 driver has a couple of different APIs. There is the high level LabVIEW and C APIs (Owl1553) and then the lower lever C-API. Can you try one of the sample programs found under C:\Program Files\AIT\MIL-STD-1553 SDK v2.22.0\Instrumentation\Owl1553\samples?

Just another note, it is highly recommended that you update the firmware of your AIT card when you install a new version of the AIT driver. Unfortunately, AIT only provides a Windows based firmware update utility. If your PXI controller is dual-boot then you should be able to update the firmware. If you do not have a Windows PXI system, please contact me at canpse AT ni DOT com.

[manderson]

thanks for the help Joshua,

I'll try one of the samples as you suggested but first wanted to give you more info:

The AIT support guy had me FTP the PXI-PMC-1.inf, PMC-1553-GC.inf, and PMC-1553-4.inf but said I did not need PC104-1553.inf (I think it is for PC104 hardware but I will copy it over anyway).  Only the owl1553.dll file of the three libs was copied, since I am using the C API only.  He said the owl1553.dll contained everything I needed.  I will copy the others over and try that as well.

Regarding:

"

I believe the ait_mil.dll is a Windows only DLL. Just a quick note that the AIT 1553 driver has a couple of different APIs. There is the high level LabVIEW and C APIs (Owl1553) and then the lower lever C-API. Can you try one of the sample programs found under C:\Program Files\AIT\MIL-STD-1553 SDK v2.22.0\Instrumentation\Owl1553\samples?

"

My goal is to use CVI/RT to write C code for the PXI remote target, not C++ code using the OO API.  This remote target is a real time replacement for old dedicated hardware running ancient JOVIAL code.  It is a simple matter to convert this to C.  LabVIEW app will be running on a separate PC that uses LabVIEW support for sharing variables across the network to communicate with this PXI chassis.  The PXI chassis communicates with a UUT via the 1553 interface, in hard real time.  NI sales guy provided the recommendation for using this PXI and AIT 1553 based on this description of the project.  The AIT samples are using the OO C/C++ API, not the C API.  Is there some documentation somewhere (I could not find any in NI or AIT) that gives some guidance on using the AIT 1553 API with CVI/RT?  I agree the ait_mil.dll is a Windows DLL, and it appears to be looking for Windows dependencies when it fails to load.  Again, some guidance documentation from NI or AIT would be helpful.  The NI MAX shows the 1553 as a VISA device, do I have to use VISA API (somehow) to use it instead of the AIT provided C API?

Re:

"

Just another note, it is highly recommended that you update the firmware of your AIT card when you install a new version of the AIT driver. Unfortunately, AIT only provides a Windows based firmware update utility. If your PXI controller is dual-boot then you should be able to update the firmware. If you do not have a Windows PXI system, please contact me at canpse AT ni DOT com.

"

The controller in the PXI runs only the LabVIEW RTOS (Phar Lap), no Windows anywhere in sight.  I could not find any guidance on updating the firmware in the AIT 1553 interface in this configuration.  Once again, I have to comment that this configuration was recommended by NI sales, with no constraints on cost just tell us what we need to buy based on this description of what we are going to be doing.

There does not appear to be very much integration between the AIT software and NI, for example use NI MAX to update the firmware.

I will install the C/C++ OWL support from AIT (I only installed the C API) on my PC and see what I can do with one of the samples.

[manderson]

I copied the files over except for aiMil_LVRT.dll, I do not have this file anywhere on my PC.

I attempted to use the OWL C code to get a board handle with Owl1553_IBoardFactory_localBoardFactory, this compiled without any trouble and downloaded to the PXI rack, but fails to start in the same manner as with the ait_mil.dll, saying it is looking for a dependency on GetUserNameA from ADVAPI32.DLL, so this looks to be a Windows DLL also.

The AIT web site has a picture of their software driver stack:

http://www.aviftech.com/igsbase/igstemplate.cfm/src=DB/SRCN=/GnavID=3/SnavID=59/TnavID=137

This has identified a separate LabWindows driver entry point (CVI), I only have C and OWL in the AIT software kit.

Who should I be talking to at this point, NI or AIT?  The AIT board is "endorsed" by AIT, so I would have hoped that NI would be in more of a position to support using it with NI software than AIT would be.

[manderson]

Just an update, I did get an updated version 2.19 from AIT.  In this version, the owl lib works (only for vs2008 debug version), but includes the C api support (the C api lib is broken).  Someone from NI came to our site with a Windows controller chassis and updated the firmware in the AIT card, since our chassis is RTOS.  It worked for some basic operations to read the config and info from the board.  Since then, the same simple test program that worked before now crashes on board open call with a general protection fault.  The retest of the simple test program was prompted by the actual application failing this way, so backed off to the simple one that worked before.  Nothing has changed in the chassis between working and not working.  I'm going to attempt to isolate the cause before contacting AIT support again, but would still like some feedback from *anyone* that is using this AIT 1553 interface in a PXIe chassis running RTOS using CVI/RT, either successfully or not.  I'm getting the impression that everyone uses this with LabVIEW and Windows, and using it from CVI on RTOS is a rarely used combination (if at all).

[manderson]

Another update (seems like I am the only one updating this thread), since two days ago calls to the board open API cause either a general protection fault on the chassis or pushes CPU on the chassis to 100% utilization.  Nothing has changed in the environment, either hardware or software.  A second AIT 1553 card was swapped into the chassis with the same results.  AIT and NI have been contacted, and assure me that they will gather whatever resources are needed to resolve the problem.  In the mean time, I cannot make progress as this is a critical portion of the project.

Is there anyone else using CVI/RT with AIT 1553?

[DiscoBall]

Hi Mark,

Please contact me at canpse AT ni.com. I am in touch with the folks at AIT and we will work together to get you over the hump.

[erinchen92]

Recntly, i have to test the MIL-STD-1553 device in our labs(PXI-1553-EF-2). We want to test the transminting and recieving function of the card. We still have CBL-VHDCI-1553-2 cable.Because we only have one card, we decided to use the different parts the card can play. BC and BM are associated with channel 1 while RT are associated with channel 2. We simply get channel 1 and channel 2 direct coupling and use the soft front panel to test. But we cannot get the expected result, it seems that the card didn't work, we can see errors from BM(no response or general error). I just want to know is there any mistakes i assign the channels or what should i do to meet the goal?