About NI PXI-PCIe8362 connection problem

[LabVIEWSH]

Hi,all:

    Recently I encounter a problem about MXI connection with  PXI 8261.The mainly purpose is using EVOC IPC-810 to control 2 sets of PXI-1042 through MXI mode.

   The host PC is EVOC IPC-810( with 2 PCIe slot) and the chassis needed to connect is PXI-1042. 

   When controlling 1 set of PXI-1042 with 1 set of PXI-PCIe8362 ,all thing is fine,it work well.

   However when inserting 2 sets of PCIe 8362 in IPC-810 to control 2 PXI-1042, the connection become unstable. Sometimes IPC can not detect 2 PXI-1042 chassis in MAX,no error show up, and I also find that PXI 8362 status LED is green ,which indicate that the connection is setup well.

    Could you give me some suggestions to find out the problem.

    Thanks very much.

     Leo

[LabVIEWSH]

Sorry,I  made a mistake in the above post, the hardware used were PCIe-8361 and PXI-8360. 

[Robert__R]

Leo,

Can you clarify whether you're having an intermittent issue (where a specific configuration works on some boots but not others) or an issue where it works in some configurations and not others?  I ask because issues where rebooting multiple times and having it work some of the time may point to a hardware problem.  If it depends only on what is plugged in, and everything works separately then it's more likely software or BIOS.

There are some tips here, along with several links to browse through:

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/9949

The BIOS compatibility software may help if it's a problem with your PC.  If you try this route, install the software and flip the switch on each NI PCIe-8361 as described in the documentation.

http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2071/lang/en

- Robert

[LabVIEWSH]

Hi,Robert:

    The connection have an intermittent issue, if setup 2 MXI connection, sometimes it works well  but sometimes do not works well(can not find the chassis in MAX)  after some boots in same hardware and software configurations. 

    If setup 1 MXI connection,it always works well.

    So according to your comments,  is this a hardware or software(bios) problem?

    Thanks much for your help.

    Leo

[Robert__R]

Leo,

It's not clear.  It sounds like bad hardware (or cable or something), but that shouldn't depend on whether you have 1 or 2 chassis connected.

Can you try this:  In the 2 chassis configuration, determine which chassis isn't working.  Shut down normally, then turn off the chassis that was working and leave it off.  Boot a few times with only the "bad" chassis turned on but without disturbing any of the cables or cards.

If the "bad" chassis works fine by itself, turn on the "good" chassis and boot it a few times with both powered to see if you still get the intermittent behavior.  Then turn off only the "bad" chassis to see if the "good" chassis works by itself for a few boots.

You may also try shifting the cables around while it's actively running a data transfer (when everything is working) to see if that causes it to fail.

If there's bad hardware then the problems should follow the chassis (or PCIe card or cable).  If not then it may be that the BIOS is configuring something wrong and you could try the BIOS compatibility software.

Let me know what you find.

- Robert