Adlink Compact PCI cPCI chassis with PXI devices

[dearman]

I thought I would post this here in case someone is searching for it as
I was. There seems to be no online reference except the PXI reference
document its self. I came up with a correct pxisys.ini for a cPCI
chassis with PXI cards in slot 3,4,5 (you can move them to any three
slots) where the PXI signal bus is exported to the J2 connector on
the rear of the chassis. Might come in handy if you want to route
triggers and PXICLK10 signals onto your PXI cards. These routes are
disabled by default on a cPCI chassis for the NI cards.

Hope this might help someone,
Mark DeArman

[Amd1480]

Hello DeArman

Thanks for your post. I think I have the same problem you had.

I am using a cPCI chassis not from NI. This chassis has no pxisys.ini file.  I am using it with a CPU controller from EKF.

The system has the following configuration:

CPU Controller: Intel core 2 Duo (Boogie CPU board from EKF)

Chassis with 7 slots (one for CPU and 6 for cPCI)

Windows 7 32-bits

MAX5.3.1

DAQmx 9.6.1

DMM 3.0.6

LabVIEW 2011 SP1

I must use the system with two PXI cards from NI. Both card have been installed and can be found in device manager under windows without any problem. But in MAX the self test for these cards is always failed.

I think the problem is that, the system does not have a pxisys.ini file and MAX needs this file to be able to connect correctly to the chassis as well as to the PXI cards.

Is it possible to create a pxisys.ini file for this chassis? If yes could you please advise me how can I go do that?

Another question, I tried to use your pxisys.ini file, but when I try to load it in MAX I get the following error: could not load chassis information. Error code %#X

thanks for your help

[dearman]

Hi,

The only EKF chassis I have is the 6U type does not contain any NI cards for me to test a pxisys.ini on.  I never experienced the symptoms with the AdLink, where a card would not work, or failed, just that MAX was trying to keep me safe from routing signals when it didn’t know about the backplane.

To create the pxisys.ini for your chassis requires the documentation for the backplane which is in your chassis and the PXI specification document chapter on pxisys.ini formatting.  The one I created will work as a template but you will need the exact slot ordering and PCI information for the one you have.

Best of luck,

Mark DeArman

[dearman]

I forgot to mention before…

You should be very careful before attempting to use PXI cards in a cPCI backplane which you are not familiar with.  It is quite possible that the signals used as part of the PXI specification are being used for something else on your backplane.  Looking at my EKF controller it looks like it uses that connector to carry SATA, IDE, USB and RS232 to a card which goes into the back of the chassis.  You could do real damage to your PXI cards depending on how your controller and backplane are setup.

[Amd1480]

could you tell me please how can I clarify that to make sure this chassis can be used for PXI cards? The company, from where I got the chassis, told me that, this chassis is 100% compatible to cPCI cards and it uses 5V for the cPCI bus backplane.

Thanks for your help!

[Amd1480]

Hello again DeArman,

I contact again EKF, and they told me that the controller as well as the chassis is 100% compatible to cPCI bus.

I have another PXI-cards in the chassis all of them works fine unless one card. This card is PXI-4072. Windows can find the card and set as installed correctly.

In NI-MAX the card can be found, but can not pass the self test. it returns (Hardware internal error)!

[dearman]

1)     cPCI compatibility does not guarantee PXI compatibility as far as I know.

2)     Did you try clearing out the MAX resources?

3)     Do you have another PXI chassis which you can test the card in?

4)     Did you call NI phone support?  Ask about cPCI compatibility of the PXI device.

5)     If you can not test the device in another PXI chassis, send the device to NI. For 150$US they can test and calibrate that multimeter I think.

Best of luck,