CompactRIO 9159 to laptop connection

[Giuseppe85]

I need a development laptop to be connected to the CompactRIO 9159. Since it is very difficult to find the ExpressCard on modern laptops, I would like to know what is the suggested solution to connect to a CompactRIO chassis. 

[Hamlet23]

Hello

The Express Cards is actually for PXI chassis. In your case, you want to connect to cRIO chassis for which you can use a simple Ethernet cable or if it's a new chassis, there should be also type C port

Regards

[Giuseppe85]

cRIO 9159 is a MXI-Express chassis and it doesn't have a processor on board. Ethernet and type C ports are not available.

[Hamlet23]

Dear Giuseppe,

I got you. I thought that this is a cRIO controller.

So the only way except the MXI controller and cRIO controller is to have a converter like this

[Giuseppe85]

The converter you suggested is from ExpressCard to USB, but it is not what I need.

I think the only way to access the PCIe interface on the laptop is to use the thunderbolt interface, and then use a Thunderbolt to ExpressCard adapter, but I would like to have a confirmation that this would work before buying it (it is not very expensive but it still costs few hundreds of euros).

[Robert__R]

Hi Giuseppe85,

Do you already have an ExpressCard-8360 and a Thunderbolt port? If so, this is the adapter you'll want:
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpresscard34thunderbolt.html

You'll also need a Thunderbolt 3 (laptop side) to Thunderbolt 2 (Echo ExpressCard side) cable.

- Robert

[Giuseppe85]

Thanks a lot Robert.

I'm in the process of buying all the components you suggested. Did you try already this solution?

[Robert__R]

I've tried the Echo adapter with the ExpressCard-8360 to a PXI Express chassis, not to the cRIO backplane. This was a 5+ years ago, and I was using a Thunderbolt 2 host. I didn't have any problems, but I don't recall how extensively I tested it.

- Robert

[Giuseppe85]

Thanks a lot Robert.

That's exactly the information I needed.