Do I need LabVIEW RT installed on my PC to build an executable to transfer over to a PXI RT system?

[TomBrass]

I built an executable on the client PC and deployed it to the PXI within LabVIEW.  I need to upgrade the software, but we took LabVIEW off of the PC, since it is a production machine.  I tried building the executable on my laptop and FTP the executable to the PXI, but the executable won't run.  I only have LabVIEW 8.0 installed on my computer, I don't have LabVIEW RT.  Do I need to install LabVIEW RT on my laptop first, then build the executable?  I'm trying to figure out why my new executable won't run on the PXI, and this is the only thing I can think of.  And yes, I did check the ni-rt.ini file to make sure the application is called out and set to run at startup:

RTTarget.ApplicationPath=c:\ni-rt\startup\startup.rtexe
RTTarget.LaunchAppAtBoot=True

If someone could verify that LabVIEW RT needs to be installed on my laptop for me to be able to build the proper executable, that would at least tell me one thing that is wrong with my setup.

Thanks,

Tom

[Eric A.]

Hi Tom,
Thanks for posting.  Your suspicions are confirmed.  In fact you do need the LabVIEW Real-Time module to create an application for your RT PXI controller.  When you deploy a VI to your controller the RT module converts it into a format that the Real-Time operating system can run. The same is true for an exe.  You have to use the build specification under the remote target in your project explorer to create an exe that is compatible with the RT OS.
Regards,

[TomBrass]

So how can I update the software if I am not connected to the PXI?  My client's PXI is in Washington State and I am in Minnesota, so a physical connection is not possible.  The PC doesn't have LabVIEW installed on it, it is communicating to the PXI through an executable.  The PXI is on a local network, so I cannot connect to it remotely.  If I have to be connected to the PXI in order to create an update, then the executable on the PXI is not maintainable.

Any ideas on how to get around this problem?

Thanks,

Tom

[Eric A.]

Hi,
You don't have to have LabVIEW Real-Time on the computer the PXI is connected to in order to get a new exe onto it.  But you do have to build the exe on a computer with LabVIEW Real-Time.  If you use LabVIEW alone to build the exe then it will be in the wrong format to run on a RT system.  Real-Time controllers run Phar Lap which is an Real-Time operating system.  This means that regular VI's built in LabVIEW cannot run on RT systems.  Basically you need to build a Real-Time exe on a computer with Real-Time installed and then somehow FTP it into your contr....  I hope this helps explain how RT and exe's work together.

[TomBrass]

Great!  I think I might have misunderstood what you were saying before.  I have installed LabVIEW RT on my computer and I see that I can now access my application build that I had created while connected to the PXI.  Thanks for confirming how this works.  This will be a big help for me.

Thanks!

Tom

[Eric A.]

Hi Tom,
Glad to hear you have that cleared up.  Post again if you run into anything else.