NI's PXI-1042 remote login

[svt4cobra6]

Hi just wondering if it is possible to remote log into a PXI-1042 from a different PC running windows xp?  The connection between the pc and the PXI-1042 would be eithernet and I would want to run a labvew application to control the PXI-1042.

Thanks Paul.

[Justin_E]

Hey Paul,

You can definitely control your PXI controller through remote login. You mentioned the PXI-1042, which is actually a PXI chassis. If you're using one of our PXI controllers (8106, 8108, etc), then I've got a couple KnowledgeBase articles for you :

KnowledgeBase 4PAI738A : How Can I Remote Desktop into My PXI System Other Than With Windows Remote Desktop?
https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z000000P9wFSAS&l=en-US

The key thing to note about using Remote Desktop to connect to your controller is that the system you're using and the controller need to be on the same network. Essentially, they need to have the same Default Gateway and the same Subnet Mask, but differing IP addresses. You can manually set the IP address, gateway and subnet mask for each system, and simply use the IP address of the PXI controller to connect.

[svt4cobra6]

Thanks for the information, just wondering what might cause the application to not run even though a connection has been established?

[Justin_E]

Well, if you're connected to your controller through ethernet and are using the remote desktop, then any LabVIEW application you run will be ran on that controller. There could be a variety of things that aren't causing the application to run. What PXI controller are you trying to connect to?

[svt4cobra6]

It is the 1042 PXI controller.  Have not been able to get remote desktop working only able to file share.  The exe app loads into memory of the source computer, not the PXI controller and tries to run there.

[Justin_E]

Hey Paul,

The PXI-1042 device is actually a PXI chassis, as seen on the product page for this device : https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/model.pxi-1042.html

Usually, these chassis' do not have a controller built-in (with the exception of our PXI-1033). The actual controller will be inserted into slot 1 of the 1042 chassis, and will be similar to the controllers found across this page : https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/category/pxi-controllers.html?productId=118733

If you're trying to run your executable file on the PXI controller, then you need to move the actual .exe file to your PXI controller, remote desktop, and run the .exe from there. If you're using a MXI connection, then things will be different, because your PC is now acting as your PXI controller. But, from what you've told me, you have an ethernet connection to your controller. You should be able to hook up a keyboard, mouse, and monitor to the controller itself and actually work in the controller's OS.

[svt4cobra6]

thanks for the response.  We can not seem to remote log in or ping one computer from another.  When we try to remote log into the NI pc we get computer not found, using both its IP address or computer name.  We are able to file share and the connection status is good, any ideas?

[svt4cobra6]

Also we manually set the IP address, gateway and subnet mask for each system.  We tried setting the gateway and subnet the same for both machines with different IP addresses but this did not work.  We used the IP address that you get from the ipconfig msdos command.

[Justin_E]

Hey Paul,

I was able to set a similar system up today to test everything out. You'll want to make sure that your computer is set up for remote login, as per the linked KBs. In setting up my network, I set up my PC to have an IP address of 192.168.1.1, and my PXI controller to have an IP address of 192.168.1.2. I set the default gateway on both machines to 192.168.1.100, and the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. I was able to remotely access the controller from the PC, and vice versa.

You may want to check and see if there are any firewall issues on your PC or on your PXI controller. Try disabling the firewall on both sides (if you're directly connected), and see if you can connect. 

One thing I noticed is that I was only able to remote into my controller if I put in the IP address, and not the computer name. To be able to ping or remotely access the machine with the computer name, you need to set up both machines so that they're on the same domain.

[svt4cobra6]

Hi thanks for the response.  We tried turning off the firewalls but this did not work as well.  Since this is just two computers connected together and they are not connected to a network with a domain controller we did not do anything with domain names.  We did have both machines in the same workgroup (not sure if this is the same as a domain name).  Do you think we need to set the domain names on both machines and if so could you provide brief instructions, Paul.