Simulation mode for PCI-5640R

[gregus]

Hi,

I am evaluating whether to buy a PCI-5640R (or PXI-5641R) card for a project.   I would like to prototype the code first to see if what I want to do would work.  Is it possible to use the 5640R driver in simulation mode, without a physical card installed?   M-series daq cards support this, is there similar support for 5640R / 5641R/

thanks in advance

greg

[Chris_W.]

Hi Greg,

You can simulate the use of your IF Transceiver code before you make a decision on whether or not to purchase. There are a couple caveats though. First, you must have the NI-5640R driver installed in order to find that device as a simulated device. The other thing is that you'll need to have the LabVIEW FPGA module already purchased and installed. If neither of these are issues, then you are good to go for prototyping. I recently updated the instructions on how to set your IF-RIO FPGA project for simulation that you can find HERE.The updates that I made to include the IF-RIO may not be live yet, but should be up within the next day. Those instructions should get you rolling. Enjoy!

Chris W

[gregus]

Chris

thanks for the suggestion.  I did install NI-5640R driver and have (evaluation version of) Labview FPGA module. I tried following your instructions, however, when I try to create a new target, the only target type available is "Networked Computer".  Any ideas?

thanks

Greg

[Chris_W.]

Hi Greg,

One thing I forgot to mention, which may be the cause, is that you also need the NI-RIO driver. Version 3.1 of this driver should have installed with the NI-5640 driver, but you might want to make sure it's there. Also, what version of LabVIEW are you using? The reason I ask is that there currently is not a version of the NI-5640R driver that supports LabVIEW 2009, only 8.6.1. The latest version of the NI-5640R driver is 1.3 and can only be used with LabVIEW 8.6.1 and LabVIEW FPGA module 8.6.1. I'm sorry for not mentioning this before. 

Chris W

[gregus]

Chris,

thanks for the reply. I did install NI-RIO.  However, I'm using Labview 2009, so maybe that's the problem.  When I try to load NI-5640R examples I have to fix the paths for quite a few VIs.  

I will try to downgrade to 8.6.1 and then try this again.

Thanks

Greg

[Chris_W.]

Yea sorry for not mentioning that before. I think that's likely the issue. Let me know how it goes.

Chris W

[gregus]

Chris,

sorry to be dense -- I'm new to this. I installed Labview 8.6 and Labview FPGA, as well as NI-RIO and NI-5640R drivers.  I can now get much further. I can open an example NI-5640R FPGA project (e.g. ni5640R Analog Input and Output) and then follow your instructions to set the FPGA vi to execute on the development computer with simulated I/O. However, when I try to run the host vi, I get an error message as follows:

" Error -63192 occurred at Open FPGA VI Reference in ni5640R Analog Input and Output - ASYNC(HOST).vi

Possible reason(s):

NI-RIO:  (Hex 0xFFFF0928) Either the supplied resource name is invalid as a RIO resource name, or the device was not found. Use MAX to find the proper resource name for the intended device. "

However,  since I don't have the actual card, I am confused as to how I would get MAX to find the proper resource name.

thanks

Greg

[Chris_W.]

Hi Greg,

It's no problem. You're getting that error because the Open FPGA Reference VI on the block diagram of the Host VI, is currently set up to run a bitfile. So, we've set up the FPGA VI to run on the host computer with simulated I/O, so we must also point the Open FPGA Reference VI to the FPGA VI instead of the bitfile. If you double click the Open FPGA Reference VI and then you should simply select the top most radio selection and select the main FPGA VI.

You should be good to go. Have a good week!

Chris W

[gregus]

Chris,

thanks for all your help.  Alas, now Labview reliably crashes when I do what you suggest. I set the FPGA VI to run on the development computer, then I edit "Open FPGA Reference VI" and set it to open FPGA VI rather than the bit file, as you suggested. Then, if I run the host VI, the computer churns for a while and then displays a dialog box: 

"Labview 8.6 Development Syste has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience ".  Error signature is

AppName: labview.exe     AppVer: 8.6.0.4001     ModName: unknown
ModVer: 0.0.0.0     Offset: 112e4ca9

Exception information:

Code: 0xc0000005, Flags 0x00000000

Address 0x00000000112e4ca9

I tried rebooting the computer, but still get the same error every time. I am able to run the FPGA VI by itself, but not through the host VI.

Thanks

Greg

[JMota]

That's no good. 

Here are few shots in the dark that you might want to try.  Try running the Host VI not having the FPGA VI loaded/open (or not loaded). Something else would be to delete the Open FPGA VI Reference node and re-add it from the palette.

Alternatively, you may try configure the Open FPGA VI Reference to use a very simple FPGA VI (e.g. VI with a constant wired to an indicator) to see if the crash is caused by some code that exists in the FPGA VI.