Can I use SMB Connector in cRIO 9012 as an external trigger source to drive my system?

[Macozza]

I use the real time clock of a cRIO 9012 to generate two pulses with a given delay to drive a lock-in amplifier. Unfortunately the jitter generates a beat that worsens SN ratio. I'd like to use an external source to trigger the system and reduce the jitter. Can I use SMB Connector for that?

[Elizabeth_K.]

What is the cause of the jitter that you are seeing?  You may be able to use the SMB trigger connector to help.  More information can be found here: Using the SMB Connector for Digital I/O or Drift Compensation on cRIO-901x and 9074 Controllers. 

Regards,

Elizabeth K.

National Instruments | Applications Engineer | www.ni.com/support 

[Macozza]

We are using a IC circuit to demodulate an analogue signal. Unfortunately we believe that the internal clock jitter generates a sinusoidal signal that adds up to our true signal. We would like to try a time source with a smaller jitter to verify our hypothesis. After a few thought about it I no longer think that using an external trigger is a good idea.

Anyway today I have a bigger problem with my cRIO-9012 to worry about. After deploying a new code the controller stop working. The Status LED is steadily on. I formatted the controller and I installed to software again but the problem persists. I cannot see the chassis using MAX. It gives a visa error. I have access to the controller only in safe mode otherwise the communication is interrupted.

Is there any procedure to reinstall the firmware and initialize to controller?

thank you in advance for the help

M.

[PaulRB · Accepted solution]

Hi,

What color is the status light? Is it green or amber? According to the manual, a solid status light means that the cRIO has encountered an unrecoverable error, so that could mean a lot of different things. After you reformatted, did you redeploy the code that started this issue? If so, I would try reformatting again and then don't deploy your startup exe. Also, you might want to try and reboot the cRIO with the no app switch flipped to the "on" position and see what happens.

Another good troubleshooting step is to get information via the serial port. Here are instructions for how to do this. If you attach that information to this thread I can take a look at it.

Thanks,

[Macozza]

Thanks for the feed-back

The Status LED is amber. It goes off and it stays on for a few seconds and then it turns briefly off.

After I formatted the cRIO I didn't deploy my .vi. Turning it on with no Apps switch on doesn't help. the only way to communicate with it using MAX is by enabling SAFE MODE.

I installed: 

DataSocket for LabVIEW Real-Time 4.4

LabVIEW Real-Time 8.2

NI-RIO FCF 2.2.0

NI-Serial RT 3.1.0

NI-VISA 4.0

NI-VISA Server 4.0

NI-Watchdog 2.1.5

Network Variable Engine 1.2.0

Variable Client Support 1.2.0

DataSocket for LabVIEW Real-Time 4.4LabVIEW Real-Time 8.2NI-RIO FCF 2.2.0NI-Serial RT 3.1.0NI-VISA 4.0NI-VISA Server 4.0NI-Watchdog 2.1.5Network Variable Engine 1.2.0Variable Client Support 1.2.0

In SAFE mode I can access to it in MAX but devices and interfaces gives me an VISA error.

It seems to me that when the boot file is corrupted and that the device could not load it. it keeps going trying though.

this is what I get in safe mode. The file attached contains the info when I start the device normally

thanks,

Matteo

                            cRIO-901x Boot

Copyright 2007 National Instruments Corp.

Bootrom version: 2.4.5

Creation date: Jun 14 2007, 10:04:44

Press any key to stop auto-boot...

 0

auto-booting...

Booting into Safe Mode from ROM...

Uncompressing kernel...

done.

2933280

Starting at 0x100000...

Mounting tffs...

Datalight Reliance v2.10.1053

Copyright (c) 2003-2006 Datalight, Inc.

Registered to #D469CF2F

Entering safe mode.

Initializing network...

Device 1 - MAC address: 00:80:2F:11:43:34 - 10.1.11.111 (primary)

[Macozza]

Problem solved

The trouble was due to a wrong installation of NI-RIO. My fault. Thank you anyway