RIO Evaluation Kit, Usage of DIO for LEDs

[gerin99]

We have been using a RIO Evaluation Kit board for about 1 month now and love the functionality.  We are even considering using it in a beta demonstration for a high end customer.  However, we have reached its limitation on digital and analog I/Os.  Is there a way to gain access to the digital signal that controls the on board LEDs?  I would like to use that 3.3V signal as a digital output to drive some other logic.

Thank you,

Sr. R&D Design Engineer

Gerin Goldensoph

[JoeySpinella]

Hi Gerin,

Thank you for your interest in using the RIO Evaluation kit. The kit has gone through a couple versions, but the most recent version features a sbRIO 9636 with a custom daughterboard to give a simulated hardware user interface (LCD display, 5-button controller, LED's, Temp controller, Quadrature encoder). The sbRIO is designed to be used in high volume OEM applications where a custom daughterboard is designed to use the 28 DIO, 16 AI, and 4 AO however they are needed. If you would like to access each of DIO lines on your existing RIO Eval kit, you will need to unscrew the chip supports and remove the daughterboard with its various lights and buttons. Then you will need a 50 pin ribbon connector to access each of the lines. 

You can find a pinout listed in the manual here:

http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/373378c.pdf#page=19

[gerin99]

j_spin,

Thank you very much for the reply, I just have one more question for you.  Acutally it is more of a clarification.  So the daughter board on top is simply just a fancy user interface that adds a lot of "pre-designed" functionality to help the end user?  If I remove the daughterboard the 9636 on the bottom will still function normally, but I will now have access to all DIO, AI and AO ports?

Thank you very much,

gerin99

[JoeySpinella]

Hi Gerin,

You are exactly correct. The FPGA and RT controller that we are programming through LabVIEW are entirely contained on the bottom board, which is an sbRIO 9636. The daughter board on top is a custom IC designed to demonstrate things you might choose to do through a custom daughter board. You can remove it and use the sbRIO 9636 completely independently.

[gerin99]

j_spin or others,

Since I have your attention maybe you can answer this question as well.  If this should be a new topic I apologize, but I did search for the answer and found nothing.  I am going to go ahead and remove the daughterboard and exploit the full capability of the 9636 board.  With that being said I am going to use it as a stand-alone board (embedded).  Therefore, what is the max memory available to me on this board (between code space and stored data).  The reason I ask is because I would like to store measured data points over the span of run time and I want to make sure that I never store too much to slow the system down.  For example, if I am storing 10 analog data points every 5 minutes, how long can I safely store data before I should start writing over my own stored data?

Also, is there a specific way to do this with LabVIEW 2013 and the 9636 board?  Will the embedded system allow me to store data to memory?  Do I just save it as an array or do I have to be specific as to where to write it?  Will I lose the data on a power cycle?

Thank you,

gerin99

[JoeySpinella]

Hi Gerin - good question! Please create a new post - this will help others to find it and be helped as well!

[gerin99]

Just took care of it.

Thank you,

gerin99