Simple stand-alone data logging project for cRIO-9004 saving to 9802

[JKam55]

I am with a student project team and recently obtained a cRIO-9004 and want to read data from accelerometers attached to the suspension on our car and save it to SD cards in a 9802 module to process it later in another program. This also is planned to be a stand-alone program as we cannot bring a computer into the car with us due to lack of room and jumps for measuring the suspension travel. I have very little experience with LabVIEW itself and no prior experience with FPGA or Real-Time but I thought this would be a fairly straightforward project. Most of the examples I have found have been much more complicated than what I plan to do though and I am having trouble attempting to compile my own code for this to work.

From what I have read so far it seems that what I need is an FPGA program (since 9004 can't use scan interface apparently) that collects the data from the analog input module we have and then saves it to the SD card. After this I have a host vi which will open and run the FPGA vi and a Real-Time application that automatically starts the host vi so that it does not need to be attached to a computer. What I am struggling with is how exactly I should set up these two VIs to communicate with each other.

I have posted my starting points but I feel as though I am not going in the right direction at all and the more I read from browsing online the more confused I get. I also cannot test the program right now because I apparently need Xilinx Tools 10.1 to compile the FPGA program and I cannot download that because I am on a student license and don't have access to the product serial number right now but that is another issue I can deal with later.

What I am wondering is if someone could let me know if I am on the right track at all with this, or if I am missing out on some important concepts here. Also if there are any guides or examples that could further help me out with this I will be glad to read them. I have read over quite a few guides and I feel as though I understand the basics fairly well but like I said combining them here is what I am struggling with.

I really appreciate any help here.

Thank you,

Justin

[Dave.C]

Hi Justin,

If you haven't seen the NI LabVIEW for CompactRIO Developer's Guide, it might be worth a look.  Section 3 discusses the FPGA module and references an example for the 9802 module which can be found by searching the LabVIEW Example finder from the Help menu for 9802.

It looks like you're on the right path, but I have a couple of observations.  You're going to need a way to get out of the single cycle timed loop (boolean control) in your RT code.  In it's existing state,you might also want a true wired to the wait teminal on the run method.

Links to the Xilinx 10.1 Compile Tools for LabVIEW 2012 can be found here if you're not familiar with where to get them.

Let us know if you have any additional questions.

[JKam55]

Ok great thank you very much for the feedback I will get Xilinx downloaded and then continue reading up and improving the program.

Thanks again!

-Justin