Using M-Series with Real-Time

[DavidT]

Hello all,
I have a PCI-7041/6040 card and a PCI-6221 M-Series card. I would like to access channels on the 6221 card through the RT system but the only available device is the 6040 daughter board when targeting the RT system. If using normal LV environment, I am only able to access the 6221 channels.
Both devices show up in MAX as Dev1, the 6221 in 'Devices and Interfaces -> DAQMx devices' and the 6040 in 'Devices and Interfaces -> DAQMx devices -> RT -> DAQMx devices'.

Im using,
DAQ 7.3.0
DAQMx 7.3.0
LV 7.1
RT 7.1
MAX 3.1
WinXP

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Stuart_G]

Even though what seems like it should be trivial is not going to be in this case. The PCI 7041 is of course a special RT board with the controller on board. In other words Pharlap is running on a processor on the 7041. The M Series board is loading the windows driver and that is why LabVIEW RT can not see it. A couple of options you can try (just suggestions I have never really tried this):

#1. You could setup your entire PC to boot into LabVIEW RT. From there you will be able to see the 6221 device. You should also be able to see the 7041, but again I have never tried this.

#2. Perhaps using the shared memory feature of the 7041 you could have your "RT" app running on the 7041. Then you could have a second application which is using the 6221 running on the Windows system. Using shared memory you might be able to communicate the data from the 7041 to the Windows system and use the data from the 6221 in conjunction. The 6221 in this case, however, will not be running "real-time"

StuartG

[Stephan_A]

Just a few additions. Stuart G. is correct in general.
You can boot the whole PC into RT, but doing this you won't be able to use the 7041 RT Controller, as it is not supported to run in a system which is running in RT mode.
If you follow suggestion 2) you can take advantage of the RTSI connector on both devices to share the same HW clock for synchronization between both boards.
You won't be able to use the 6221 for deterministic control applications as the control software would still run under Windows but you can synchronize data aquisition
with the clock of the RT application.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Stephan A.
National Instruments

[ElliotKaplan]

I am having a similar problem with Labview Realtime 8.20 and a PCI 6224 card. If I boot the computer in Windows, I can see the card in MAX. If I boot the computer in RT ETS and access it from a development pc, I cannot.

Excepting this thread and personal experience, I haven't found any indication that M Series DAQ cards are not plug and play in RTOS. Has anyone else run into this sort of problem?

[MSATLAB]

Hi Elliot,

     What do you mean plug and play?  I am currently using a PCIe-6259 M Series board in LabVIEW Real-Time.  I can see it in real-time on my controller laptop and on my the ETS system when I am in Windows.  Looking at the specifications page on NI's website for the 6224, it states that it is compatible with both RTOS and Windows.  Can you maybe explain you setup more in depth.  Like your DAQmx settings?

Michael

[Paul_C.]

Hi Elliot,

You should have no problem seeing your M-series 6224 in MAX on your remote RT system.  I think there may be something wrong with your driver install.When you open up Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) and select your remote RT system, expand the software tab, do you see DAQmx for RT installed? If not, you will need to install the DAQmx driver with RT support on the host.  If you do see it, It is likely that you didn't add DAQmx RT support or you may need to reinstall the driver on the RT system.

I hope this helps,
Paul C.

[ElliotKaplan]

Ah, sorry, I solved this problem a while ago and then forgot that I had posted here. Paul was right in that I had to put daqmx onto the target computer. The problem I ran into was that apparently I couldn't do that with whatever version of NI Daqmx I originally had on the host (I forget the number offhand). When I upgraded to the latest version I was able to send the driver to the RTOS system. (Unfortunately I can't give version numbers for the old and the new drivers at the moment).

Thanks

Elliot

Message Edited by ElliotKaplan on 09-07-2007 12:49 AM