download vi or attribute to flash

[bww]

I am using the cRIO product line in an application that gets installed in a remote location an occasionally it needs to be updated. Is there a vi that can be used to download the FPGA vi. I know how to do this from the project explorer however I need a way for a field technician to perform an upgrade without requiring him/her to have a full version of labview. I'd like to make an executable that can detect the unit, similar to MAX's - remote systems, and then once the unit is identified, download the new FPGA bitstream and realtime application. So I guess I have two questions:

1) Is there a vi to download a vi to an FPGA platform?

2) How does MAX find remote systems, even if they are on a different subnet?

Thanks in advance,

Bryan

[Bassett_Hound]

Hi Bryan,

I"ll answer your second question first.  On the Real Time pallete there is a VI in the utilities pallete to search for RT devices on your local subnet or for devices not on the local subnet.  Once the RT target is identified you would then have several options for upgrading the application on the RT target:

1.  If you had a new RT application you wanted loaded than you could use FTP vis to transfer the exe to the RT target and then use VI server to start the exe.

2.  If you are just running the FPGA code on the cRIO, the FPGA can act as a Ethernet enable FPGA.  Check the following discussion fourm for more details.

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=beta2&message.id=138#M138

Hope that helps a little,

Regards,

Steven B.