Running an NI USRP with LabVIEW on a Mac OS computer

[sshearman]

Running LabVIEW and the NI-USRP on a Mac

The current version of the NI USRP driver, Ver 1.1 is not available for the Mac version of LabVIEW or Mac-OS-based personal computers such as MacBook or MacBook Pro. Nonetheless it is possible to run NI-USRP from your MacOS-based computer using  several approaches. One way to do so would be to use Bootcamp to run Windows OS natively. This document walks you thorough  another way of doing so using virtualization software such as Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion. Our instructions focus on Parallels Desktop, but instructions for other alternatives will likely be similar.

Figure 1, PC-based LabVIEW application running on a Mac OS in a virtual machine.

The Secret is to run a Windows 7 virtual machine on you Mac with a network interface that’s bridged to a true Gigabit Ethernet port. With this configuration, on my machine I was able to establish receive rates exceeding 20Msamples/sec using this technique.

The following instructions will guide you through bridging a network connection:

1. Obtain and plug in a gigabit ethernet to thunderbolt cable, which is a standard part available from Apple. Plug the network cable into the adaptor and into the NI USRP you plan to control.
2. Power on the NI USRP and wait for it’s boot sequence to complete..
3. Enter “full screen mode” mode on your virtual machine. (Note that Parallels calls this full screen mode, other virtualization software may have a different name for it.  In this mode, your PC will resemble a standard windows desktop.
4. Move your cursor to the top of the screen and hold it there for a second to get to the Parallels menu, as below:

Figure 2, Choose Devices-->Network 2--> Thunderbolt Ethernet (Bridged)

1. Choose Devices--Network 2--Thunderbolt Ethernet (Bridged), as in the above figure. This sets up a bridged network to the Mac OS that is hosting your virtual machine.
2. While still in the Windows OS, open the network configuration window and find the Network Interface associated with the Thunderbolt Ethernet. You will now set up the Host Virtual Machine to a static IP address, following the instructions below:

Set Up the Host Computer Network to a Static IP Address

If you are using Microsoft Windows 7 you can follow these instructions to set the host computer network interface to a static IP address.

1. Open the Windows 7 Control Panel, choose Network and Internet and then Network and Sharing Center. From the Network and Sharing Center choose Change Adapter Settings from the upper left of the dialog box as shown in the figure below.

2. Double click the Adapter entry that you wish to modify. The entry that you click could be for instance, Local Area Connection. A dialog box will appear. Click on the Properties button from the dialog to access the Local Area Connection dialog.

3. Double click the entry marked Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IP4).

4. On the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IP4) dialog box, set the IP Address to 192.168.10.1 and the Subnet Mask to 255.255.255.0. Click OK to close the dialog and fix the settings.

     5. Close the other open dialog boxes associated with network configuration.

     6. Open the NI USRP configuration utility to confirm that the USRP has been successfully detected

     7. You may need to disconnect and then reconnect the network bridge setting from the Parallels menu in order to see the connected NI-USRP.