Installed FPGA not in "Execution Target" list?

[cevasp]

I have a PXI-1044 chassis with six PXI-7813R cards installed.  All
the software seemed to install fine (NI-RIO, LabVIEW 7.1, LabVIEW FPGA,
etc) but when I launch LabVIEW, the only execution targets in the list
are:

Windows
PXI-7811R <compile only>
PCI-7831R <compile only>
PXI-7831R <compile only>
PCI-7833R <compile only>

Neither the PXI-7813R cards nor their emulators are available for
targets.  MAX shows the six 7813R cards and the chassis.  It
also shows the following software:

LabVIEW 7.1
Advanced Analysis Package 7.1
Application Builder 7.1
LabVIEW FPGA 1.1.0
NI-RIO 1.3
Traditional (NI-DAQ) 7.4.0f0

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

[Christian L]

cevasp,
Are you running Windows on your PXI controller and configuring MAX directly on the PXI controller, or are you running a separate desktop computer with Windows and using LV RT on the PXI controller. Most likely you need to make a slight change in your MAX configuration so that LabVIEW (VISA) sees the FPGA devices.
Please review the following knowledgebase entries for information on this issue:
<a href="http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/EEE781052AC0908A86256D980053734C?OpenDocument" target="_blank">http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/EEE781052AC0908A86256D980053734C?OpenDocument</a>
<a href="http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/8980356DA789165E86256F8E00462FE4" target="_blank">http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/8980356DA789165E86256F8E00462FE4</a>
Please also review the LabVIEW&nbsp;FPGA release notes.
<a href="http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/manuals/323572B-01/" target="_blank">http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/manuals/323572B-01/</a>

[cevasp]

Are you running Windows on your PXI controller
and configuring MAX directly on the PXI controller, or are you running
a separate desktop computer with Windows and using&nbsp;LV RT on the PXI
controller.


I'm running Windows on the PXI controller.&nbsp; I'm not using LV RT.&nbsp; I'll look at those links and reply back.

[cevasp]

Well, I've gone through the links you provided.&nbsp; Most of that info
seemed related to LV RT, which I'm not using.&nbsp; So far I've done
the following and nothing has worked:



1) Removed/reinstalled all NI software from the PXI controller.

2) "Repaired" the RIO software install through "Add/Remove Programs" in case I installed it out of order.

3) Under VISA options in MAX I checked "show all PXI/PCI devices accessible to VISA" and saved.



I have another PXI chassis that we bought a couple of months ago, which
I already set up and it works fine (<a href="http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=280&amp;message.id=1377" target="_blank">aside from my other issue</a>).&nbsp;
The only thing that seems different with this chassis is that the FPGA
cards came pre-installed in the chassis, whereas in the previous order
they came separately.&nbsp; I did move the pre-installed cards into
different slots (primarily to space them out for cabling) but MAX sees
all of them.&nbsp; Since moving the cards I have re-installed all of
the NI software.



I don't understand the mechanism by which LV knows what targets are available so I don't know what to check at this point.

[Stephan A.]

Hi,

one question: Which type of PXI Controller are you using?

Regards

Stephan A.

National Instruments

[cevasp]

one question: Which type of PXI Controller are you using?



Both of my PXI chassis (the one that sees the FPGAs and the one that
doesn't)&nbsp; have PXI-8196 controllers with 1GB RAM upgrade (2GB RAM
total).

[cevasp]

Go to Add Remove Programs, and instead of 'Repair', select 'Modify'.
Then make sure that your board is selected under the NI RIO 1.3 set of
features.

It looked like the device driver was selected but LabVIEW FPGA support
was not. Upon installing that option the PXI-7813R shows up in the
Execution Target list, but as &lt;compile only&gt;
so I can Build and Compile but no Download.
I also noticed that NI-VISA 3.3 &gt;&gt; Real-Time and Embedded
&gt;&gt; NI-VISA 3.3 was also not installed. I installed that as well
(it didn't change anything, even after a reboot) so my guess is that
LabVIEW still does not see the FPGAs (hence the &lt;compile only&gt;&nbsp; option).




Thanks for your help so far. Any other ideas?Message Edited by cevasp on 12-07-2005 10:16 AM

[Dustin W]

Hmmm...&nbsp; That is interesting.
At this point you are able to see the 7813R in MAX but not target directly in LV, correct?&nbsp; A couple pieces of information that might be helpful - First, when you select the board in MAX, what is the VISA address assigned to it?&nbsp; Also, which slot is the board in?&nbsp; Have you tried moving it one of the first few slots (on the first PCI Bridge of the PXI Chassis)?
Can you compile a simple piece of code using the "Compile Only" mode and then create a host VI that targets the card using it's VISA Resource Name?
Let me know what you find on those - we'll get to the bottom of this :)
&nbsp;
Dustin

[cevasp]

1) At this point you are able to see the 7813R in MAX but not target directly in LV, correct?
&nbsp;Well,
I can see the FPGAs in MAX and I can now select
a 7813R as my target but as
&lt;compile only&gt; (as opposed to targeting a specific FPGA card in a
specific slot).&nbsp; The "Download" menu option is grayed out also.

2) when you select the board in MAX, what is the VISA address assigned to it? Also, which slot is the board in?
Well, I have 6 FPGA cards in the chassis and they are as follows:
PXI18::14::INSTR (slot 14)
PXI17::10::INSTR (slot 11)
PXI17::13::INSTR (slot 9)
PXI17::15::INSTR (slot 7)
PXI16::11::INSTR (slot 5)
PXI16::14::INSTR (slot 3)

For completeness,
PXI16::6::INSTR (GPIB)

They are spaced out to allow for easier access to cabling.

3) Have you tried moving it one of the first few slots (on the first PCI Bridge of the PXI Chassis)?
Well, I'm guessing the FPGA in slot 3 covers this(?).

4) Can you compile a simple piece of code using the
"Compile Only" mode and then create a host VI that targets the card
using it's VISA Resource Name?
I'll take a look at this and reply back.


Message Edited by cevasp on 12-09-2005 07:53 AM

[Dustin W]

The VISA names you listed indicate you looked under PXI System in MAX.&nbsp; There&nbsp;should be a group called 'NI-RIO Devices' under Devices and Interfaces.&nbsp; Do you see your R Series boards under that group?&nbsp; What are the VISA names there?&nbsp; They should be of the format RIOX::INSTR where X is a number.&nbsp; If they are there, do the following:
1)&nbsp;Right-click on them and select open a VISA Test Panel
2) Select the Property Node (Get) tab
3) Select Manufacturer Name from the pull down
4) Select Execute.
If VISA communication to the board is working properly you should see National Instruments returned.

[cevasp]

MAX returns the manufacturer info fine.&nbsp; The RIO aliases are RIO0:INSTR through RIO5::INSTR.

I deleted all of the RIO devices through XPs Device Manager and
rebooted the system but that didn't help either.&nbsp; I'm stuck with
no real targets in LV.

As a previous poster suggested, I compiled a simple LV FPGA vi with the
"PXI-7813R &lt;compile only&gt;".&nbsp; I then created a LV app that
would open an FPGA VI reference and poll a LV FPGA indicator once every
10ms.&nbsp; When I right click the "Open FPGA VI Reference" and select
"External VISA Input" I can then right-click and&nbsp; create a
constant for that input.&nbsp; The constant contains all of the PXI/RIO
aliases.&nbsp; However, when I select an alias and run the vi I get
error (-61016) "You must compile the VI for the target".

[cevasp]

First off...the problem now seems to be resolved.&nbsp; I'm not exactly
sure what the issue was though.&nbsp; Having looked at the issue from
so many different angles, the only thing else I could think of was a
licensing/registration issue with LV FPGA.&nbsp; My thought was that LV
was not seeing a valid license for the FPGA module so it wouldn't allow
me to download.

Digging into this I realized I pulled the "wrong" S/N (we have two FPGA
module licenses but I used the same S/N for both PXI chassis).&nbsp;
I'm not sure that would really matter because I don't believe either
chassis was ever connected to a network.&nbsp;&nbsp; I could be wrong
though.&nbsp; In any case, to be sure, I uninstalled LV FPGA and
re-installed using the "correct" S/N.

After rebooting, I now see all of the FPGA boards in the Execution
Target list.&nbsp; Not wanting to go through all of this again, I don't
know if re-installing the software fixed the problem or if
re-installing the software with the different S/N fixed the problem.

In either case, I appreciate the replies and all of the help that was provided.