PXIe-6674T OCXO to PXI_CLK10_In Issues

[arielm]

Hello,

Currently I have a PXIe-1082 chassis, PXIe-8101 controller and a PXIe-6674T timing card installed in slot 4. What I want to do is connect the oscillator on the timing card to clk10_in to improve the accuracy of the 10MHz reference clock.

So here's the weird thing, for the most part when I run my labview program it fails to connect saying "PXI_Clk10_In is available as a destination terminal only for devices in a system timing slot. Move your device to a system timing slot." and will give the error code -1074118597. When it fails I try running the example code to connect to PXI_Clk10_In and using MAX and it will give me the same error, but every so often it will work without giving a single error.

Every time I power up the chassis the first thing I do is check to see if I can connect the clock, and if I can it gives no problems, but if I can't it seems like nothing I do will fix it and it will remain so for periods of time spanning a few weeks to a few months. When it does work, the longest it has lasted has been a week.

I was wondering if anyone has run into anything like this before or has any suggestions on how to get it to work consistently?

Also whether I can connect to PXI_Clk10_In or not I'm able to divide the DDS and output it to ClkOut so it's not a complete failure of the module just of the ability to connect to Clk10_In.

[TylerK]

Hi,

I have a couple of questions that will hopefully narrow down the cause of the error that you are encountering.

1. Are you using NI-Sync 3.4 or later?  There have been driver bug fixes since the initial release of the PXIe-6674T.

2. When the PXIe-6674T fails to route to PXI_Clk10_In, does the PXIe-6674T show up under the chassis in MAX (see example below)?

Regards,

-Tyler

[arielm]

The NI-Sync is version 3.4.0 and when it fails it does show up in MAX.

[CoffeeBreak]

Hi Arielm,

I was able to track down a service request with a nearly an identical problem (and same error code) that we currently are running into. Here are the steps that solved the previous service request error:

1. Close all NI Software

2. Stop the NI Configuration Manager Service (Start >> Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Services >> NI Configuration Manager)

3. Reset you NI MAX Configuration Data (http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/2C7480E856987FFF862573AE005AB0D9)

4. Delete PXIsys.ini and PXIesys.ini from C:\Windows

5. Delete PXIident.ini from C:\Program Files\National Instruments\PXI

6. Reboot the PC.

*NOTE: clearing the NI MAX Configuration data will permanently remove any NI MAX Tasks, custom scales, DAQmx Global Virtual Channels, and device configurations.

If the above steps do not work, the customer with the similar problem also repaired the PXI Platform Services. You can do this by going to Start >> Control Panel >> Programs and Features (uninstall or change a program) >> NI Instruments Software >> NI PXI Platform Services 3.X.X >> Repair. 

[TylerK · Accepted solution]

Just to be safe, you might try installing the NI-Sync 3.4.1 patch. This patch provides an updated firmware image for the PXIe-6674T. For more details on the patch, click on the link below:
PXIe-6674T Timing Module Unexpected Behavior

Regards,

-Tyler

[arielm]

I decided to try updating to 3.4.1 first. Before I did I was getting the error but after I updated to 3.4.1 it worked fine and so far has continued to work for 3 days straight, which before the longest it would work would be one day, and if I turned it off in the middle of the day it would stop working so as of now it looks like updateing to 3.4.1 fixed my issue.

Thanks for both of your help in this matter.