NI linux realtime on an single board computer

[Altris]

Hi All

I was having this weird idea of installing NI Linux real time OS on on a single board computer like Pi or beagle board, the idea came to my mind that, on a situation where i dint have Linux  realtime PXIe controller, i did install the image to a virtual machine and ran it as linux controller

Max was able to detect it and deploy software and run it

-so we have the NI Linux image downloadable from NI

-Arm Support is proved by using NI linux realtime on Crio ARM controllers such as 9067

has anyone worked on a very similar project?, i know there exist LINX but i it will be better if we are able to install NI Linux Rt on a single board computer and could replace small CRIO based applications with this

[rolfk]

There is no LabVIEW for ARM Cortex A IDE. If you want to use Pi or a Beaglebone Black as target to deploy an executable to you should look at the Hobbyist Toolkit.

On other boards it is only possible if it is a x86-64 CPU but only technically. You would need a license from NI to be legal and they don’t have that yet. And no the license is not for NI Linux itself. You can build a NI Linux RT kernel yourself with the sources NI publishes but that is simply an embedded Linux kernel. Without LabVIEW realtime runtime kernel, NI DAQmx, Ni-this and NI-that it is absolutely useless as LabVIEW target and you do not have any copyright on that software without an explicit license from NI.

[Altris]

i could see 9067 runs NI linux real time with ARM Cortex A9 so what if i use the same image?, regarding license yes its tricky, but NI linux based drivers are now opensource and available 

[rolfk]

Not sure about the drivers being open source. LabVIEW Runtime certainly isn’t and most likely never will be and that is the most important part. NI is not likely to have your front door busted by the FBI for automating your door bell with an illegal LabVIEW RT system but if you publish how to do it you might expect a cease and desist letter.

[Altris]

Hi

let me make it clear. There is no intention to use or breach any license, more over for NI most of the license are included in PDS, and real time l icence is sold separately,  the hardware where real time runs is no ones headache,

misconception of using an ARM Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 1.8Ghz for just automating doorbell .. IDK

Here the Intention is to expand the use cases, for example imagine if we can run Linux real time in a single board computer with enough GPIO, where everything is combined to a single board.  using lab view to develop and dump code would be even an economical idea as we can make n number of deployments with single  PDS licence

In a country like India, where most of the industry is manual where people cant afford high end automation or data analytics .. this can be a scope for NI where the front end can be lab view and the controller can be PI or  even powerful one  which transmits data through a MQTT broker. This will only improve NIs presence in smaller firms.

Using lab view to code would be very beneficial to the community and it would be a great inclusion.

scope is  endless

[rolfk]

The doorbell automation was tongue in cheek. The fact that you can not run a LabVIEW realtime application on your own hardware without a valid LabVIEW RT runtime license is however very real. I understand what you want to do but without getting a license from NI for it it simply is not legal. No further arguing needed! Even if NI wanted to let it slip by they are legally obligated to intervene as soon as they get reasonably aware of it or they may loose the copyright otherwise!

Yes it may benefit the community but NI is a shareholder company (well soon to be wholly owned by a shareholder driven company) with an obligation to maximize shareholder value. Those shareholders give a f*ck what benefits the community as long as it does not improve the immediate quarterly bottom line of the sales figures. So get busy convincing management that this will improve sales but it’s going to be a though sale.