Install CVI real-time on an RT target

[JonathanN]

Hi Rob,

I'm double checking into some of my thoughts before posting but one quick question is this. Before you upgraded to LV 8.5, you of course were using LV 8.0.1 boot disks. Now, at that time, where you able to use the Desktop PC boot disk without any problems? From your posts, it seems as if you were using the PXI boot disks even before upgrading to LV 8.5?

If that's true, it appears to me that you are still seeing the same problems in LV 8.5 with the issues of the PXI boot disks allowing you to install CVI support and the Desktop PC boot disks not allowing you.

Is that a correct assumption?

Best Regards,

[JonathanN]

Hi Rob,

Not sure if you are still looking at this post but I have been looking into the CVI issue a little bit in terms of what is displayed in the LabVIEW Real-Time Software Wizard.

For starters, all the items that show up in that wizard are taken from the <National Instruments>\RT Images\ directory.  In CVI 8.0, we installed two cdf files into the directory <National Instruments>\RT Images\CVI\8.0 directory called cvilvrt.cdf and cvianalys.cdf.  MAX looks at these files to determine what entries to display which in this case was
LabWindows/CVI Analysis 8.0.0 and LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine for RT 8.0.0. Now, what I found was that those entries will ONLY be display when the target is configured as a PXI system. There are RT target codes inside of those files that say only display for PXI. So if you turned a Desktop PC into an RT target, you should NOT see those entries at all. I confirmed this on my end.

Now my thoughts are that you somehow (which I tried and wasn't able to) got a Desktop PC to turn into a PXI system using some PXI boot disks. I don't believe you should even be able to do this. If you did, then it would make sense that those entries appeared.  To verify my thoughts here, could you post a zip file of the RT-Images\CVI directory?

It really doesn't matter if you don't have those entries in the Wizard as you can still use CVI DLLs with LV RT by downloading the windows\system32\cvi_lvrt.dll file to the ni-rt/system directory or the ni-rt/startup/data directory. If you are using analysis, then you would need to download <National Instruments>\Shared\Analysis\nianalys.dll to one of those directories as well.

Hope this makes sense

Best Regards,

[RobDekker]

Hi Jonathan,

I have attached a zipped file of the Rt-Images\CVI directory.

I did use the PXI boot disks to convert a desktop PC into a PXI.  I tried it out on multiple computers and it worked every time.  We first realized there was a difference between a Desktop and PXI rt computer when we installed MAX 4.3 and the icons were different.  I called Labview when I set up my first RT computer 1 1/2 years ago and was told to use the PXI boot disks instead of the Desktop ones.  The Applications engineer even emailed me the exes.  It worked fine and I was able to run dlls on that computer.

The problem PXIs is that I can't install the multi-core support.  This was not a problem in the past because we were using labview 8.0.1.  The problem with Desktop RT computers is I can't install the CVI modules.  Without the CVI modules we have not been able to run some dlls.  Some dlls work on the target and some don't.  I haven't gone through the dll to figure out what part of the code is causing the problem.  I am fine with downloading the dlls myself and I will try this out today.  Hopefully this will get the dlls to work.

thanks,

Rob

[JonathanN]

Hi Rob,

So your files indicate what we thinking in that they haven't been touched or tampered with and thus they only work for PXI targets.  This means that the CVI entries in the LabVIEW Real-Time Software Utility will only show up for machines that think they are PXI targets (i.e. native PXI targets and then however you got the Desktop PC to work as a PXI target). If you are just using Desktop PCs, entries will not show up there at all for CVI. 

In order to get CVI support on those desktop PCs, you must port over that DLL I mentioned for RT to the RT target. That DLL is a subset of the CVI RTE functions that work for RT.

Best Regards,

[Fu-Shan Lin]

Dear friends:

         After reading all those good questions and answers, here I would like to ask a "strange" question. The question is,

"Is is possible to transfer my applications, which is written with Labwindows/CVI 8.0.1, to ETS real-time system without NI Labwindows/CVI real-time module ? Of course, I have a evaluation version of ETS RTOS."

        I had tried this way for around 1 weeks, I think the key point is Run-Time Engine(CVIRTE). For other program IDE, like VC++ MFC, VB, Borland, they can be downloaded into ETS RTOS system very easily, but the application built by CVI seems can not.

        Can any friend encounter this problem ? Thank you a lot for any comment !

Best regards,

Fu-Shan Lin

[JonathanN]

Hi Fu-Shan,

Let me provide you with a more generic answer of how you can use CVI DLLs on RT targets and then if you have more questions, feel free to ask me.

Essentially, if you want to run a CVI real-time DLL on an RT target, you will need either LabVIEW Real-Time (RT) or LabWindows/CVI Real-Time (RT).  If you choose the LabVIEW RT approach, you will build a CVI real-time DLL, use that DLL in a LabVIEW VI and then run that VI on the RT target. 

Now if you don't want to use LabVIEW and LabVIEW RT, then that's where the CVI RT Module comes in.  In this case, you will be programming entirely in CVI and you simply install the CVI Run-Time Engine for RT onto the RT target, download your CVI DLL and then run that DLL. 

In both cases, when you build a CVI real-time DLL, we statically link to a subset of the CVI RTE that is compatible with the RT OS. This allows us to run the CVI DLLs on RT.

All in all, you will need either LabVIEW RT or CVI RT to run CVI real-time DLLs on an RT target.

Best Regards,

[Fu-Shan Lin]

Hi, Jonathen:

      Thanks for your quick reply.

      I think I should ask the question in more specific way. I used Labwindows/CVI 8.0.1 as my development environment, and I have a evaluation version of real-time OS building software(ETS) on hand. Please be noted that it is not Labwindows/CVI RT module, but just ETS software only.

      My question is,

      (1) Can I download Run-Time-Engine of Labwindows/CVI on ETS RTOS without Labwindows/CVI RT Module ? If yes, any document reference ?

      (2) Can I make a distribution kit to install my application into ETS RTOS target machine without Labwindows/CVI RT Module ? If yes, any document reference ?

      Thank you very much for the reply. Comment from anybody else will be very appreciated, too !

Best regards,

Fu-Shan Lin

[JonathanN]

Hi Fu-Shan,

In both cases, you need to purchase the LabWindows/CVI RT Module in order to be able to download the CVI RTE for RT onto the RT target. The NI RT OS that runs on our RT targets is a customized version of the ETS OS that has been made to work with our NI components.

All in all, if you are wanting to use CVI or LabVIEW on an RT target, you must have either the CVI RT Module or the LabVIEW RT Module.

Best Regards,

[Fu-Shan Lin]

Hi, Jonathan:

     Thank you for your reply.  I will contact local NI sales engineer for the quotation of RT module.

Best regards,

Fu-Shan Lin