NI-TimeSync: SNTP Support for 2014

[Mike_Diesen]

Hi,

  It looks like the SNTP functionality was last updated a few years ago for Labview 2011 (if I am following the Discussion threads correctly).  Does this SNTP functionality need to be updated to work correctly with Labview 2014?  I have loaded the package onto an NI PXIe-8135 using NI MAX, running Labview 2014 SP1 and it looks like the NTP synchronization is working okay but I just wanted to double check with the NI developers that it is truly working as it was designed to.

Thanks,

Mike

[meggert@NI]

Hello Mike,

You are correct, the current version of the SNTP Labs support only installs LV API support for LabVIEW 2011.  You are also correct, that the Labs plugin is expected to function on LabVIEW RT 2014 targets.  The only thing you will be missing in LabVIEW 2012+ systems is the API (namely property nodes), but the core product is expected to work on newer versions of the (PharLAP/VxWorks) real-time operating systems. 

The installer just simply doesn't put the API files on the disk in the directories for those versions of LabVIEW (C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2012), as they didn't exist at the time.  If you are not using those property nodes to monitor or control your synchronization then you should not be affected.

Though, if you are depending on any NI-TimeSync time reference (1588, SNTP, Custom) for your application, I would recommend monitoring the quality of your synchronization to ensure your sychronization is happening correctly and not faulting (SNTP server goes offline, etc).

You can do this the following way:

1. Copy C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2011\resource\objmgr\timeSync*.rc to C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2014\resource\objmgr\
2. Create a VI on your RT target and navigate to Structures->Time Structures->Absolute Time, there you should see the property nodes for your time reference you can use to monitor your time reference

Sincerely,

Mark Eggert

[xl600]

In attempting this, I found that the 2011 installer will only partially install to a LabView environment where later versions of TimeSync are already installed.  Those have to be uninstalled first, in order to get the 2011 resource files to appear in the 2011 directory.  Even after obtaining the files, and placing them into the LabVIEW 2014/resource/objmgr path, I can still not access the SNTP property node.

[xl600]

It appears that simply copying the timeSynf*.rc files isn't enough.  The timeSync.rch also must be copied.

I wasn't able to get the Absolute Time pallete option to show up, but property nodes now can access the TimeSync SNTP class by manually placing any type of property node and re-selecting the class.