LabVIEW Real-Time Target Configuration Tutorial

Complete the following steps to configure your remote system for use with the LabVIEW Real-Time Module.

1. Boot target into LabVIEW Real-Time Before you begin configuration, make sure your RT series hardware is booted into LabVIEW Real-Time. If your RT target came with only LabVIEW Real-Time preinstalled on its hard drive, the system is already set up to boot into LabVIEW Real-Time. If your system does not have a floppy drive, it may have DIP switches or BIOS settings for booting into LabVIEW Real-Time. For more information, refer to Booting Into the LabVIEW Real-Time Module.
   
   If you have a system that has a floppy disk drive, you may need to create a boot disk to boot the system into LabVIEW Real-Time. For help creating a boot disk, refer to PXI Boot Disk or Desktop PC Boot Disk. In addition to the normal LabVIEW Real-Time boot procedure, there are some additional boot modes that you can use to troubleshoot or recover an RT target that is in a faulty state. Alternatively, you can permanently format the hard drive and configure it to boot directly into RT without a boot floppy by using the Desktop PC Utility USB Drive, a PXI Format Hard Drive Disk, or a Desktop PC Format Hard Drive Disk.

   Note  You must use Windows XP/2000 computers to create the disk utilities. If your system uses Windows Vista, you must create a Desktop PC Utility USB Drive instead.

2. Configure Network Settings
   Verify that your RT target is detected by expanding the Remote Systems tree (click the plus sign [+] beside Remote Systems). Your device may show up as 0.0.0.0 if you have not previously configured it with an IP address. If your device is not listed, refresh the list by pressing <F5>. Devices that have not been configured with an IP address must be on the same local subnet as the host in order to configure the IP address. If your device is already configured with an IP address but is not on the local subnet, add it to Remote Systems by right-clicking Remote Systems and selecting Create New. Complete the wizard to add your system.
   
   

   Note  Make sure that any network firewalls have been disabled. Even if exceptions have been set to allow communication, some firewalls continue to block IP addresses of 0.0.0.0 as long as they are enabled.

   
   If your network uses DHCP, select the Obtain an IP address automatically radio button. Not all DHCP servers are implemented in the same manner. Therefore, some might not be compatible with the LabVIEW Real-Time Module. After you select Obtain an IP address automatically and restart the controller, LabVIEW Real-Time tries to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server. If this operation fails, LabVIEW Real-Time restarts the controller. If your target supports automatic IP assignment, it will attempt to obtain an automatic private IP address (169.254.x.x) and use it to boot up the rest of the system. After three failed attempts, LabVIEW Real-Time returns to the default configuration with IP address 0.0.0.0. You must then explicitly specify the network parameters.
   
   

   If you need to specify an IP address manually, select the Use the following IP address radio button and click the Suggest Values button. This selection suggests settings based off of the network adapter in your computer. You are then prompted for an IP Address. Choose one that is not already in use on the network and click OK. If a Gateway and DNS are not available on the network, set these to the default value of 0.0.0.0.

   You can enter a more descriptive name for the remote system as well as any comments you would like to include to describe the system and its components. When you are finished, click the Apply button at the top of the screen to save your changes. You are then informed that the system must be rebooted in order for the changes to take effect. You can reboot the system remotely.

   For more information on network configuration, refer to Configuring Network Settings.

3. Install Software
   You can install the LabVIEW Real-Time Module or other driver software on the remote target after you have assigned it an IP address.
   
   If your RT target has LabVIEW Real-Time preinstalled, you may still need to download additional driver software or update existing driver software.
   
   Complete the following steps to download software using the LabVIEW Real-Time Software Wizard:
   
   1. Expand Remote Systems in the configuration tree and then expand your RT target.
   2. Select Software. Click the Add/Remove Software icon on the toolbar to launch the LabVIEW Real-Time Software Wizard. If your target does not have a Software category, then it does not support the LabVIEW Real-Time software. Determine what you want to do. If your target uses recommended software sets, refer to Installing Recommended Software Sets. If your target uses a custom software selection, refer to Installing a Custom Software Selection.

      Note  If a driver is installed on the host PC but is not displayed in the LabVIEW Real-Time Software Wizard, the Real-Time component of that driver may not be installed. This issue commonly occurs when drivers were installed prior to installing the LabVIEW Real-Time module. To resolve this issue, navigate to Start»Control Panel»Add or Remove Programs (in Windows Vista, navigate to Start»Control Panel»Programs»Programs and Features) and select National Instruments Software in Currently installed programs. Click Change to modify the driver installation to add the LabVIEW Real-Time components.

   3. Configure System Settings
      You can configure two system-level settings for your LabVIEW Real-Time target—time zone and locale.
      
      Use the time zone setting to configure time zone and daylight saving settings for the location in which the target resides. You can use this setting in conjunction with LabVIEW time and date VIs to provide accurate time information, relative to the time zone setting.
      
      Use the locale setting to change the locale of strings returned from the remote target. This setting is not supported by all software and is disabled if not supported by any software on your target.
      
      For more information on configuring these settings, refer to Configuring System Settings.
   4. Configure I/O
      You must configure any National Instruments I/O devices before you can target them from a LabVIEW Real-Time application. For information on how to correctly configure I/O devices, refer to Device Configuration or the documentation for that hardware.

When you complete these steps, your remote system is ready to be targeted from the LabVIEW Real-Time module.