RT app needs system time from Windows PC

[JeremyMarquis]

I have an RT PXI controller, and I am wondering the best way to get a networked PC's system time so I can periodically sync to it (in a controlled way, such as when RT system is idle).

 

Obstacles:

The PC is not running any LabVIEW code, so no PC publishing time to network shared variable stuff

The code on the PC is legacy C# code that I cannot modify to include timestamp messaging between systems

The PC and attached RT PXI are network isolated, so no using a domain controller time service

 

 

My only solution to get the time from this generic windows PC (assume WinXP or newer) is to install an NTP time service on it that I can query via UDP from the RT application.  I have done this before, but it just feels unsatisfactory.

 

Anyone else solve this problem before?

[Wire Warrior]

Short of writing a peice of LabVIEW code to go on the PC just to serve the time via NSV or some other method you got me.  Bang for you buck seems like the NTP time service is best.  Development is done, ready to deploy.  Hard to beat that.

[Jordan Kuehn]

Short of writing a peice of LabVIEW code to go on the PC just to serve the time via NSV or some other method you got me. 

I've done this.  It works, but requires a reboot of the cRIO.

[Mads]

See the reply from NI on my idea to implement native support for this...it turns out it is supported, just not very obviously:

 

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Real-Time-Idea-Exchange/Support-industry-standard-time-server-NTP-e-g/idi-p/2340392

 

Here's an implementation using the System Config API:

 

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-26987

[Jordan Kuehn]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but these approaches require access to an NTP server which usually requires a connection to the internet.  That is not very common for me when using targets like this.  I don't mean to derail the thread, but this is a question that I have had as well.

[Phillip Brooks]

There's this KnowledgeBase entry about setting up your computer as a time server over on the dark side...

 

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/EA90C9FF24D9A041862575EE004ED415

[Jordan Kuehn]

There's this KnowledgeBase entry about setting up your computer as a time server over on the dark side...

 

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/EA90C9FF24D9A041862575EE004ED415

 

Interesting.  I'll check it out.  This should be much much simpler though.

[JeremyMarquis]

There's this KnowledgeBase entry about setting up your computer as a time server over on the dark side...

 

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/EA90C9FF24D9A041862575EE004ED415

 

This is the very NTP service I used before for this, I was just hoping to avoid any install on the PC, since it is owned by another group.