Fixed a problem with my RIO evaluation board; now I only have a couple questions.

[Sparkette]

I recently bought a used RIO evaluation board on eBay because I wanted to try out RT and FPGA programming in LabVIEW. I'm running into trouble setting it up, however. When I installed the software from the included disc, it tried to install LabVIEW 2011 first. I canceled that and all the other stuff it tried to install that I already had a more recent version of. It installed the evaluation kit setup tool without issue though. I don't think the lack of LabVIEW 2011 (I have 2014) would cause the setup to fail in this manner, but I'm mentioning it here just in case.

Anyway, I went to set it up, and at first I was having trouble finding it. I had it connected to my computer with what I thought was a crossover cable, but when it didn't work, I realized it actually wasn't one, so I just plugged it into my router and it detected it just fine. It then said it was deploying the software, and stayed on that screen for a few minutes. Afterwards, it said the deployment failed with no further explanation. It suggested I reformat it and install the software, so I tried it. The first time, it failed with an "unhandled error". I don't remember the number, and "Explain Error" wouldn't appear (it looked like a regular error cluster), but it worked later on.

Upon reformatting, it immediately started deploying the software again. It failed with the same issue. It suggested (as it did before) that I press the reset button and try again, so I did. No luck.

Anyone have any other suggestions? The board cost me $250, so I'd especially like to get it working.

 

Never mind; I managed to get it to work eventually. In case anyone else has this problem, I simply had to install the software through MAX, by opening "Remote Systems", expanding the "NI-sbRIO9636-xxxxxxxx" item, right-clicking Software, and selecting "Add/Remove Software".

 

However, one thing I'm curious about is how I can directly access the file system on the board. I assume standard file I/O nodes in an RT VI will do it? I'd still like to have a regular file manager, or maybe an SFTP server.

 

Figured that out too! It's in one of the web configuration addons you can install from MAX.

 

But one question remains: Is there a shell of some kind I can connect to?

Edited September 18, 2014 by flarn2006

[Neil Pate]

 

But one question remains: Is there a shell of some kind I can connect to?

 

Not to the best of my knowledge on the "older" cRIOs. The brand-spanking new ones do actually use Linux (the old ones use VxWorks or Pharlap for their RTOS) so perhaps that does have a shell you can ssh into or something. Hoping to try this out soon 

[ned]

But one question remains: Is there a shell of some kind I can connect to?

No. And in case you start wondering, it's not like there is one that's hidden; there isn't one at all (even if there was, there wouldn't be any applications to launch from it so it wouldn't do anything). On some (maybe all) cRIOs you can plug in a serial cable, enable the serial console output, and watch the boot sequence in a terminal, but that's as close as you'll get. A real-time operating is much more basic and limited than what you probably think of as an operating system.

[Sparkette]

Thanks. I wouldn't create a whole thread just to ask that one question by the way; the main purpose of the thread was originally to figure out why it wasn't working, and then later on to tell people how I got it to work.

 

But I do have a couple more questions: the evaluation kit is basically an sbRIO-9636 with an additional board on top, right? If that's the case, then what's connected to analog inputs 8-15, and analog outputs 2-3? Both LabVIEW and NI's page about the sbRIO-9636 say they exist, but I can't find any terminals for them, or anything that says what they're connected to. Was there not enough room for the terminals? Is the only way to access them by removing the top board, which would also free the DIO 4-27 and AI 6-7? The same questions apply to the three COM ports listed in MAX as well. I don't think I would really have a need to, at least not any time soon, but in case it comes up, the top board can be removed without damaging either board, and I could later put it back, right?

Edited September 18, 2014 by flarn2006

[Jordan Kuehn]

But I do have a couple more questions: the evaluation kit is basically an sbRIO-9636 with an additional board on top, right? If that's the case, then what's connected to analog inputs 8-15, and analog outputs 2-3? Both LabVIEW and NI's page about the sbRIO-9636 say they exist, but I can't find any terminals for them, or anything that says what they're connected to. Was there not enough room for the terminals? Is the only way to access them by removing the top board, which would also free the DIO 4-27 and AI 6-7? The same questions apply to the three COM ports listed in MAX as well. I don't think I would really have a need to, at least not any time soon, but in case it comes up, the top board can be removed without damaging either board, and I could later put it back, right?

 

I don't have that exact same eval kit, but yes, you can remove the daughter board without a problem.  If you have the 50 pin connectors you can easily use ribbon cables to connect to each pin.  Otherwise jumper wires are useful for individual connections.  They likely only exposed some of the channels in the daughter board to keep the size down.  The manual will list which channels are routed to which pins in the connectors.  

[Sparkette]

I don't have that exact same eval kit, but yes, you can remove the daughter board without a problem.  If you have the 50 pin connectors you can easily use ribbon cables to connect to each pin.  Otherwise jumper wires are useful for individual connections.  They likely only exposed some of the channels in the daughter board to keep the size down.  The manual will list which channels are routed to which pins in the connectors.  

 

What confuses me is why they put the male connector on the main board. If they had put it on the daughter board instead (disregarding the irony of having a "male" connector on a "daughter" board, because that's a bad excuse) I could connect components and jumper wires directly to the holes like on a breadboard. I'm gonna email Adafruit and suggest they make their own boards for the sbRIO-9636, kind of like shields for the Arduino. It seems like something they would make. Only thing is it's kind of expensive for the average hobbyist; I only bought one because I found a good deal on eBay.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

What confuses me is why they put the male connector on the main board. If they had put it on the daughter board instead (disregarding the irony of having a "male" connector on a "daughter" board, because that's a bad excuse) I could connect components and jumper wires directly to the holes like on a breadboard. I'm gonna email Adafruit and suggest they make their own boards for the sbRIO-9636, kind of like shields for the Arduino. It seems like something they would make. Only thing is it's kind of expensive for the average hobbyist; I only bought one because I found a good deal on eBay.

 

It's pretty common to have the male connector on the base board and the female part on the daughter board. I definitely have seen mostly this setup (and yes I talk about professional products here) if they didn't use some other special connectors altogether. One of the reasons probably is that the male connectors cost less and have to be always soldered on the board, while the daughter board is only sometimes necessary. They are not alone, look at the Raspberry Pi for instance which uses a male connector too. 

 

Both solutions have their advantages and disadvantages. As far as connecting cables, if you don't use flatband ribbon cables with IDC connectors, the male connectors require more expensive test lead cable connectors but unlike when pushing normal wires into female connectors, they won't damage the contact spring in the female connector.

 

EDIT: And another reason is that the according male IDC connectors for flatband ribbon cables used to be not only exessively expensive but also often very hard to find.

[Jordan Kuehn]

Agreed with everything Rolf said.  Go look at an old IDE HDD for an easy example of a male connector being used and the motherboard connection.  A ribbon cable is the easiest way to connect to it, but for just a few channels look at these jumper cables.  They fit nicely on each pin.  

[JamesMc86]

But one question remains: Is there a shell of some kind I can connect to?

 

Those controllers run on VxWorks. If you connect a serial cable and enable the console out you can use the terminal there but it's not like Linux.

 

I think there maybe a key combination to kick it off, then it almost acts like a C interpreter, you can even load and run functions from shared libraries. If you google around you will find some standard VxWorks commands documented to show things like open sockets etc.