Controller setup

Question

I currently have two systems which I am setting up:
1) Single Chassis VXI system with VXIpc-870 controller
2) Dual Chassis VXI System with VXIpc-870 controller and
VXI_MXI-2 extender boards
In the dual system i need to DISABLE the VXI Bus Timeout and let the MXI
extender control the VXI Bus timeout. On the single chassis system, I
assume I still need to set this timeout to a value on the controller
(otherwise i could be waiting indefinitely if the system tries to access
an invalid address).
For our costumer, I am creating a bootable OS CD to load the system. I
would like to have the controllers initialized properly. I could not
find any config file for this option, it looks like it is all in
hardware. Is there a way at system
bootup(?) to initialze the
controller with a preset state? Or write a simple VISA program to set
this myself?
There are a few other things that need to be setup with the controller,
but these are common between the systems and it looks like there are
fields within the DevInfo to change these.
any info would be greatly appreciated.
* Michael Carter ([email protected]) | Southwest Research Institute *
* Principal Analyst | 6220 Culebra Road *
* TEL/FAX: [phone] | San Antonio, Texas 78238-5166 *

Answer 1

I do not need to setup the MXI-2 extender boards. They will be
pre-configured before installation. They will be hardwired with any needed
mods for our system.
The controller on the other hand, will need some adjusting depending on
which chassis environment the controller is placed. On the dual system, the
870 bus timeout will be disabled. For the single chassis, the 870 bus
timeout can remain the default.
We are creating an image CD of the OS for installation purposes. This will
have the OS environment suited for our customer, with all necessary drivers
and software loaded. We are hoping to have one installation disc for the
OS.
What I am looking for is a way to configure the 870 AT INSTALLATION TIME
with the proper bus timeout for the chassis system. This needs to be an
AUTOMATED process. With the hardware config info saved to a file, is there
a "batch mode" to write it back out to the controller without going back
through the user interface of the T&M Explorer?
Can the bus timeout be changed from a user program? This would allow a
post-install program to run and change the system as needed.
thanks for the help,
Michael Carter
Southwest Research Institute
[email protected]
"Trey Hamilton" wrote in message
news:506500000005000000F7350000-993342863000@excha​nge.ni.com...
> Michael,
>
> When you load NI-VXI on the system, the 870 will have a default
> timeout assigned to it, so you shouldn't run into a problem of waiting
> indefinitely.
>
> The MXI-2 cannot be accessed until resman is run, so there really is
> no way to set the timeouts permanently with a config file. What you
> can do, however, is save all of your hardware configurations to a file
> (this is an option inside of the Hardware Configuration of each
> module) and load each one after resman has been run.
>
> I hope that one of these options is a viable one for you. Please let
> us know if there is anything else that we can do for you.
>
> Trey Hamilton
> Applications Engineer
> National Instruments
> http://www.ni.com/support