Pci versus pxi versus compactRIO

Is it true the only advantage to move from a pc platform to PXI or CompactRIO is the deterministic of an acquistion? Currently am using PCI7332 and read the encoder position and analog input all of which takes about 4ms for each iteration. If I move to a PXI or compact RIO I don't get any advantages in speed? I would if only the processor is faster than what I'm currently using?
Thanks for your time......
dg

DG,
It will really depend on what you are trying to accomplish with your application. If you are just performing simple contour moves or anything general, then you would probably want to stick with your current set up. Yes, the main advantage is a deterministic acquisition along with other benefits that come with having an embedded system. As far as speed goes, it is generally true that it will come down to the processing speed of your computer for comparison. There won't be a large difference between PCI or PXI, but the cRIO should be the "fastest" of the three. But that term is very relative, and it will mostly come down to what your application is performing. For rugged outdoor environments, specialized I/O configurations, and want to have FPGA programming then the cRIO and Soft Motion would be the better choice.
You might find this Developer Zone article to be of some help if you are looking for more detailed information:
Building an NI Motion Control System
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/12127/en#toc7
Huntington W
National Instruments
Applications Engineer
***Don't forget to give Kudos and Accepted as Solution where it is deserved***

Similar Messages

Detect and employ PCI or PXI chassis

I'm currently on a project which has historically bee based around a PCI backplane (in a desktop PC) containing a couple of PCI-6229 cards and a PCI-7833R. This forms the core of a testrig of which there are about 25 instances worldwide. In addition, we also support many rigs which are cored around a NI PXI chassis.
There is a drive to replace the PCs and we have opted for a for smaller footprint unit having fewer PCI slots. These are being equipped with an MXI extender card to a PXI backplane. This means in future, we need only keeps spares in the PXI format. Supporting two sets of backplanes containing near-identical hardware without implementing two near-identical pieces of software does present its problems: The FPGA bitmap build for the PCI version of the card will not open through the reference type for the PXI version of the card. We need to have a PCI and a PXI version of the bitmap. Irritatingly, the source code for these two is identical.
The first part of the solution is to establish which backplane we're using. This is straightforward. Supplying the VISA Find Resource function with the appropriate search string will identify if any PXI backplanes are connected. (Figure 1.)
Next, we need to maintain references to both FPGA VIs. Figure 2 illustrates how the FPGA to be used can be opened and proposes a structure in which the references to all available FPGA types (this example actually has four FPGA bitmaps which might be selected). In each of the other cases, the appropriate bitmap is selected in the Open FPGA Reference VI. Further, in each case, the reference is wired to the appropriate component from the cluster. (For calibration records, we also find it necessary to return the serial number of the card, but that portion of this code can be ignored.) Notice that the FPGA_Type component of the cluster is used to control which bitmap loads and which Ref component is used to store its Reference. This is necessary because the reference types are different for each bitmap.
Having set FPGA_Type, Figure 3 shows how to employ the selected resource. A separate Read/Write Control must be coded for each FPGA type.
Closing the resource also requires a case for each FPGA type.
I hope anyone else planning a stepped migration between backplanes can make use of this.

To program any DAQ card for use in Linux you need to use Register Level Programming. Unfortunately, Register level programming for the counter/timer products based on the NI-TIO ASIC (includes the 660x boards) is not supported.

PCI to PXI bridge

My PC doesn't start while I'm connecting the MXI-4 to PXI.
What can be the problem?
Guy.

Depending on where your PC hangs, it's likely not a SW problem. With MXI-4 hangs near the BIOS post, it is usually because your host computer is having trouble enumerating the additional PCI bridge and/or devices. This usually shows up as a slow boot, a hang or improperly detected PCI devices.
Another possible problem is that your computer is not providing a 3.3V and 5V rail to the PCI MXI-4 univeral card. The Universal card can do 3.3V or 5V signaling but requires 3.3V and 5V power rails to be present. Do you get both the power and link light when using the computer that is misbehaving?
What computer models are you using? I assume they are different. I would encourage you to try updating your BIOS on the misbehaving computer to see if any improvements to PCI enumeration have been made. Additionally, try contacting the computer manufacturer to ensure they provide both 3.3V and 5V power rails to the PCI slots.
-Adam U.

Does anyone know of a compact PCI to PXI card adaptor?

We wish to place a Compact PCI card into our PXI-1006 chassis. We are using windows 2K.

Reida,
No adapter is necessary. You can use any CompactPCI or PXI card in a PXI chassis.
Regards,
Greg Caesar

How do I select between a PCI and a PXI device

I want to contrast the specifications and usage of PCI 6025E/PXI 6025 E.

These cards are functionally equivalent. The only difference is the form factor. The PCI-6025E is a standard PCI card designed to be used in a standard PC or workstation. The PXI-6025E is a 3U CompactPCI card designed to be used in a PXI chassis. PXI systems are functionally very similar to a standard PCs, however they do offer some high performance timing features, and are designed to be used when durability and reliability are paramount. Instead of deciding which card to get, you should first decide which platform you want to use and then choose the appropriate card.
If you want to take measurements across all 4 cylinders or take multiple measurements from one cylinder and synchronizatio
n of the samples is important (closer than 5us or so), then you may want to look into one of the simultaneous sampling DAQ cards instead of the 6025. If exact synchronization of measurements across multiple sensors is not critical, then the 6025 would work well.
Regards,
Brent R.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

What is the advantages of CPI, compactCPI, and PXI, in requards to cost, future support, and avialibity of measurement cards.

We are currently supporting old stand alone test equipment that is coming to the limit of it's service life. We are operating under DOS and the current number of test are greater that 200, so changing to a complete new operating system is not an option. We are looking at CPI, cCPI, and PXI. It appears that any one of the three would work for us, but which would have the largest selection of measuremnet devices, lowest cost, and long term support? I will have to create a interface driver that will intercept the GPIB calls of the old software and port them to the new test equipment, which of the three would be the best for this. Th
e test stations with new equipment and the old equipment must function the same with only a change in the linking libraries.

mww-
As far as National Instruments is concerned, there isn't going to be much (if any) support under DOS for our PCI, cPCI, and PXI products. PCI and PXI (which is basically an extension of cPCI) are currently our primary platforms, and they will be supported well into the future under current operating systems like Windows 2000.
As far as cost goes, PCI and PXI are pretty comparable in most cases. You can get exact prices for different National Instruments' modules at http://www.ni.com/store
Trey Hamilton
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
http://www.ni.com/support

In begining PXI session run program like RESMAN in VXI session or the open must bw a part of DLL?

I am wriitng a DLL for a new PCI device and it was possible that in on e chassis will be more that one device hoe the user will pass to DLL in wirch device the command it?( this is my first expereince with PXI and PCI programming) the device is a passive device (no CPU in the device)

FP:
I think you are asking one of 2 possible questions and I'll try to answer them both.
The first is how to find any existing board of a given model. Each PCI or PXI module will have its own model code, just as in VXI. You can do a search with viFindRsrc with "PXI?*INSTR{VI_ATTR_MANF_ID == 0x1234 && VI_ATTR_MODEL_CODE == 0x5678}". If there is only 1 in the system, the output string is what you want.
If there are more than 1 of the exact same type of device in the system, that query will not suffice because it will return all of them. The way to distinguish them then is to use the device number, which is similar perhaps to the VXI logical address. 2 devices next to each other might have addresses like "PXI0::15::INSTR" and "PXI0::14::INSTR". These numbers
are related to the slot but are not quite the same as the slot. The 3 unique numbers in PXI are bus (often 0 for a small PXI chassis), device, and function (0 for most devices, required only for multifunction devices). The resource string uses them as "PXI::::::INSTR".
Dan Mondrik
Senior Software Engineer, VISA
National Instruments

NI PXI 6534

Hello,
I have built PXI systems that uses PXI 6534 for OWI communication with my Chip. I have written the software which uses this sytem for test and calibration. I am using PXI 2530 for switching the power and OWI pin from dut to dut. Recently, I heard that NI is dicontinuing the production of the PXI 6534 i/o card. I am wondering If my company needs to build new system, what I shouldI use in place of 6534 that don't require changing my software.
Regards,
Mansoor

Hi Mansor -
Vimal is OOO today so I'll be helping you with your post. To answer your question, you are correct that neither of those chassis will work with any PXIe modules.
Speaking of the second question, the 6535 is a PXIe module as well and won't work in a PXI chassis. The discontinued PXI and PCI 6533/34 replacements are in the PCIe and PXIe form factors only.
I will apologize again for the abrupt end-of-life notice you received on these devices, it was an unforeseen supply issue with some of the parts on the board that caused the sudden obsolesce.
If you are looking into potentially purchasing another chassis (PXIe), then we would be happy to discuss your options and the best fit for your current and potential needs.
Regards,
Ben N.
Applications Engineering
ni.com/support

PXI-4351 and DAQmx?

Hello,
We are considering to buy a PXI-Chassis with an PXI-6229 for general measurement and two PXI-4351 for temperatur measurements.
I already wrote a big library of VIs to use PCI and PXI-card undere DAQmx (almost 6 months of development).
But I read in the specification of the PXI-4351 that this card is only supported by the traditional DAQ driver.
Is it true, are may be the DAQmx 8.1 support the PXI-4351. If not, does anybody know if the card will be soon part of the DAQmx?
Thanks,
Risotto

Risotto,
the PXI-4351 works quite differently than a multifunction DAQ device and it comes with it's own instrument driver which is based on traditional NI-DAQ. The instrument driver was just updated to support LV 8. There are currently no plans to support NI-435x devices with NI-DAQmx
Best regards,
Jochen Klier
National Instruments Germany

Hardware Clocking Error PCI-5122

I tried to run the vi attached (which i've run many times before) and my computer bluescreen. When it rebooted, I could no longer use my PCI-5122 digitizer card. When I try to do a device test or device reset in MAX, it tells me that theres a hardware clocking error.. I was using an external trigger for the aquisition, but don't think I was using an external reference clock. Could someone help me fix this?
Thanks
NI Hardware: PXI-7853R, PCI-5122, PCI-6733, PXI-1036, PCI-MIO-16E-4, PCI-6110
Computer Hardware: Xeon Quad Core - 2.33 Ghz, 8 GB RAM
Software: Labview 2009, Labview FPGA 2009, Vista 64-bit, MAX 4.6, DAQmx 9.0, NI-SCOPE 3.5
Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
OPO Monitor.vi ‏53 KB

Hi,
This error may be the result of a hardware failure where the only
solution is a repair or replacement. There are however, some basic
troubleshooting steps that have been known to correct this issue
without a return.
Reboot the PC or PXI controller.
Try a different PCI or PXI slot.
Update the driver to the latest version.
If possible try the card on a different machine.
If these steps to not correct the issue then it is likely the
board requires repair which can be arranged by contacting National
Instruments Technical support (in france: 01 57 66 24 24).
Best regards,
Thomas B. | CLAD
National Instruments France
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Can't Identify PXI chassis

Hi,
I just recieved a PXI-1036 Chassis connected to a computer with a MXI-4 card. I'm trying to get set up, and went to identify the chassis in MAX, however, when I right click on the model and go to "Identify As..." and select my chassis model, it doesn't allo me to save my indentification. I've downloaded and installed the "PXI Platform Services 2.4.2", but nothing changes. Can anyone help?
Thanks
NI Hardware: PXI-7853R, PCI-5122, PCI-6733, PXI-1036, PCI-MIO-16E-4, PCI-6110
Computer Hardware: Xeon Quad Core - 2.33 Ghz, 8 GB RAM
Software: Labview 2009, Labview FPGA 2009, Vista 64-bit, MAX 4.6, DAQmx 9.0, NI-SCOPE 3.5

Hi,
Yeah, I turn the chassis on first, before the computer, and NI-Visa is also installed. Here are screen shots of my Device Manager and my MAX showing the NI software installed.
NI Hardware: PXI-7853R, PCI-5122, PCI-6733, PXI-1036, PCI-MIO-16E-4, PCI-6110
Computer Hardware: Xeon Quad Core - 2.33 Ghz, 8 GB RAM
Software: Labview 2009, Labview FPGA 2009, Vista 64-bit, MAX 4.6, DAQmx 9.0, NI-SCOPE 3.5

MAX detects PXI-MXI-4, but fails to detect non-NI chassis

MAX detects PXI-MXI-4, but fails to detect non-NI chassis. My system is as follow:
NI PCI-6552 (NI DAQmx device)
NI PXI-MXI-4/ PXI-8331 (PXI system)
Elma chassis, with CompactPCI backplane (chassis and cPCI)
When I run MAX, it successfully detects PCI and PXI with the model number listed. However, the chassis is unidentified. Although my chassis is made by Elma, not NI, it has been confirmed that my Elma chassis, as well as the CompactPCI backplane that comes with the chassis, is compatible with the PXI.
When I clicked on "other chassis", the chassis.ini (driver) file is asked. But I've confirmed with Elma that no driver is required for the chassis.
What might be the problem? Thank you very much.
Manson

I'm having a similar problem, and from reading the above, it's not clear what one is to do if the chassis and link vendors say "there are no driver files, and none are needed" and NI says, "you must have the appropriate files, which are provided by the vendor." Specifically, I have a Jasper Electronics PXI chassis and a Hartmann StarFabric link (PCI bridge). My NI devices in this chassis (6071E, 6533) have always worked fine, and MAX displays them correctly under Traditional Devices and under DAQmx Devices. The PXI chassis shows up as "unidentified" in MAX, but this has never caused any problems before (and I've seen the same benign error with other non-NI PXI chassis). However, now that I'm using DAQmx, I'm trying to do the following:
DAQmxConnectTerms("/Dev3/PXI_Trig0", "/Dev3/PFI5", DAQmx_Val_DoNotInvertPolarity);
where Dev3 is a PXI-6533. When I start my task, I get the error message "Driver cannot complete the route, because the only way to make the route requires a trigger bus line, and no trigger bus has been configured in MAX for this device." The documentation seems to imply that identifying the chassis will automatically create or recognize the appropriate PXI trigger lines. Since the vendors don't supply any ini files, I tried faking it out as as PXI-8150 system with a PXI-1000 chassis, using the NI ini files; this resulted in entries for both NI cards appearing under "Chassis 1 (PXI-1000)", e.g.
PXI5::11::INSTR (PXI-6533)
PXI5::12::INSTR (PXI-6017E)
although their properties (in the pane to the right of the tree view) show their chassis and slots as "unknown." When I run my code, I still get the error message about needing to configure a trigger bux in MAX. Just for grins, I tried the same thing but with RTSI0 instead of PXI_Trig0, and got the same error. I created an RTSI cable under DAQmx Devices in MAX, and that made no difference. Help!
Thanks,
Larry

MXI3 (NI PXI-8330) board not detected. Not powering up, no link light.

MXI3 (NI PXI-8330) board not detected. Not powering up, no link light. Cable looks fine. Any ideas?

PeteMan,
I will need to know in more detail how your system is behaving to give you better tips, so please feel free to send me more information.
For now, let me send you a couple of troubleshooting tips:
Cable connection
Make sure both ends of the copper cable are well connected to the PCI-MXI-3 and the PXI-MXI-3 boards. Be careful when disconnecting the copper connectors. you need to push down the plastic connector so it does not get damaged. Damaged connectors could result in bad MXI-3 links.
If the connector has not been used properly, it could be broken (this rarely happens). Make sure you are not connecting the cable backwards.
Power - Up order.
It seems you are controlling your PXI chassis using a PCI-to-PXI extender (copper cable). Make sure you are powering up the PXI chassis BEFORE powering up the PC.
PXI is built on top of the CompactPCI spec, so it uses the PCI high speed bus. The MXI-3 extender is really a PCI-to-PCI bridge toyour computer, so for your PC, all the slots in the PXI chassis look like more PCI slots. In other words, your computer suddenly has more PCI slots.
It is very important to power up the PXI chassis first before powering up the computer, because at power up the PC enumerates all PCI slots. If the PXI chassis is OFF during boot up, the slots in the PXI chassis will never get enumerated and your PC will never see the board installed in the PXI chassis.
Normal Power up LED sequence
Each MXI-3 board has four LED light on its front panel: two green lights (POWER and LINK) and two orange lights (Tx and Rx). When you power up the PXI chassis you should see one green light and one orange light ON steadily (POWER and ). Then, when you power up the PC, both green lights shoudl be ON steadily and the orange lights shoudl flicker.
If you do not see this behaviour at power up, most probably one of your boards its damage.
If you have another MXI-3 extender kit, try to set up the system mixing the boards from the two kits to try isolate which board is the one that is damaged.
Run the MXI-3 Optimization Software
The MXI-3 Optimizaton Software makes sure that the link between the PC and the PXI chassis has been set up properly. It will show you an error otherwise.
MXI-3 Software Version 1.15 for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME
The PC powers up fine if the PXI chassis is OFF, but if I turn on the PXI chassis first and then try to power up my PC, my PC does not boot
There are several things that could be causing this behaviour:
It could be that your PC has an old BIOS that has issues detecting PCI-to-PCI bridges. You could try upgrading the BIOS.
A part of the hardware could be damaged. If you have a main-stream computer (like a DELL or HP PC, for example), test your MXI-3 extender in it to make sure that the hardware is in good conditions. Main-stream computers tend to use new Motherboards with good BIOS.
There are more tips in the following KnowledgeBase:
KB 267FAS5P : MXI-3 Troubleshooting Guide
Hope this helps,
Claudia Lorente
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
http://www.ni.com/ask

PXI-4461 Filter Delay

Hi,
I have some questions about the Filter Delays associated with the PCI or PXI-4461 card.
I do not have this card, but am interested in it, especially the 24-bit analog output function, to control a test apparatus I have. The problem I face now is that the test apparatus and sensors are sensitive enough to see each bit change in the 16-bit resolution analog control voltage I now use to control the apparatus. I like the sensitivity of my equipment, but do not like seeing the bit changes in the control signal in the resulting data.
I am concerned about how the Filter Delays inherent in the 4461 operation, the roughly 3 milli second delays from instructing the 4461 to output (or input) a signal, and that output signal actually responding (as I understand what the Filter Delay is), will affect the ability of that card being effectively used as an instrument control signal. I do not want milli second delays interrupting the otherwise smooth control of the test apparatus. I am interested in learning about what triggers a filter delay so it can be avoided if possible.
For example, I might generate an analog output signal to control my test apparatus that consists of several monotonically increasing linear voltage ramps with different slopes, each voltage ramp slope representing a different sliding velocity for the servo mechanism in my test machine to follow.
I could do this by calculating each ramp separately and join them together to make one lengthy voltage ramp / waveform where voltage changes as a function of time vary within the longer waveform. That longer waveform is fed to the DAC to play back at a constant clock rate. Besides the initial start-up of the DAC, I don’t think that there there would be any filtering delays in that example, would there?
However, I do control the machine on the fly so to speak, where changes in the control voltage ramp occurs at arbitrary times without stopping the program, calculations for each DAC update are done right before it’s sent to the DAC. Would each DAC change in this case trigger a filter delay?
Another option to generate a machine control signal is to generate a simple voltage ramp that starts at -10V and ends at +10V that has 16,777,216 values, one for each of the 24-bits. As the program runs, the clock rate is varied which causes the DAC to generate bit changes at different rates, which varies the rate the voltage output changes with time. Will each chang of the clock rate trigger a filter delay?
I realize that there are other ways to increase the resolution of an analog output using 2 or more 12 and/or 16-bit analog outputs, but they too have their limitations. It would be nice to simply have a high resolution analog DAC without the added external hardware and added programming complications associated with the multi DAC output ‘solutions’.
Any comments regarding the 4461 cards and how they might behave under these scenarios, or suggestions for alternative hardware/software to get a finer DAC output resolution would be appreciated.
thanks,
Brian

Briank:
The filter delay in an analog output is dependent on the sampling rate that you choose. If the 3-4 ms delay is too much for your application, you can sample at a faster rate. For example, if you sample anywhere between 102.4 - 204..8 kS/s, your delay is 32 samples. This corresponds to a delay of 0.1563 to 0.3125 ms. Do these numbers seem more reasonable for your application?
The filter delay happens regardless, it is not triggered. Let's take a filter delay of 1 ms for example. From the time the data is transferred onto the card, there is a 1 ms delay as it propagates through the DAC. There is a constant lag time when using any output channel.
Changing the clock rate during run-time is not supported, the better way to do this would be to sample at the highest rate possible and create an array of data that has multiple samples of the same value to emulate a lower sample rate. This gives you the benefit of having the shortest filter delay time (0.3 ms).
Nathan M.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

What's difference of FieldPoint Instrument with PXI ones

Hi all:
We want to use FieldPoint or PXI instruments to bulid a bench. But what's the difference of two instruments and how to pick up one?
thanks a lot!

1。FieldPoint专门为需要坚固可靠系统的测量、工业控制和数据记录应用而设计，此类系统通常包括多种集中式或大面积散布的传感器和驱动器。NI FieldPoint具有用于分布式I/O的联网功能，而且还包括一个用于运行实时操作系统(该系统运行LabVIEW Real-Time应用)的选项
2。PXI (PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation，面向仪器系统的PCI扩展) 是一种坚固的基于PC的测量和自动化平台。PXI结合了PCI的电气总线特性与CompactPCI的坚固性、模块化及Eurocard机械封装的特性，并增加了专门的同步总线和主要软件特性。这使它成为测量和自动化系统的高性能、低成本运载平台。这些系统可用于诸如制造测试、军事和航空、机器监控、汽车生产及工业测试等各种领域中.
FP主要是适合分布式系统，PXI适合高速，高吞吐量的处理系统

Pci versus pxi versus compactRIO

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