Programmatically calling an FPGA vi to view over the FP vi

Question

Good morning. I have become stumped on this question for a bit so I thought I would post the question here.
Q: what is the best way to programmatically call a VI running on the FPGA to the FP main VI running on a touchscreen computer, where when the FPGA VI is called it goes to the top level of the screen without interrupting the VI output of the main VI?
I have researched using a queued message handler but couldn't get it to function properly. I have also researched dynamically calling a VI and asynchronously calling a VI but am unsure how to implement the correct one for what I are trying to accomplish.
What I am trying to overcome here has to a lot with tab control on the front panel VI as I have discovered that apparently while a tab is open to the top of the FP the other tabs do not I/O any values to the cRIO. This is good and bad for our application. The good part is that it allows a 'locking out' of other processes while the visible tab is on top. But the bad part is that if I open another tab then what I have running on the previous tab stops. I need to be able to incorporate both of these aspects in our program.
This example shows how I am using tabs in our program. (ATTACHMENT 1)
So in the example above, when page 5 is opened the graph indicator starts which is what I need, and when it closes it stops which is correct to.
But the issue is that when page 5 is open it also stops what’s happening on the other four tabs in the same tab pane which is NOT what I need to happen.
What I have done so far to correct this is - removing the page I need to open on top and made it into its own VI.
What this separate VI does is accept input from the FPGA resources including J1939 engine information through an NI9862 card and voltage / analog signals from sensors via an NI9207 card and reads the information on virtual indicators and gauges as seen here. So it makes sense to me to put the VI on the FPGA. (JPEG)
The information on this VI only needs to be seen periodically via the FP by the operator as it is called via a Boolean control (button) on the FP, but it still needs to run on the FPGA when not seen in order to pass information to the RT control for alarm processing. So in that, in the case of an alarm it causes something else to happen to the unit being controlled (ie. Execute an engine shutdown over the J1939 bus)
What this VI cannot do is interrupt the operations that are being executed by the main VI on the FP if called (to do a parameter check) but put the main VI into a ‘locked out’ mode if there is an alarm.
So then the question becomes how to call this VI from the Front Panel VI?
Well, I have tried to make a Queued Message Handler work which it did partially (I was able to open the VI and run it but I couldn’t work out how to close it) and unfortunately I have sub-sequentially erased that bit of programming code. Though I don’t think it would have worked anyway as I was trying to call it as a sub-vi in the main VI that was located on the computer and not on the FPGA target.
Then I tried dynamically calling the VI and found it did the same thing as if the VI were still connected to the tab control by stopping the I/O of the main VI while it was called to the front. I erased that bit of code work too.
So then I started looking at asynchronously calling the VI as I saw that it would allow both VI’s to run at the same time. Here I seem to have found the right answer to my own question, though, I believe that the example program I am looking at has a memory leak or is not closing out the called VI properly because within a few minutes runtime both VI’s slow to a stop. This is not good. I understand what the example code is trying to show but I don’t think it is programmatically correct and I have not been able to fix it. Here is the example code I was looking at. (ZIP FILE)
So while I believe I am on the right path I am not sure how to impliment it with the FPGA.
Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
Ultimate Tab Control.vi ‏32 KB
ENGINEVI.jpg ‏384 KB
example.zip ‏26 KB

Answer 1

You are correct, that is how the program is built. Each page of the tab has it's own set parameters to interact with the FPGA differently. (ie electromechanical controlling a hydraulic pump so each page has a distinct set of limitations on what the pump control does) this effectively creates a set of 'modes' for different parameter pump control to the same individual pump.
Here is a screen of the main program. The buttons at the bottom determine which mode the pump is in (effectively changes the tab control to a different tab)
So yes, the engine page has been removed from the tab control and made into it's own vi that I want to put on the FPGA target (as its only input and no interaction) but I want to be able to call the engine vi from the main program and not interrupt the main program if I am controlling the pump but just want to see what the engine and pressures are doing.
I added a screen of some of the code tied to the picture above.
Attachments:
virun.jpg ‏226 KB
Untitled2.png ‏148 KB