Soft-reset PXI-System

Question

Good morning,
I try to execute a "soft-reset" on a PXI-System, but I can't found any nodes to do this.
With "soft-reset" I mean a function like the ABORT and the RUN button in a VI. More precise, if you connect to the real-time target via "debug application" you get the normal frontpanel of the VI which is actual executed. With abort/run buttons now you can "restart" this VI, so you don't need a hard reboot of the whole PXI-System which take a long time to get a "clean" system state.
Is this posible?!
Thanks a lot
Heiko

Answer 1

I'm wrestling with a similar problem, but I think I know how to fix it (just haven't had the time ...).
Background -- I "inherited" a LabVIEW RT program written using LabVIEW 7 (well before LabVIEW Project).  The PXI code was packaged into an LabVIEW Library (.llb) file and copied by FTP to a known location on the PXI's disk.  We used VI Server to locate the top-level VI on the PXI side and simply start it running.  At the end of the routine, we stopped the code on the PXI.  In this mode, the code was always present on the PXI, "ready to run", and we rarely had to reboot the PXI.  As a side benefit, we could have multiple PXI routines sitting on the PXI, each matched to a particular routine on the Host, with each Host routine starting (and stopping) its appropriate RT "partner".
I'm currently working on the much-revised, much-improved version of this program running on LabVIEW 2012 under LabVIEW Project.  My RT code is built as a Start-up Executable (.rtexe) and deployed to the RT Target as a Startup as part of the Build.  At the conclusion of the Host program, the RT program also exits, which (as you note) causes the PXI to reboot, meaning we cannot restart for a minute or so.  We also can't (easily) have multiple "pairs" of Host/RT routines that link themselves together at run-time (at least, not with a lot of extra work!).
I've been thinking about how to implement an "auto-restart" method for the RT code.  I don't think it would be too difficult, but have not yet tried to implement it.  My RT program consists of multiple parallel loops, with some initialization code at the beginning of the program (before the loops run) and some finalization code at the end.  The main idea is to get the program simplified to a single loop (in my case, a Queued State Machine/Message Handler) that internally starts and stops the other parallel loops (probably through a Start Asynchronous Call and a local Shared Variable "Stop Loops").  My current Exit State sets "Stop Loops" to True, breaks the connections with the Host, and exits the QSM, leading to the termination of the RT code.
One idea I'm planning to try is to add an additional State, "Restart", that is called by Exit instead of exiting the QSM.  This state would wait a few seconds (to let the other loops finish) and then perform (again) the initialization code that preceded the entrance to the QSM.  Note that this inevitably sets the initial QSM State, so on finishing the Restart State, the QSM's Initialization State should be next, "... and away we go!"
If you try this and it works, please post a followup here.  I'm anxious to try this, myself, but I've got other bugs to fix in this code before I can worry about "improving it" ...
Bob Schor