Installing National Instruments Reconfigurable I/O Hardware with LabVIEW Real-Time for RTX Targets

This document describes the procedure for installing National Instruments Reconfigurable I/O Hardware for use with LabVIEW Real-Time and RTX on a Windows 2000/XP machine.

Step 1: Install Software

Begin by installing software in the following order.

a. LabVIEW Development System and all device drivers
b. RTX from Ardence (formerly Venturecom).
c. LabVIEW Real-Time Module for RTX targets and all device drivers
d. LabVIEW FPGA Module
e. NI-RIO driver software

See Also:
KnowledgeBase 3AR8Q9PK: Does the LabVIEW Real-Time Module for RTX Come With a License for the RTX Software?


Step 2: Install Hardware

a. Turn off power on the computer
b. Insert the NI-RIO hardware into the motherboard
c. Turn power back on

Windows should automatically detect and install the reconfigurable I/O board

Step 3: Configure Hardware as RTX Device

The following is directly from the RTX Runtime Help.

To convert a Windows PCI device to an RTX device:

a. From the Windows Start menu, click Programs > Venturcom RTX > RTX > RTX Properties to access the RTX Properties control panel.

b. From the RTX Properties control panel, select the Plug and Play tab. This tab displays the current Plug and Play (Pnp) devices on your system. If Show filtered list is checked, only the most common devices are displayed; if it in unchecked, all devices are displayed.

c. Right-click on the Windows device you wish to convert, then click Add RTX INF Support. This will edit the RtxPnp.inf file to support the selected device. In this example we will be converting the NI-7831R.


d. Click Apply
e. Open the Windows Device Manager by going to Start > Control Panel > System > (Hardware Tab) > Device Manager
f. Locate and right-click on the device you just added RTX INF support for, and select Uninstall

g. A dialog box appears stating that you are about to uninstall the device from the system. Click OK to uninstall the device
h. From the Action menu, click Scan for hardware changes. The Found New Hardware Wizard is displayed

i. Select Install the software automatically and click Next. The Found New Hardware Wizard might display a list of drivers, depending on the device you are installing.
j. If you see a list of drivers for your device, as shown above, select the RTX Supported option and click Next

k. Once the wizard has finished installing the driver, click Finish. The driver will then be displayed under Rtx Drivers in the Device Manager window

l. You must reboot the system for the changes to take effect

Step 4: Ensure Unique IRQ Setting for NI-RIO

In order to use a PCI-device in RTX, the hardware must have its own unique IRQ (interrupt request) value.

a. Open Windows Device Manager by going to Start > Control Panel > System > (Hardware Tab) > Device Manager
b. Select View > Resources By Type
c. Expand Interrupt request (IRQ)
d. Find an unused IRQ value

In the example below, the NI-7831R hardware is assigned to IRQ 7, which is correct because nothing else is assigned to that IRQ value.

Once you've found a unique IRQ value, you can use the RTX Properties page to modify the PCI device IRQ to this unused number, if need be.

To modify RTX PCI device properties:

e. From the Windows Start menu, click Programs > Venturcom RTX > RTX > RTX Properties to access the RTX Properties control panel.
f. From the RTX Properties control panel, click the Plug and Play tab to display the list of devices associated with the system. If Show filtered list is checked, only the most common devices are displayed.

g. Double-click on the RTX device that you want to modify. The Device Properties dialog box appears displaying information about the device. In this dialog, you can edit the device’s interrupt level (IRQ) value and select its Disposition. The default for all RTX devices is to have separate interrupt levels and an unshareable (Device Exclusive) disposition.


h. To share the IRQ value, set the Disposition to Shared by RTX. To make the IRQ value unshareable, select Device Exclusive as the Disposition type. The Disposition definition is found in the Windows 2000 DDK documentation.

Note: Not all PCI slots can be set to an unshareable IRQ disposition of Device Exclusive. If you want your interrupt device to have an unshareable IRQ, you should try to locate an empty, non-shared PCI slot. Some interrupt devices, such as PCI NIC devices, may need a non-shared, bus-mastering PCI slot. It may take several tries to figure out the right slot. A slot that is good for Windows NT may fail with Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

j. Click OK. The RTX Device Properties dialog box closes and you are returned to the RTX Properties control panel.

k. Click OK to close the RTX Device Properties control panel or Apply to keep it opened. The IRQ changes will not take effect until you reboot the machine.

l. To verify that there is no resource conflict with the requested IRQ, open the Windows Device Manager, double-click on the device, and check to see if the device is working properly.

m. You will be asked to Reboot

Troubleshooting HAL errors

HAL Error when installing RTX
(Paraphrased from RTX Runtime Release Notes)

HAL is a driver in windows that works with the power management software used on a PC or Laptop. RTX only works with certain power management drivers.

1. Check your ACPI Driver using Device Manager by expanding the Computer category.

2. There are two ACPI Drivers that work depending on the number of processors in your computer.
3. For a single processor machine, changing the driver manually to Standard PC Should work.

a. Open Device Manager
b. Expand Computer
c. Right Click your current ACIP or APCI driver and select Update Driver
d. Select Advanced on the first screen and ‘Don’t Search’ on the second
e. Select Standard PC for the new HAL driver

*** Warning: If you pick the wrong HAL your computer may not boot any more ***

The following Power Management configurations are supported in RTX 5.5

• PC Compatible Eisa/Isa HAL
• ACPI Compatible Eisa/Isa HAL
• ACPI Uniprocessor PC
• MPS 1.4 – APIC platform HAL
• ACPI 1.0 – APIC Platform MP

Related Links:
Where to Start with the NI PXI-7831R

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