LabVIEW RT Module 7.1.1 Readme for ETS Targets

November 2004

This file contains important information about LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1.1, including installation and upgrade issues, compatibility issues, and changes from the LabVIEW Real-Time Module 7.1. This maintenance release provides updates to LabVIEW Real-Time Module for ETS Targets embedded software. It does not affect LabVIEW Real-Time for RTX Targets software or the LabVIEW Real-Time Module for Mac OSX host.

Updating from LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1

Requirements

LabVIEW 7.1 Real-Time Module for ETS
LabVIEW 7.1.1 for Windows maintenance release.

Complete the following to install the LabVIEW Real-Time Module 7.1.1 update on the host computer and the RT target.

Install the LabVIEW 7.1.1 maintenance release
1. Software and instructions can be found here.
Install the LabVIEW 7.1.1 Real-Time Module to the host:
1. Download and run LabVIEW_RT_711.exe.
2. This will launch a self extracting zip file. Choose a location to extract the files.
3. Installation should automatically begin. If it does not, then browse to the folder where the files were extracted and run setup.exe
4. Follow the instructions on the screen.

This will install updated files into the ~\National Instruments\RT Images directory.

Install the LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1.1 embedded software to the RT target:
1. Launch Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX).
2. Expand the Remote Systems category.
3. Find the RT target and expand to view the items below it.
4. Right-click Software and select Install Software from the shortcut menu.
5. Select LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1.1 for installation to the target and follow the instructions on the screen to conclude the installation process. If necessary, select 7.1.1 from the Available version(s) on host dropdown list.

Changes from LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1

Improved overall ethernet performance for PXI plug-in ethernet modules and half-duplex performance for built-in ethernet port on PXI and CVS real-time controllers.
To see these ethernet improvements, you must set a token in the ni-rt.ini file on the target.

Complete the following steps to set the token in the ni-rt.ini file.

Open an FTP connection to the RT target and download the c:\ni-rt.ini file to the host.
Edit the ni-rt.ini file and add SendBufferSize = 65535 under the [lvrt] section. This number equates to a 64KB buffer size. You may experiment using other buffer sizes with a minimum of 1024 and a maximum of 65535.
Upload the edited ni-rt.ini file back to the RT target and reboot the controller.

Built-in Ethernet Port: If using the built in ethernet port of a PXI or CVS real-time controller, then you must set the controller to use half-duplex mode for communication.

Launch MAX.
Expand the Remote Systems category.
Select the RT Target
Select Advanced Ethernet Settings
Set Duplex to Half

Added limited support for loading DLLs built with Microsoft Visual Studio 7.1.

Added support for loading DLLs built with Compact Visual Fortran 6.6

Removed the restriction of only allowing 512 characters in the Startup DLL list of ni-rt.ini.

Compatibility Issues

A LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1.1 target can only connect to a host computer with LabVIEW Real-Time Module 7.1.1.

NI-DMM and NI-FGEN Customers

NI-DMM 2.3 and NI-FGEN 2.2 will not install to an RT target with the LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1.1 software. The installation process will fail with an error dependency on LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1

Future releases of NI-DMM and NI-FGEN will resolve this issue. Please visit ni.com to download the latest drivers.

If a newer release is not currently available for this driver, then please contact Technical Support for further help in resolving this issue.

Vision Builder for Automated Inspection Customers

Vision Builder AI (version 2.5 or previous) is not compatible with LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1.1. If you have installed LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1.1 to the RT target, you will need to launch MAX and reinstall the LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1 software back to the target.

Mass Compiling for Improved Performance

Once you have installed all LabVIEW 7.1.1, LabVIEW Real-Time 7.1.1, and any other 7.1.1 maintenance release software, you will need to mass compile the VI's in your ~\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.1 directory. This improves performance by saving all VIs into the current version number. For instructions on how to mass compile a directory, please refer to the LabVIEW 7.1.1 Readme.html file.

Important: LabVIEW Execution Trace Tool Customers
To improve performance, the LabVIEW Execution Trace Toolkit must be mass compiled. However, mass compiling this tool with LabVIEW 7.1.1 will break the LabVIEW Execution Trace Toolkit.

Solutions:

Mass compile the entire ~\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.1 directory.

Uninstall the LabVIEW Execution Trace Toolkit from the Add or Remove Programs dialog.

Reinstall the LabVIEW Execution Trace Toolkit

Mass compile just the ~\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.1\Project directory.