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Quick Connect Interface On Secondary Port

Hi Everyone,

Curious to see whether anyone has come up with a good solution for this scenario!

We have a compactRIO that will be embedded into a box and set up by engineers that have no idea what a compactRIO is!  To do this we provide a web interface.

Since the main port is in use we want to provide this through the secondary port as a maintainance port (as well as keeping them seperate from the main network). Requirements would be:

  • No configuration change on the laptop (i.e. autoIP on laptop side)
  • User plugs in and enters a (preferrably memorable, or at least documented) address to a browser and configures the unit.

thinking about this I see a few solutions of varying quality and curious to know what other people have done. Solutions I am considering (in increasing complexity/beauty):

  1. Set a static IP on the secondary port in the autoIP range. Risks clash of IP though risk is extremely low. Also requires the user to look up the address each time.
  2. Set a static IP not in the autoIP range (still need to confirm whether this will work).
  3. Write an mDNS responder or similar in LabVIEW that can respond to the laptop with a DNS name, allowing the user to use an memorable name when browsing to the device. No idea if this is possible!

I feel like there is a gulf in the middle. What have you had success with?

James Mc
========
CLA and cRIO Fanatic
My writings on LabVIEW Development are at devs.wiresmithtech.com
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If using one of the more recent cRIO controllers (anything with LinuxRT other than the 9068), the controller will have a USB type B port.  If you connect a computer to this port with a USB type A to type B cable, the controller will set up a local network using ethernet over USB to the connecting machine.  The IP addresses used are always static (172.22.11.2 for the cRIO, 172.22.11.1 for the PC). 

This requires no configuration on the cRIO, does not affect the PC's other networking settings, does not affect the settings for the cRIO's primary port and will work without modification if you are using web services (LV web services will receive traffic from the primary port and the ethernet over USB connection).  Downsides: doesn't play nice with Macs in my experience, and if using a virtual machine you may need to make sure the USB port gets routed to that VM.

Cheers,

Matt Pollock
National Instruments
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Personally, I *love* using the USB port as a debug/configuration interface.

If for some reason you are using an older controller without the type B USB port, the cRIO already has an mDNS responder installed.  This is how MAX finds remote systems - we send out an mDNS query.

Try running wireshark and refresh remote systems in MAX, then filter results for mDNS protocol queries.  You'll find the query string to use.  I don't recall the exact string offhand.

Cheers,

Matt Pollock
National Instruments
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Thanks for the fast response, your right I missed a critical piece of information, it's on the 9082 which runs overlap.

James Mc
========
CLA and cRIO Fanatic
My writings on LabVIEW Development are at devs.wiresmithtech.com
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