Use of NI-9149 Ethernet in a VeriStand project ?

[Mathieu_R.]

Hello,

One of my customer just buy a NI-9149 chassis to extend its test bench IO capabilities. The existing bench rely on a cRIO-9056. The 9149 beeing an Ethernet chassis, I'm wondering what should be the best way to use it with the cRIO-9056 - who should be the 'master' system.

Disclaimer : as Ethernet expansion device, I'm fully aware that IO on the link between RT controller (9056) and expansion chassis will not be scrictly determinist. It will only carry non critical I/O (auxiliaries). Or if requiered, local determinist processing at FPGA level.

1. Use of a specific Custom Device
   Done as proof of concept, based on programmatic Shared Variables access, with a kind of 'static' IO definition when initilizing the Custom Device.
   Simple, not really evolutive, I'll have to maintain it, and there is probably a better way to do this... but it works.
2. Use of Scan Engine and EtherCAT Custom Device
   With Ethernet written on the 9149, I just forgot to test this option. So I just instanciate this Custom Device into a blank system defintion, and it seem that Scan Engine support can only be with a 'Local Chassis'.
   » Did I miss something ?
3. Custom FPGA definition
   The NI VeriStand FPGA-Based I/O Interface Tools  wizard exposes 'Ethernet RIO Device'. It can also be a nice option for me, allowing to set custom code into FPGA (already done for IO modules in 9056 chassis, so I'm familiar with this process).
   
   

    

   But in system explorer, I don't know how to specify a remote FPGA target. There is a pre-defined list of RIO device address, ranging from RIO0 to RIO63. But it only seems to modify the name of the RIO instane in system definition tree. And I guess that this name is used to address the RIO device at run time.
   » Is there a way to address a remote FPGA target for a VeriStand FPGA personality?
4. Last hypothesis, setup the VeriStand engine on the NI-9149.
   But I guess this hardware is not designed to be a VeriStand target. And I didn't find a way to install VeriStand on it.
   » Does someone may confirm this is not possible? (or if it is!)

Thanks for your feedback,

[ZYOng]

If you don't need any synchronization between the host cRIO-9056 and NI-9149, the most simple approach is using the FPGA Addon Custom Device.

See Getting Started With NI FPGA Devices in NI VeriStand

To get the resource name, expand the Devices and Interfaces of NI-9149 in NI MAX. You should see the RIOx name.

NI-9149 does not have its controller so it cannot host a VeriSand Engine. You run the VeriStand Engine on the cRIO-9056 and communicate with NI-9149 via Ethernet.