c-RIO connection troubles
 

I AM A COMPLETE ROOKIE AT PROGRAMMING
Thought I'd get that put of the way first. I've had 0 experience, and our team's programmer last year was... eccentric, to say the least. He taught me nothing, will not respond to attempts at contact, and no one else on the team has even a clue where to begin. I have no mentor.

I am running Vista (no choice in the matter). I can't connect to the c-RIO, either via router or ethernet cable. I always get the same error message: Error connecting to 'VxWorks6x_10.23.93.2' (Registery localhost). Failed to launch target server
Possibly caused by: back-end not connected.

Removed dead-end from Registry!

I've tried using different projects, without luck. I have my firewall off, and the router and bridge are both set up correctly.

My team is about to kill me.
Help me Chief Delhpi forums, you're my only hope.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Hi Sev,

Are you using wireless or wired to connect from your PC to the cRIO?

The first thing to look at is to open a DOS box (cmd.exe) and do a "route print" command. Do you see a route to 10.0.0.0? If so, can you ping the cRIO? (ping 10.23.92.2 from DOS box). If you can't ping the cRIO, either the cRIO isn't booting or your network isn't set up properly. The IP address of the Classmate should be 10.23.92.5, but you can have any address on the 10.0.0.0 segment (e.g., 10.23.92.10).

Do you have an Ethernet crossover cable? This is highly recommended so you can update the firmware on the cRIO to V19. Also, a serial port with a null-modem cable would be handy so you can talk to the cRIO serial port to make sure nothing's wrong with the cRIO. Does any of this make sense to you?

BTW, where is Team 2392 located? If it's anywhere close to the D.C. metro area, I might be able to get you going in person.

HTH,

Mike

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Right now I'm using a wired connection, but I could potentially do either.
No network with the address 10.0.0.0 came up in the DOS box. I don't have a crossover cable, but I might be able to either buy one or make one. And We're from Tennessee.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Sorry, Tennessee is too far to pop over :-(. But, I'll still try to help remotely.

OK, you'll need to get a cross-over (null modem) Ethernet cable (BestBuy, RadioShack, MicroCenter and others carry them) and plug it between your PC and the cRIO port 1. Once you've done that, open the control panel, Network control and double-click the network connections icon for your Ethernet to open it up.

Click the properties button, select Internet Protocol and click properties again. This will bring up a dialog box with a tab that says "General". Select the "Use the following IP address" radio button and key in your PC's IP address in the IP address field, e.g., 10.23.93.10 and enter 255.0.0.0 into the subnet mask field. You can leave the rest blank. Click OK and then OK again. When you're done, click the "Close" button.

Turn on the cRIO and check your DOS box again to see if it can ping the cRIO after a minute or so.

Also, while you're at the BestBuy, pick up a female-female null modem cable with DB9 connectors on it. This is what you'll need to monitor the boot cycle on the cRIO if things go wrong.

Assuming the cRIO is pingable, you can next move on to using the cRIO Imaging tool to load v19 of the firmware. You can get that from the FIRST website.

HTH,

Mike

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

I made the IP changes, and pinged 10.23.93.2 and got 4 time outs. I assume this is not a good thing.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Yup, that means that either your cRIO isn't responding or your network connection is down. This is where having the serial port hooked up will help you. That will tell you if the cRIO is booting at all. BTW, the serial port runs at 9600 baud, No parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit. You'll need a female-female null modem cable (Radio Shack Model: 03044 | Catalog #: 55010600 $14.99) and a serial port on your PC.

HTH,

Mike Anderson
Mentor
Team 116

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Bad news: got the cable, but my laptop lacks the proper receptacle.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Unfortunately no. WinDoze won't detect the cRIO on the other end of a serial port. You'll need to run hyperTerminal or other terminal emulator like Teraterm and set it up to connect to your serial port at the 9600,N,8,1 setting I described earlier.

On the other hand, it should be able to detect when the Ethernet carrier comes up because the cRIO has booted. If the settings are right, you'll see a "Ethernet connected" message show up in the task bar on the lower right-hand corner of the window.

HTH,

Mike Anderson
Mentor
Team 116

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

While that probably would solve my problems, I have two problems with that.

1)I have the wrong port on my computer (in stead of a 4-5 double male stack, i have a 5-5-5 triple female stack)
2)I have no emulator. =/

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Hi Sev,

OK, that means that you don't have a serial port on your computer. That's not uncommon these days as serial ports are considered "legacy" ports. In order to address this, you'll need a USB to RS-232 adapter. They're available from Radio Shack or Best Buy for about $30. You can get them cheaper from NewEgg, but you'll have shipping costs and lose time.

As for the terminal emulator, you've already got one with WinDoze. It's in the accessories tab of the start menu called Hyperterminal. Or, you can download Teraterm for free from the Internet.

Good luck,

Mike Anderson
Mentor
Team 116

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Have you run the FRC cRIO Imaging Tool to select C++ development and set the cRIO's IP address to match your team number?

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Alan has a good point. I was under the assumption that your cRIO had booted at some point. If it's brand new and hasn't been set up, then you'll need to use the cRIO imaging tool to load v19 firmware before you'll be able to do anything else.

HTH,

Mike Anderson
Mentor
Team 116

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

No, this is our third year overall. It worked last year and the year before.
Also: have the cable (confused some of the guys at best buy too) and teraterm

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

If the same cRIO worked last year, chances are it is working and you simply can't connect the PC.

I don't have a Vista PC, but what I'd suggest you try first is to check your PC network port is set for a static IP address of 10.23.93.xx and use e.g. 6 for xx. The cRIO should already be on 10.23.93.2 and the Classmate will need to be on 10.23.93.5 so you can't use 2 or 5. Then you can open the PC cmd window and "ping 10.23.93.2" and get a response. For instructions on setting the IP address of a PC running Vista, try google or maybe Vista itself has sufficient Help to get it done. It's not difficult but I'd need a Vista PC to give you the precise instructions.

As soon as you get a successful ping, run the FIRST cRIO imaging tool to install image v19 (select C++) on the cRIO.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

'Should work' doesn't always apply.
The IP's are set correctly (I checked) and I pinged from the classmate, but it timed out.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

You didn't say if you have run the Imaging tool. If the cRIO is not imaged correctly, it might not be set for IP 10.23.93.2 and then it wouldn't respond to a ping, or maybe the IP is set but the cRIO image is damaged and it's not booting the image. The Imaging tool will enable you to (re)set the cRIO IP address. Select the C++ option in the Imaging tool if you plan to use Windriver.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

If this works, I'm going to be very disappointed/angry with myself...

Edit: Didn't work

Edit II: Got the following error when using a different computer:
Unable to complete operation because of unexpected error 56:
TCP Open Connection in repFPC open connection.vi->SendRebootCmd.vi->RebootSystem.vi->ConfigUtility.lvlib:ReImageTarget.vi->ConfigUtility.lvlib:Dialog.vi

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Which ethernet jack on the cRIO are you plugged into? Does it have a green light? Is there any activity on the yellow light when you're trying to communicate with the cRIO?

Are all of the cRIO's DIP switches in the "off" position?

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Jack 1, green light, no yellow light, and yes.

Edit: There is now a yellow light blinking on the ethernet 1 port.

Edit II: Using Terterm also produces a time out

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Perhaps you need to use MAX, Start>>National Instruments>>Measurement and Automation Explorer.

In the left column it will have an entry for remote targets which you can open and it will hopefully list your cRIO. If it does, you can determine its IP address, change the IP address, etc.

If MAX also cannot locate your cRIO, it could possibly be a firewall issue. You stated it was off, but it is certainly worth verifying. Also, you may need to toggle one of the DIP switches on the cRIO to reset the IP address and then try formatting again either using the format utility. Finally, there is a safe mode DIP for cRIOs that have corrupted Flash. You may be able to find the step by step instructions on ni.com/FIRST searching for safe mode reformat or some similar query.

Greg McKaskle

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Update: able to ping the cRIO, still not able to connect or download to it. New error:
Failed to connect to 10.23.93.2 (Registry localhost) failed to connect target
Possibly caused by: runtime information undefined or uncatchable, TOS library support for target OS "6.3" cannot be loaded
How are the DIPs supposed to be set up?

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

In normal operation all DIP switches are off, you may want to leave the console out on if you have the serial cable connected.

Greg McKaskle

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Error when trying to update the cRIO:
Unable to complete operation because of unexpected error 54:
TCP Open Connection in repFPC open connection.vi->SendRebootCmd.vi->RebootSystem.vi->ConfigUtility.lvlib:ReImageTarget.vi->ConfigUtility.lvlib: Dialog.vi

Edit: Realized we had the DIPs backwards: new error: Unable to complete operation because of unexpected error 1:
TCP Read in NI_InternetTK_Common_VIs.lvlib:TCP Read xTP Reply.vi:14->NI_InternetTK_FTP_VIs.lvlib:FTP Get Command Reply.vi:13->NI_InternetTK_FTP_VIs.lvlib:FTP Open Session.vi->NI_InternetTK_FTP_VIs.lvlib:FTP Put Multiple Files and Buffers.vi->NI_InternetTK_FTP_VIs.lvlib:FTP Put File.vi->ConfigUtility.lvlib:ReImageTarget.vi->ConfigUtility.lvlib: Dialog.vi

Edit edit: FTP Timeout

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Crossover czble and XP laptop: all is fix'd now

Edit: Still won't connect in windriver; still says backend is disconnected. i can ping, but cant connect. crossover cable doesnt change anything, except allowing me to connect with the Re imager

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

bump

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Can you fire up a command window in your PC, and post the output
of ipconfig /all and route print? Thanks.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

I'm sorry, maybe it's implied in one of your posts, but it's not clear to me that you've been able to reimage your cRio properly.

Have you seen this post -- about using a switch/hub instead of a x-over cable?

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...1&postcount=14

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

I have the same problem that the other guy had toward the end of his when i get the error:

Failed to launch target server

possibly caused by backend not connected.

and for me the X-over cable did not change anything either.

when i ran route print my netmask was 0.00.00.0, and network connection was 0.00.00.0, my gateway was 10.13.18.2, and it said metric was 20.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

We are using a Crio from last year where we had it programmed for C++. Last week we used Crio Imaging Tool to try and set it to Java, but it won't connect. Tries and Times out. We are connected via ethernet and a router. ie pc to router, and crio to router. We can ping the Crio ethernet address from the pc.

Last year at the competition we had issues upgrading the latest version on a second Crio as we had the Can Jaguar software mods and that didn't allow us to update. Someone thought there was a checksum issue so it didn't connect and didn't give us a checksum error. I don't remember if that looked like a connection issue too. But I've just found the update instructions so I can try backing that fix out and then see if we may connect. I'm hoping that is all we need to do.

Where may we find how to reformat the Crio? If we do can we then update to the latest version or do we need to start with an earlier version and update one version at a time?

I can't find anything on the Crio switches either is there a post with how the Crio works anywhere? I tried downloading the pdf from usfirst site for hardware descriptions but that link causes firefox to hang on all of my home computers. I can't even copy the link as Firefox has to be aborted using task manager.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

As far as I know the only thing we needed to do to get the cRIO update working was remove the CAN plugin.

To reformat the cRIO, in the imaging tool you used to switch to Java, there should be a checkbox that says something along the lines of "Reformat cRIO". Check that and you should get a few more boxes available to select an image. If you have all of the programming updates installed on your computer, I believe the v20 image will be shown in the selection box. Make sure it is set to format to team #211 and language is Java (if you want to keep that).

Also, formatting the cRIO is equivalent to updating it. The only way to send an update to the cRIO is through a reformat.

With the switches the only one you really need to know about for this is the SAFE MODE switch. If you're still having troubles with this update, flip that and try again. Afterwards I believe you need to flip it back to off and perform the update a second time.

Re: c-RIO connection troubles
 

Correct. With the safe mode switch on, the only thing the imaging tool can do is format the cRIO. You must switch it back off and reboot it to actually install the update.