Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

Our team got the new 4-slot cRIO for this season. I thought I would prep the cRIO and load some test code to check it out. But the 2011 imaging tool does not see the device. I was told I need the new 2012 imaging tool that will come with the KoP this season. I was also told some beta teams may have gotten it already. If so, would somebody in the beta teams care to send the tool to me?

Thanks.

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

The old imaging tool will not recognize the new 4-slot cRio, and if it did you would not have an appropriate image, so you would be unable to write code for it. The new imaging tool, new image, and new software libraries that the Beta Test teams have been playing with will be made available at kickoff (in just a week!), so you'll just have to wait for now. It is against the Beta Test teams agreement they signed in October to distribute the software they have been testing (and it's not even the final version anyway).

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

That's what I suspected. Thanks for the information.

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

So, how do we image the new cRio? I'm not finding the needed software in the new release.

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

I believe it should be on the labview credit card flash drive. FRC tools are what you want (so option 2)

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

I found it; it's installed only as part of the 2012 utilities update from NI's website.

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

Both are needed.

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

I am attempting to image the new 4-slot cRIO and it failed with the following message:
I attempted several times with the same result. It looks like it had succeeded in assigning the team number to the cRIO but timeout on formatting it.
The configuration I picked was:
- Wind River Workbench (C++)
- Enable NetConsole
- 2CAN Ethernet Bridge (not V2 though)
- Format Controller with Image FRC_2012_v43.zip
- Team ID: 492

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

On some computers it is currently necessary to disable all unused network interfaces except for the one connected to the cRIO. Also, make sure that the subnet mask for the PC NIC is set as specified. I believe it is supposed to be 255.255.255.0, rather than the wide open one. Finally, it is sometimes useful to plug the cRIO and PC into a switch so that the PC NIC doesn't go down while the cRIO reboots.

This was still being investigated late into the beta, but was rather uncommon, so please respond with anything that improved your symptoms.

Greg McKaskle

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

I am getting the same error but trying to format it for Java..any help would be appreciated

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

Please be sure you tried Greg's suggestions. Specifically, make sure you actually click "disable" on every network interface, regardless of connection type. This includes wifi and 1394 and anything else. I can't stress this enough. We burned a number of hours in beta because we thought the teams with this error had already done this, but it was glossed over. Please verify that you have done this so we can start thinking about what else might be wrong with your computer's configuration.

Joe

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

Thanks for the info. I got it successfully formatted. Here is a quick way of how I did it without disabling/reconfiguring a lot of things on the network.
- Disabled the wireless adapter of my laptop.
- Configure my wired ethernet adapter on my laptop to have a static IP address of 10.xx.xx.6 with a mask of 255.255.255.0.
- Connect my laptop to the 4-slot cRIO directly with an ethernet wire. I don't need a cross over cable because either the 4-slot cRIO or my laptop has autosense.
- Power up the cRIO and ping it from my laptop to make sure it sees it (ping 10.xx.xx.2).
- Run the cRIO imaging tool and select all the options and firware you need and click Apply.
- When it finished, you are done.
- Remember to configure your laptop's ethernet adapter back to auto IP address and auto DNS.
By doing the above, the only network configuration I changed was my laptop's ethernet adapter. The resulting network will have only my laptop and the cRIO with a narrow mask of 255.255.255.0. So the enumeration of devices should be very quick.
Curious though, since the imaging tool already did enumeration of the cRIO and showed its proper IP address (10.xx.xx.2) and I have "selected" the cRIO, why can't the imaging tool just use the 10.xx.xx.2 IP address to communicate with the cRIO when formatting instead of trying to enumerate it again on a wider network mask (255.0.0.0)? Or at the very least, lengthen the timeout to allow enough time to enumerate the subnet. After all, the initial "scanning" allowed enough time to "find" the cRIO so there is no reason why "format reboot" cannot use the same timeout length.

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

Hey all - I've managed to find the NI update for the cRIO Imager, but I don't find the FRC_2012_v*.zip file anywhere. Can anyone direct me where to find that?

Thanks,
bob

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

It's in the language update of your choice.

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

Aha!

So, for C++, Brian mentioned the NI updates in links here....

http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/frs/do/...2_update_for_c

but there is also a link at the bottom of that page which is the actual C++ workbench update that contains the cRIO image in it at:

http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/frs/do/...h_update_v2993

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

As Joe said, the image tool looks in the language installation for the image. Each language has an image included so the languages don't have to update in lock-step when new images are shipped.

Brad

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

A couple of things that helped me find my cRIO and image it.

Finding cRIO with imaging tool
0. Assign static IP address and subnet masks as described above.
1. Disable any other internet connections (i.e. wireless)
2. For Windows XP SP2 turn off all firewalls and auto software updates

Format cRIO to latest image (i.e. v43)
1. Use a hub/switch to format.

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

Folks,

We finally made my way through this maze and uploaded my first test code on the FRC II. In addition to all the requirements listed above, you need to add two more:

1. Use a simple switch or hub linked only to the cRIO and your PC. Do not use the Linksys wireless router.

2. DISABLE all Ethernet ports except the hardwired port linked to the hub or switch. Simply turning off the radio is not sufficient, you must disable the port.

I hope this helps. I really appreciate the support of the folks in this forum. Good luck.

PGR

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

Like I said in my previous post, to simplify things to only deal with minimum changes, connect your laptop to the cRIO directly with an ethernet cable (for the old cRIO, connect to port 1 and disconnect port 2). Then you don't have to deal with switches/hub/AP/Bridge.

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

For some computers, the Ethernet driver on the PC takes too long to recover when the cRIO reboots (and the link is lost). If there is a Switch in the path between the cRIO and the PC, the Switch will prevent the PC from loosing link even when the cRIO is rebooting. This will allow the imaging to succeed where it may otherwise fail. That is the reason using a switch in between may be helpful.

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

Good to know. I am surprise about this though. I understand when the cRIO is rebooting, the link is lost. If the PC ethernet takes time to "recover" and so does the Ethernet switch (reestablishing link to the cRIO). But I suppose most of the swtiches may be able to recover faster than some of the PC ethernet adapters. Also, if the "formatting timeout" is short enough that it doesn't even allow the ethernet adapter to "recover", it's really too short. Any plan to fix this issue in the future?

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

The problem is not recovering link. The problem is the link takes some time to recover and then it has to reassign the IP address settings and get the stack all functional again. This seems to take quite some time on some machines. The timeout is already really long (60 seconds). Since we don't know what the upper bound is on this (hard to believe 60 is not enough, and yet some people still report time-outs), we think this work-around is a reasonable solution if you have an outlier PC setup. For most teams, it is not necessary.

-Joe

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

We have a rookie kit of parts this year (I have mentored other teams in the past) and ran into this issue. I had already disabled the firewall when I ran across this thread. I first tried fixing the net mask from 255.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.0. That did not fix it. I then disabled the wireless network interface on the classmate and that did the trick.

So a fresh install of the classmate and the 4 slot cRIO out of the box direct connected with a cross over reproduced this same error until we disabled the wireless network interface. I may try putting the net mask back to 255.0.0.0 and see if that changes anything, but it is working now.

Not sure if that will help in the trouble shooting or not.

Thanks!

Randy

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

Just checking -- you don't mean simply that you pressed the button to turn off the wireless radio, right? You actually went into the networking configuration controls in Windows, selected the icon representing the wireless LAN adapter, and chose the menu option to disable it?

Re: Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO
 

This worked for our team. Thanks for the post.

Go FIRST!