Imaging tool for the new 4-slot cRIO

[mikets]

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.

[Aren Siekmeier]

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).

[mikets]

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

[theprgramerdude]

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

[WizenedEE]

Originally Posted by theprgramerdude

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

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

[theprgramerdude]

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

[jhersh]

Originally Posted by WizenedEE

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

Originally Posted by theprgramerdude

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

Both are needed.

[mikets]

I am attempting to image the new 4-slot cRIO and it failed with the following message:

Unable to complete operation because of unexpected error:
Error -2147220304 occurred at nisyscfg.lvlib:Restart.vi:1
Possible reason(s):
NI System Configuration:  (Hex 0x800404B0) Timeout while waiting for reboot. System is offline.

Complete call chain:
     nisyscfg.lvlib:Restart.vi:1
     ConfigUtility.lvlib:2012_FormatSystem.vi
     ConfigUtility.lvlib:ReImageTarget.vi
     ConfigUtility.lvlib:Dialog.vi

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

[Greg McKaskle]

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

[adf0221]

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

[jhersh]

Originally Posted by adf0221

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

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

[mikets]

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.

[bob.wolff68]

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

[jhersh]

Originally Posted by bob.wolff68

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

It's in the language update of your choice.

[bob.wolff68]

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