cRIO interrupted during reimaging

[Greg McKaskle]

Error 60 is listed as network address is currently in use. Troubleshooting the network stuff isn't my forte, but maybe that helps you.

Here are other procedural things that have helped other teams in the past.

Hook the cRIO directly to the PC, not through the DS, router or any sort of switch.

Turn off firewalls.

Turn off other enet cards, wifi cards, and other things that could confuse the routing as the cRIO IP moves around during the formatting process.

Try the formatting on anther computer (typically the failure was due to one of the previous two, and sometimes this is easier).

Pay careful attention to the DIP switches. Flipping them on to get the cRIO IP reset may then cause problems as you try to reimage.

Greg McKaskle

[rsisk]

Hallelujah!

We have success.

Here is what we did.

1. Do an IP Reset
set the IP Reset DIP switch on the cRIO to ON
push reset button on cRIO
Set the IP Reset DIP switch on the cRIO to OFF

2. Power off the cRIO, then Power it back on
2a. Turn off your computer's firewall
3. Connect to computer to the cRIO using the crossover cable
IP Address on computer 10.0.0.6 SubNet 255.0.0.0
4. Run MAX (Measurement and Automation) to reset IP address (it is now 0.0.0.0) on the cRIO
Tools\NI-Serial\Ethernet Device Configuration
This should find the cRIO and show the MAC address
5. Click Properties and set the IP Address to 10.0.0.2 SubNet 255.0.0.0
6. In MAX, click Remote Systems and then F5 to refresh and you should now see the cRIO.
7. Expand the cRIO under Remote Systems,click on Software, and click on Add/Remove software
Reload the NI-RIO 2.4.1 software


At this point you should be able to return to the FRC cRIO Imaging Tool and flash the cRIO

99. Turn your firewall back on


Oh yeah, and one final step that seemed to work, we switched computers. When we did that everything worked fine.

And they say water boarding is torture. Ha, it ain't got nothing on flashing a cRIO

[Alan Anderson]

The "Error 60" makes it sound like your computer was set to the IP address the cRIO wanted to use. It might be worth checking the network configuration on the first computer to see if that was your problem.

[rsisk]

We did so many things to get this working including:

IP Resets
Loading the base NI-RIO software
Formatting the cRIO in Safe Mode (scary thing to do)
Running directly to the cRIO with the crossover cable
All kinds of address configurations (0.0.0.0, 10.0.0.2, 10.24.93.2)
The computer was always 10.0.0.6 or 10.0.0.10 (or subbing 24.93 for the zeros)
Using a different computer
Turning off the firewall
Disabling all other network connections on the computer
Clearing all COM channels (paraphrased I think) using MAX

Switching to another computer finally seemed to clear things up and make things work.

I think that was all the things we tried. It took us at least 5 hours today to finally get it figured out.

I did my best to document what I think were the relevant steps in an earlier post, hopefully to help other teams.

I sure wish I knew this morning what I know now about loading the cRIO image, things would have gone much easier

[BLAQmx]

Originally Posted by rsisk

We did so many things to get this working including:

IP Resets
Loading the base NI-RIO software
Formatting the cRIO in Safe Mode (scary thing to do)
Running directly to the cRIO with the crossover cable
All kinds of address configurations (0.0.0.0, 10.0.0.2, 10.24.93.2)
The computer was always 10.0.0.6 or 10.0.0.10 (or subbing 24.93 for the zeros)
Using a different computer
Turning off the firewall
Disabling all other network connections on the computer
Clearing all COM channels (paraphrased I think) using MAX

Switching to another computer finally seemed to clear things up and make things work.

I think that was all the things we tried. It took us at least 5 hours today to finally get it figured out.

I did my best to document what I think were the relevant steps in an earlier post, hopefully to help other teams.

I sure wish I knew this morning what I know now about loading the cRIO image, things would have gone much easier

Although NI doesn't offer phone support on the weekends (and not till Jan. 5 for FRC) we do have a large number of knowledge base articles including topics such as network communication issues with the cRIO. I recommend searching for the operating instructions for the cRIO-9074 for more information.

It also doesn't hurt to ask questions like this on ni.com/FIRST so we can identify the gaps in our documentation (this being one of them).

One thing I would like to point out that Formatting the cRIO shouldn't be a scary thing to do. Its more robust than you think.

[rsisk]

Sure thing, I'll repost the relevant stuff from this thread over at NI.

What makes reformatting the cRIO scary was the stories I have heard about how carefully the benchtest procedures have to be followed or you could brick your system. We were way off the beaten path, and it was our first time with the cRIO, so we had no idea if we were going to be able to load software onto the cRIO after a format in safe mode. Then the format ran for 20 minutes without any type of feedback whether it was making progress or not. We finally had to close the "formatting" message box without having any idea if it was still working or complete. Fortunately there were no ill effects from doing that.

I know it is tough to document everything or cover every use case. Some improvements that would have helped:

A progress bar on the formatting process to let us know how far it has progressed.

Perhaps the message box that pops up when the format in safe mode is kicked off could give an idea of how to proceed once the format is complete, i.e., point to the documentation on how to reload software. I had no idea if the cRIO was going to be wiped to the point I would not be able to load any of the base software.

Why is the Ethernet device search on the NI-Serial menu? I just happened to stumble across it while trying to figure out what to do.

It would be nice to be able to cut and paste from the error messages, especially when there is a long list of VIs in them.

[TDohse]

Originally Posted by rsisk

After the IP Reset, the documentation says the IP address is reset to the factory default. I assume this is 10.0.0.2?

Factory default is 0.0.0.0.

Originally Posted by rsisk

Hallelujah!
4. Run MAX (Measurement and Automation) to reset IP address (it is now 0.0.0.0) on the cRIO
Tools\NI-Serial\Ethernet Device Configuration
This should find the cRIO and show the MAC address
5. Click Properties and set the IP Address to 10.0.0.2 SubNet 255.0.0.0

These steps shouldn't be necessary. The same protocol is used by MAX and the imaging tool to find RT devices, so if MAX found it at 0.0.0.0 then the imaging tool should too. In fact, during the imaging process the cRIO will temporarily have a 0.0.0.0 IP.

Originally Posted by rsisk

Formatting the cRIO in Safe Mode (scary thing to do)

This shouldn't be that scary, notice the check box for format cRIO? It's doing the same thing.

I think all your problems could have been resolved using a partially-documented feature of the imaging tool. In the event you have a power/network failure in the middle of imaging and your controller is left in an unusable state, you should be able to toggle the "SAFE MODE" dipswitch on, reboot, and then from the imaging tool restore the device back to a functional factory default setting. You can then toggle "SAFE MODE" off, reboot, and run the imaging tool again to put the correct FRC_2009 image on the device. On Monday morning I'll double check that all works, then see if we can't get a last-minute addendum to the documentation (I definitely owe our tech writers donuts).

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by rsisk

What makes reformatting the cRIO scary was the stories I have heard about how carefully the benchtest procedures have to be followed or you could brick your system.

Try not to get too worried about what you've "heard". Pay attention to things you've read or experienced yourself, and verify anything else before you take it too seriously. You'll eventually learn which sources of second-hand information you can trust, but until that time, it might be a good idea to treat everything you "hear" as unverified rumor.

In this specific case, you've misunderstood two things. First, the "brick" problem relates to the Driver Station, not the cRIO. Second, the procedure that must be followed carefully to avoid bricking it is the DS firmware update, which is not supposed to be done until after the bench test has been performed. It is probably theoretically possible to misprogram the cRIO beyond easy recovery, but I think someone would have to do it intentionally.

[rsisk]

Ah, if I only knew then what I know now

I don't know if this already exists, but it sure would be nice to have a FAQ for when things go wrong, especially pointing to relevant documentation.

Also thanks for the clarification between the DS and the cRIO as far as bricking is concerned.

This has definitely been a good learning experience for the team and I hope others can benefit from it as well.

Thanks everyone for your help!