Problem with cRIO Imaging Tool

[Doc Wu]

We're having a weird problem trying to get a new cRIO-FRC set up to practice programming on.

We received a brand-new cRIO controller and have it breadboarded to power it up. We've been trying to reimage it to be sure the latest code is on it but every time we run the FRC cRIO Imaging Tool it fails to find the cRIO and returns the "No Compact RIO devices found" error.

I've found a few similar problems posted online, but not this exact one. I am able to run the MAX program and change the IP address with that. I can ping the controller as well, so I don't believe there is a communications problem, yet the imaging software refuses to run. We have tried two different laptops as well.

Any ideas? How can I be sure I have the proper image in the cRIO without the imaging tool? Has anyone had this problem and solved it?

[DavidGitz]

Originally Posted by Doc Wu

We received a brand-new cRIO controller and have it breadboarded to power it up. ?

What do you mean by "breadboarded"? Is that just an expression?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by DavidGitz

What do you mean by "breadboarded"? Is that just an expression?

It means that it isn't actually on the robot, but in a temporary setup to verify operation.

[TDohse]

This sounds like a firewall issue most likely. MAX and the cRIO imaging tool find NI real-time devices in the same manner, so if MAX can find the target the imaging tool should as well.

What is your network setup? It should be a cross-over cable between your PC and the cRIO (a regular ethernet cable will work on most newer network cards). Settings on the PC should be static IP address 10.xx.yy.5, subnet mask 255.0.0.0 where xx.yy is your team number.

[Doc Wu]

Originally Posted by TDohse

This sounds like a firewall issue most likely. MAX and the cRIO imaging tool find NI real-time devices in the same manner, so if MAX can find the target the imaging tool should as well.

What is your network setup? It should be a cross-over cable between your PC and the cRIO (a regular ethernet cable will work on most newer network cards). Settings on the PC should be static IP address 10.xx.yy.5, subnet mask 255.0.0.0 where xx.yy is your team number.

Windows firewall has been turned off.

I am using a crossover cable.

Networking is not the issue because the MAX (NI Measurement & Automation eXplorer) tool works and communicates with the cRIO. I can also deploy projects from LabView.

And yes, breadboarding is just an expression. It means the pieces are literally mounted on a piece of plywood for testing.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Doc Wu

Networking is not the issue because the MAX (NI Measurement & Automation eXplorer) tool works and communicates with the cRIO. I can also deploy projects from LabView.

Please double-check your subnet mask. You will be able to communicate normally with a cRIO if it's set to a typical 255.255.255.0, but I have seen issues with the imaging tool if you don't make it 255.0.0.0 instead.

[TDohse]

Do you have a second network card in the machine? That can cause problems. If so, disable the other NIC and try again.

What operating system are you running from?

[Doc Wu]

Nope. The network mask is definitely 255.0.0.0. I deal with too much networking to miss that.

One laptop was running Vista. The other has XP. Both have two network interfaces, an ethernet port and a wireless 802.11b/g interface. I did turn off the wireless radio on the one laptop, although that doesn't eliminate the interface.

We haven't tried to use either of them with the cRIO over their internal wireless cards, so those shouldn't have any conflicting settings. Both were using DHCP and no fixed IP addresses.

In any event, the stars aligned and the computer Gods smiled down on me and today it worked on the laptop running XP. I have no idea why it all of a sudden worked, but the cRIO has been successfully re-imaged. It took several attempts but it was done.

Now we can start to try to figure out some of the things that eluded us last year with our programming and start teaching some of the students.