Getting Started with Deterministic Distributed I/O Systems

Requirements

Hardware

LabVIEW Real-Time controller with two Ethernet ports

o NI cRIO-9074 integrated controller

o PXI system with an NI PXI-8231/8232 Ethernet interface card

NI 9144 slave chassis

C Series I/O modules

Ethernet cables

Software

LabVIEW version 8.6 or later

LabVIEW version 8.6 Real-Time Module or later

NI-RIO version 3.0

NI Industrial Communications Software for EtherCAT Setting Up

the Hardware

This guide uses a cRIO-9074 as a LabVIEW Real-Time controller. To set up this hardware system:

1. Insert the C Series I/O modules into the appropriate chassis (CompactRIO local chassis and/or NI 9144 chassis).

2. Connect the cRIO-9074 Ethernet port 2 to the NI 9144 Ethernet port 1 using a standard Category 5 or better Ethernet cable. In this way, you can daisy-chain multiple NI 9144 chassis starting from this controller.

Note: Port 1 of the cRIO-9074 is on the bottom, while Port 1 of the NI 9144 is on the top.

3. Attach an external power supply to each chassis to power the hardware.

Configuring the Host Controller

1. Once you have connected the hardware, install the required hardware on the host computer.

2. Using an Ethernet cable, connect the cRIO-9074 Ethernet port 1 to the same network as your host PC.

3. Launch the Measurement & Automation Explorer from Start >> Programs >> NI >> Measurement & Automation. Double-click Remote Systems on the left side of the Configuration pane to discover the cRIO-9074 on the network, and then click the CompactRIO controller.

4. Change the name of the controller and select Obtain an IP address from a DHCP server in the IP Settings field. When you are finished, click Restart. (To use a static IP address, see the related links below.)

5. To install software on the real-time controller, expand cRIO-9074 under Remote Systems. Right-click the Software item and select Add/Remove Software.

6. Install the recommended software set on the CompactRIO controller—NI-RIO Software with Scan Engine and NI Industrial Communications Software for EtherCAT.

7. After the controller has rebooted, discover the CompactRIO controller again under Remote Systems. Click Advanced Ethernet Settings in the lower-right corner.

8. Highlight the cRIO-9074 Ethernet port 2 (non-primary MAC address). Select EtherCAT from the drop-down box under Mode and click OK.

Note: When Ethernet port 2 of the controller is in EtherCAT mode, you cannot use the port for Ethernet.

Network Configuration in LabVIEW

1. Launch LabVIEW 8.6 or later from Start >> Programs >> NI >> LabVIEW XX >> LabVIEW. Click New Project.

2. Right-click Project and select New >> Targets and Devices.

3. In the Add Targets and Devices dialog window, select Existing Targets or Devices and expand the Real-Time CompactRIO class to automatically discover controllers on the host PC subnet. Select cRIO-9074 and click OK.

4. In the LabVIEW Project window, right-click cRIO-9074 and select New >> Targets and Devices.

5. In the Add Target Platform and Device dialog window, select an existing target platform or device and expand the EtherCAT Master class to automatically discover the EtherCAT ports on the controller.

6. Select an available EtherCAT master port and click OK. A dialog window will pop up to scan for slave devices. The first option will automatically discover any slave devices connected to the controller.

7. When all slave devices are found, you can create a VI on the CompactRIO controller. The LabVIEW project lists each slave device and its I/O modules and the physical I/O on each module (called I/O variables). Using these I/O variables, you can read and write these physical I/O in a LabVIEW program. To use these I/O variables, click on the I/O variables and drag and drop them from the LabVIEW project into the VI.