National Instruments VXI-1394

Appendix D Common Questions

Which NI-VXI utility program must I use to configure the VXI-1394?

Use MAX to configure the VXI-1394. MAX is in the National

Instruments program group folder.

How do I handle VME devices?

Although there is no way to automatically detect VME devices in a system,

you can add them easily through the Add Device Wizard in MAX.

Through this procedure, you can reserve resources for each of your VME

devices and configure MAX to show VME devices on the screen with all

your other devices.

Which NI-VXI utility program must I use to perform startup Resource

Manager operations?

Use the Resman program to perform startup Resource Manager operations

in Start»Programs»National Instruments»VXI. Resman uses the

settings configured in MAX. It initializes your VXI/VMEbus system and

makes the information it collects accessible through MAX.

You can also run Resource Manager operations from MAX. Through

MAX, you can also configure Resman to run automatically at startup.

What can I do to make sure that my system is up and running?

The fastest method for testing the system is to run Resman. This program

attempts to access memory in the upper A16 address space of each device

in the system. If Resman does not report any problems, the VXI-1394

communication system is operational.

To test individual devices, you can use the VIC or VISAIC program to

interactively issue NI-VXI functions or NI-VISA operations, respectively.

You can use viIn() and viOut() with the NI-VISA API (or VXIin() or

VXIinReg() and VXIout()or VXIoutReg() with the NI-VXI API) to

test register-based devices by programming their registers. If you have any

message-based devices, you can send and receive messages with the

viRead() and viWrite() operations in the NI-VISA API (or WSrd()

and WSwrt() functions in the NI-VXI API). Notice that VXIinReg() and

VXIoutReg() are for VXI devices only, but you can use VXIin() and

VXIout() for both VXI andVME.

Finally, if you are using LabVIEW or LabWindows/CVI and you have

instrument drivers for the devices in your chassis, you can use the

interactive features of these programs to quickly test the functionality

of the devices.