National Instruments VXI-1394 User Manual
Page 55
Appendix D
Common Questions
VXI-1394 User Manual for Windows
D-2
ni.com
I need more devices than can fit in one chassis. How can I expand my
VXI-1394 system?
You can add another VXI-1394 to the system, but the additional chassis will
not share the same VXI bus. The recommended strategy is to use a
VXI-MXI-2, which follows the VXI-6 specification for mainframe
extension. This extends full VXI functionality across multiple mainframes,
including a common device address space and interframe triggering,
interrupts, and bus mastering. Place a VXI-MXI-2 in the same frame as the
Slot 0 VXI-1394, and another VXI-MXI-2 in Slot 0 of the next mainframe.
You can then fill up this mainframe with additional devices.
How can I determine the serial number and hardware revision of the
VXI-1394 board?
Run MAX and right-click the name of the VXI-1394 board. Select
Hardware Configuration, and the dialog box for the VXI-1394 board is
displayed. The title bar includes the serial number and hardware revision of
the board.
What is Resman?
Resman is the name of the utility that performs the duties of a VXI
Resource Manager as discussed in the VXIbus specification. When you
set a National Instruments controller to Logical Address 0, you will at
some point need to run Resman to configure your VXI instruments.
If your controller uses a different (nonzero) logical address and is a
message-based device, you need to start Resman before running it on
the Logical Address 0 computer.
When do I need to run Resman?
Run Resman whenever you need to configure your VXI instruments. For
example, if you power-cycle your VXI chassis, your instruments will be
reset, and you will need to run Resman to configure them. You can get into
trouble if you run Resman when your devices are not in a reset state.
Therefore, if you have to run Resman after running it once, you should reset
all your VXI instruments.
You can perform resource manager operations from within MAX after you
install the VXI-1394 and cable it to your computer. With the VXI-1394,
you may need to run the Resman utility if you boot your computer before
turning on your VXI chassis or if you power-cycle your VXI chassis while
the external PC remains on. In these cases, the instruments would have been
reset without the computer rebooting. You will need to run the Resman
utility or configure your system in MAX to initialize your VXI system.