National Instruments VXI-1394 User Manual
Page 56
Appendix D
Common Questions
© National Instruments Corporation
D-3
VXI-1394 User Manual for Windows
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 and VME.
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.