NI-XNET 18.5 Readme

November 2018

This file contains important information about NI-XNET, including installation instructions and known issues.

Overview

Supported Operating Systems

Application Software Support

Installation Instructions

Product Security and Critical Updates

New Features and Changes

Supported Hardware

Known Issues

Bug Fixes

Additional Programming Topics

Automating the Installation of NI Products

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1

LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations

Legal Information

Overview

NI-XNET is an NI instrument driver that features a common set of easy-to-use functions for reading and writing CAN, LIN, and FlexRay frames and signals in many different platforms including USB, PXI, PCI, NI CompactDAQ, and NI CompactRIO.

Supported Operating Systems

NI-XNET supports the following operating systems:

Note  Support for Windows 32-bit operating systems may require disabling physical address extension (PAE). To learn how this might affect your system and what actions you might need to take, visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code PAESupport.

1 NI software installs VC2015 Runtime and .NET 4.6.2. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 require Microsoft updates to support these items. Refer to Microsoft KB2919442 and KB2919355 for more information about how to install these updates.

2 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1, Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1, and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 require Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 for more information about how to install this security update.

The NI-XNET installer does not support Windows Server 2003/NT/Vista/XP/Me/2000/98/95 or the Windows Server non-R2 editions.

NI-XNET does not support guest accounts on Windows 7. You must log into an administrative or user account to use NI-XNET on these operating systems.

Application Software Support

The following table lists the application software versions supported by NI-XNET.

Application Software1 Versions Supported by NI-XNET 18.5
LabVIEW 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018
LabVIEW Real-Time (RT) 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018
LabVIEW NXG 3.0
LabWindows™/CVI™ 2012 and later
1 Application software support for LabVIEW NXG is not included with NI-XNET and must be downloaded separately via NI Package Manager. Refer to Installing NI-XNET for LabVIEW NXG for instructions.

Microsoft Visual Studio Support

NI-XNET supports the following Microsoft Visual Studio versions and associated programming languages.

Programming Languages Versions Supported by NI-XNET 18.5
Microsoft Visual C/C++ 6.0 and later

Installation Instructions

Refer to the following instructions to install NI-XNET from a DVD. To install NI-XNET for LabVIEW NXG, refer to Installing NI-XNET for LabVIEW NXG.

Before installing the NI-XNET software, log on as Administrator or as a user with Administrator privileges. The NI-XNET software setup program must have Administrator privileges because the program modifies the configuration registry of your system. Complete the following steps to install the NI-XNET software.

  1. Insert the NI-XNET software DVD into the DVD drive. If the installer does not launch automatically, navigate to the DVD using Windows Explorer and launch the autorun.exe file from your NI-XNET software DVD.
  2. Click Install.
  3. The installation wizard guides you through the necessary steps to install the NI-XNET software. You can go back and change values where appropriate by clicking the Back button. You can exit the setup where appropriate by clicking Cancel.
  4. When the installation is complete, click Finish.

Product Security and Critical Updates

Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from NI.

New Features and Changes

New NI-XNET 18.5 Features and Changes as Compared to NI-XNET 18.0

The NI-XNET 18.5 release adds the following features:

The NI-XNET 18.5 release changes the following:

New NI-XNET 18.0 Features and Changes as Compared to NI-XNET 17.5.1

The NI-XNET 18.0 release adds the following features:

The NI-XNET 18.0 release changes the following:

New NI-XNET 17.5.1 Features and Changes as Compared to NI-XNET 17.5

The NI-XNET 17.5.1 release changes the following:

New NI-XNET 17.5 Features and Changes as Compared to NI-XNET 17.0.1

The NI-XNET 17.5 release adds the following features:

New NI-XNET 17.0.1 Features and Changes as Compared to NI-XNET 17.0

The NI-XNET 17.0.1 release changes the following:

New NI-XNET 17.0 Features and Changes as Compared to NI-XNET 16.1

The NI-XNET 17.0 release adds the following features:

The NI-XNET 17.0 release changes the following:

New NI-XNET 16.1 Features and Changes as Compared to NI-XNET 16.0

The NI-XNET 16.1 release adds the following features:

The NI-XNET 16.1 release changes the following:

Supported Hardware

C Series modules:

Supported platforms for XNET C Series modules:

Note  The NI-XNET software supports only National Instruments CAN, FlexRay, and LIN hardware products. For information about software for CAN products from other vendors, refer to the documentation you received with those products.

Known Issues

Issue NumberSummary
672838 Inserting a USB-850x device can result in an unusable device with internal errors on PharLap. Workaround: Remove and reinsert the device or reboot the system.
687624 NI-XNET CAN FD sessions (non-BRS) require CAN FD Baudrate to be set.
696254 NI-XNET may incorrectly set the CAN I/O Mode for CAN FD clusters and frames imported from databases that comply with ARXML 4.2 or later.
697677 NI-XNET does not import the DBC BO_TX_BU property from DBC files and prevents a TX frame from being mapped to multiple transmit ECUs.
703292 The J1939 address claim procedure does not detect conflicts between two ECUs running on the same XNET interface.
704022 NI-XNET Read CAN Frames can return fewer than the requested number of J1939 frames without reporting an error as specified in the documentation.
705533 Frame Out Queued sessions do not retransmit cyclic J1939 frames with payloads greater than 8 bytes. These transmit one time when the session starts, then only when new data is written to the session.
705671 Switching a J1939 session to a different ECU Node Name does not use the address from the new ECU, even if that ECU has already claimed an address. The node address must be set after the node name to properly configure the session.
710192 The NI-XNET Database Editor does not allow you to create a signal with the same name as one previously deleted. Avoid this issue by saving the database and re-opening it after deleting the signal.
710389 NI-XNET Wait (Transmit Complete) may cause a stale FlexRay frame to retransmit if the transmit queue is already empty.

Bug Fixes

The following items are the IDs and titles of a subset of issues fixed in this release. This is not an exhaustive list of issues fixed. If you have a CAR ID, you can search this list to validate that the issue has been fixed.

Bug IDSummary
675253 When using the Port Configuration Utility, it is not possible to rename ports beyond 160.
684491 In LabVIEW NXG, some XNET modules appear outside their PXI chassis in System Designer.
684861 NI-XNET cannot send or receive J1939 PDU1 broadcasts.
684951 Unaddressed J1939 Input Queue and Signal sessions do not receive data unless a stream session is also open on the interface.
685825 J1939 FIBEX databases that contain ECU names are not imported correctly, and saving the database will result in overwriting the name with 0.
687144 Extremely long strings passed to the XNET Create Session VI can cause LabVIEW to crash.
687422 Default value for the nxPropSession_J1939ResponseTimeTrSD property adversely affects performance.
687562 Rev C (and later) PCI/PXI-8511 and -8512 devices might switch to Bus Off when attempting to transmit immediately following a reboot or Self-Test.
688639 Having multiple startup VIs that contain NI-XNET project sessions can cause a LabVIEW RT target to hang.
690135 J1939 Address Claim does not behave properly when set through the ECU property rather than the Node Name and Node Address properties.
691298 TRC-8453 fails to communicate on first use after switching from LS to HS mode.
695102 NI-XNET crashes when opening DBC files containing very large signals, if the range is represented as an integer.
696778 The NI-XNET Session Property Node may apply active frame properties to the wrong frame, when the name of one frame is the prefix of another frame in the database.
700188 NI-XNET cannot import CAN FD settings from FIBEX 4.1.2 databases.
704457 J1939 ECUs are not destroyed when the last session using the ECU is closed, preventing other ECUs on the network from claiming the node address.
705988 Modifying the list of displayed signals in the NI-XNET Bus Monitor may result in incorrectly displayed unit name.
708226 Closing the Register Values dialog window when modifying a custom baud in the NI-XNET Bus Monitor or NI-XNET Database Editor may make the application unresponsive.

Additional Programming Topics

NI-CAN Compatibility

If you intend to use the NI-CAN API with NI-XNET hardware, refer to the NI-XNET Compatibility for NI-CAN appendix in the NI-CAN Hardware and Software Manual.

Deployed databases on LabVIEW Real-Time targets

When upgrading the NI-XNET software on your LabVIEW Real-Time target, you need to re-deploy your database files to that target using a host computer that runs the same version of NI-XNET as the target.

Removing and inserting C Series modules on CompactRIO targets during device communication is not supported

Inserting a module into or removing a module from a cRIO chassis that is actively communicating with an NI 986x module can cause application failures and possibly device damage. This does not apply to controllers which support the NI-DAQmx programming method, such as the cRIO-904x family.

Automating the Installation of NI Products

You can automate the installation of most NI products using command-line arguments to suppress some or all of the installer user interface and dialog boxes.

If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.0, the .NET installer may run before any NI software installs and may require a reboot before the installation of NI software begins. To avoid a .NET reboot, install .NET 4.0 separately before you install NI software.

For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to the following KnowledgeBase articles:

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10

Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10.

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1

When you install NI software on Microsoft Windows 8.1, you will notice a few additional tiles in the Apps view, including shortcuts to NI application software products such as NI LabVIEW, Measurement & Automation Explorer (NI MAX), and NI Launcher. For more information about NI support for Windows 8.1, visit ni.com/windows8.

LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations

The following sections detail considerations for using NI-XNET with LabVIEW NXG.

LabVIEW NXG Operating Systems and System Requirements

Software support for LabVIEW NXG differs in the following ways:

Installing NI-XNET for LabVIEW NXG

LabVIEW NXG is installed using NI Package Manager. Complete the following steps to install NI-XNET for LabVIEW NXG.

  1. Visit ni.com/info and enter the info code NXGDownload to access the LabVIEW NXG download page.
  2. Click Download LabVIEW NXG.
  3. NI Package Manager installs, and then automatically opens a download window.
  4. Select LabVIEW NXG Suite, and click the green Install button.
  5. Select LabVIEW NXG and NI-XNET.
  6. Complete the installer instructions to download LabVIEW NXG and NI-XNET.

LabVIEW NXG Help

View context help in LabVIEW by pressing <Ctrl-H> and hovering over an object.

Search for items using the search bar in the upper right corner of the LabVIEW window. You can also view context help for the search results.

Additional documentation is available online at ni.com/manuals.

LabVIEW NXG Examples

Launch LabVIEW and click the Learning tab.

LabVIEW lessons are located in the Lessons tab, and LabVIEW Examples are located in the Examples tab. Follow the instructions in the lessons and examples.


Legal Information

Copyright

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End-User License Agreements and Third-Party Legal Notices

You can find end-user license agreements (EULAs) and third-party legal notices in the following locations after installation:

U.S. Government Restricted Rights

If you are an agency, department, or other entity of the United States Government ("Government"), the use, duplication, reproduction, release, modification, disclosure or transfer of the technical data included in this manual is governed by the Restricted Rights provisions under Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.227-14 for civilian agencies and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Section 252.227-7014 and 252.227-7015 for military agencies.

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Patents

For patents covering the NI products/technology, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your media, or the NI Patent Notice at ni.com/patents.

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