Appendix B
Troubleshooting and Common Questions
©
National Instruments Corporation
B-3
NI-FBUS Hardware and Software User Manual
The NIFB process hangs, does not start up, or never shows that it is
running.
•
The Fieldbus network address is not unique. Remove the cable from
the board. Restart the NIFB process. If it runs successfully, there is
probably a Fieldbus network address conflict. You can try to change
the board address. In the Interface Configuration Utility, select the port
and click
Edit
. Ensure that the port does not have an address that
conflicts with another device on the bus. You also can set the interface
to a visitor address. In this case, the board will find and take an unused
address. If this corrects the problem, find and change the address of
one of the conflicting devices. Return the board to a fixed address.
•
Check for multiple copies of
nifb.dll
on the machine. If multiple
copies are found, NI-FBUS was incorrectly reinstalled. Uninstall
NI-FBUS, search for any remaining copies of
nifb.dll
, delete them,
then reinstall the software.
•
Check to see how many boards are showing up in the Interface
Configuration Utility. Ensure that this matches the number of boards
in the system. Also check that the number of ports match the physical
hardware (one port versus two port boards).
•
Link masters do not always work well together (if you have another
link master on the link). Try setting the board to be a basic device in
the Interface Configuration Utility.
If a board interface is configured as a basic device, another link master
device must be present on this link before the NI-FBUS process will
start up. For more about Basic and Link Master devices, refer to the
F
OUNDATION
TM
Fieldbus Overview
document.
1.
Select
Start»All Programs»National Instruments»NI-FBUS»
Utilities»Interface Configuration Utility
.
2.
In the Interface Configuration window, select the icon of the board
you want to change and click the
Edit
button. If you are adding a
board, click the
Add Interface Device
button.
Problems Using Manufacturer-Defined Features
NI-FBUS uses identifying information in the actual device to locate the
device description for the device. The identifying information includes
four resource block parameters:
MANUFAC_ID
,
DEV_TYPE
,
DEV_REV
, and
DD_REV
. If the identifying information is incorrect, NI-FBUS will not be
able to locate the device description for the device. When it has located the
device description, NI-FBUS matches the block types in the device
description with the actual blocks in the device by using the Item ID of the
block characteristics record.
