NI LabVIEW Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers 15.0 Readme

August 2015


Thank you for using NI LabVIEW Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers (the Instrument Design Libraries). This file contains important information about the instrument design libraries and is organized into the following sections:


New Features

Supported Hardware

System Requirements

Installed Software, Documentation, and Examples

Documentation

Accessing LabVIEW Sample Projects

Product Security and Critical Updates

Driver Version Naming Changes

Uninstalling/Modifying Instrument Design Libraries

Known Issues

Bug Fixes

Automating the Installation of NI Products

How to Use NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.x

NI Software Support for Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003

Legal Information

New Features

NI LabVIEW Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers 15.0 adds support for LabVIEW 2015.


NI PXIe-5644R/5645R/5646R Instrument Design Libraries 14.0 adds support for LabVIEW 2014.


NI PXIe-5644R/5645R/5646R Instrument Design Libraries 13.5 adds support for the NI PXIe-5646R RF vector signal transceiver.


NI PXIe-5644R/5645R Instrument Design Libraries 13.0 adds support for LabVIEW 2013.


Supported Hardware

The instrument design libraries support the NI PXIe-5644R, NI PXIe-5645R, and NI PXIe-5646R RF vector signal transceivers (VSTs).


System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems

The instrument design libraries support the following operating systems:


  • Windows 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit) *
  • Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit) *
  • Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows XP Service Pack 3 (32-bit)

* For VST devices, LabVIEW FPGA compilation tools cannot be executed on a machine running Windows 8.1 or Windows 8. Refer to Cannot Compile FPGA VIs on a Windows 8 Computer for more information.


NI recommends that you have the most recent service pack for your operating system installed.


Note  You must have a 64-bit OS to compile LabVIEW FPGA code.


Supported Real-Time Operating Environments

The instrument design libraries support the LabVIEW 2015 Real-Time Module real-time operating environment.


Minimum System Requirements

  • Processor—Pentium 4 or equivalent
  • RAM—2 GB
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later
  • A screen resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels
  • Windows 8.1/8/7/Vista/XP SP3, with all available critical updates and service packs

Note  You must have a 64-bit OS to compile LabVIEW FPGA code.


Recommended System

  • Processor—Intel i7 or equivalent
  • RAM—6 GB
  • Windows 7 (64-bit), with all available critical updates and service packs

Tip  NI recommends that you have 8 GB or more of system memory for compiling LabVIEW FPGA code.


Application Development Environments (ADEs)

Note  You should install ADEs, such as NI LabVIEW, before installing the instrument design libraries. To add support for ADEs installed after installing the instrument design libraries, modify your instrument design libraries installation or launch the instrument design libraries installer again.


  • LabVIEW 2015 (32-bit only)
    Note  LabVIEW 2015 (32-bit) is the only supported version of LabVIEW for NI LabVIEW 2015 Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers 15.0.
  • (Optional) LabVIEW 2015 FPGA Module
  • (Optional) LabVIEW 2015 Real-Time Module

Installed Software, Documentation, and Examples

File Locations

Windows 8.1 (32-bit)/8 (32-bit)/7 (32-bit)/Vista (32-bit)/XP


Item Installed Location
Instrument design libraries \Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2015\instr.lib\RF-RIO\
Self-calibration executable \Program Files\National Instruments\NI VST\Self Calibration\
Calibration support for LabVIEW \Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2015\instr.lib\niVST\Calibration\

Windows 8.1 (64-bit)/8 (64-bit)/7 (64-bit)/Vista (64-bit)


Item Installed Location
Instrument design libraries \Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2015\instr.lib\RF-RIO\
Self-calibration executable \Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\NI VST\Self Calibration\
Calibration support for LabVIEW \Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2015\instr.lib\niVST\Calibration\

Additional Calibration File Locations

Note  $(NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP) is configured as an environment variable on the target system. The variable evaluates by default to \Program Files\National Instruments\shared\ExternalCompilerSupport\C on a 32-bit system.


Item Installed Location on Windows 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit)/8 (32-bit and 64-bit)/
7 (32-bit and 64-bit)/Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)/XP
Calibration header files <$(NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP)>\include
Calibration import libraries <$(NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP)>\lib32\msvc

Documentation

Documentation for the instrument design libraries is located at Start»All Programs»National Instruments»Vector Signal Transceivers»LabVIEW. The documentation set is composed of the following documents.


Document Format Description
NI RF Vector Signal Transceivers Help HTML/Windows Help Contains primary help content for NI RF VSTs. The help is an HTML version of a traditional user manual that includes the following information:
  • An introduction to NI RF VSTs
  • Hardware device overviews
  • How to get started with application development
  • Programming overviews
Getting Started Guide for your device Printed and PDF Contains instructions for installing software and hardware, making first measurements, and troubleshooting information.
Specifications for your device PDF Lists technical specifications for your device.
Calibration Procedures for your device PDF Contains calibration instructions for your device.
NI RF Vector Signal Transceivers Readme HTML (this document) Contains information about supported hardware and operating systems, new features, fixed issues, and legal notices.

For the most recent revisions of documentation and for newly released documentation, visit ni.com/manuals.


Note  To view PDFs, you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. You can install the viewer from www.adobe.com/acrobat.


Examples

Accessing LabVIEW Sample Projects

To access the LabVIEW sample projects and templates from the New Project dialog box, select Sample Projects in the left pane and navigate to the project that best matches your application requirements.


Product Security and Critical Updates

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


Driver Version Naming Changes

NI LabVIEW Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers versions are now aligned with the versions of major NI application software products. This alignment gives you information about the year the driver was released and the most recent software version the driver was designed to work with. Driver versions now start with a two-digit year indicator: <ProductName><Year-BasedVersion>. For example, NI LabVIEW 2015 Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers 15.0 is the version released with LabVIEW 2015. The last version released under the old numbering scheme is NI PXIe-5644R/5645R Instrument Design Libraries 2012.1. The first version released under the new numbering scheme is NI PXIe-5644R/5645R Instrument Design Libraries 13.0.


Uninstalling/Modifying Instrument Design Libraries

Perform the following procedure to uninstall the instrument design libraries:


For Windows XP, complete the following steps:


  1. Launch the Control Panel by selecting Start»Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
  3. Select National Instruments Software.
  4. Click Change/Remove.
  5. Select NI LabVIEW Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers 15.0 from the dialog box that appears.
  6. Click Remove to uninstall the product; click Modify to change the components that are installed.

For Windows 7/Vista, complete the following steps:


  1. Launch the Control Panel by selecting Start»Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Programs and Features.
  3. Select National Instruments Software.
  4. Click the Uninstall/Change button.
  5. Select NI LabVIEW Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers 15.0 from the dialog box that appears.
  6. Click Remove to uninstall the product; click Modify to change the components that are installed.

For Windows 8.1/8, complete the following steps:


  1. Right-click on the Start screen.
  2. Select All apps, and launch the Control Panel.
  3. Select Programs»Programs and Features.
  4. Select National Instruments Software.
  5. Click the Uninstall button.
  6. Select NI LabVIEW Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers 15.0 from the dialog box that appears.
  7. Click Remove to uninstall the product; click Modify to change the components that are installed.

As part of the instrument design libraries installation, the following software is installed. To completely remove the instrument design libraries from your system, you must also remove all of the following packages:


  • NI PXI Platform Services 15.0.0
  • NI System Configuration Runtime 15.0.0
  • NI-RIO 15.0
  • NI-RIO 15.0 for LabVIEW Real-Time
  • NI Measurement & Automation Explorer 15.0

Caution  Several of the software packages listed above are shared with other NI software packages. If you attempt to remove a piece of software that something else is dependent on, a message launches to warn you about the software dependencies. You can choose to either uninstall all of the software or to leave the shared software installed. If you choose to uninstall the shared software, some of your other NI software may no longer function correctly.


Note  Do not attempt to uninstall by manually deleting files.


Known Issues

You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Refer to the NI LabVIEW 2015 Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers 15.0 Known Issues at ni.com for an up-to-date list of known issues in the instrument design libraries.


Bug Fixes

There are no changes in NI LabVIEW Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers 15.0 from NI PXIe-5644R/5645R/5646R Instrument Design Libraries 14.0 other than the new features previously listed.


The following items are changes in NI PXIe-5644R/5645R/5646R Instrument Design Libraries 14.0 from NI PXIe-5644R/5645R/5646R Instrument Design Libraries 13.5.


ID Fixed Issue
467086 Fixed an issue in which the fractional decimator spurious-free dynamic range specification is out of specification at certain output sample rates.
461909 Fixed an issue in which the output valid and output calculated Boolean indicators in the Fractional Decimator VI have inconsistent timing between assertions.

The following items are changes in NI PXIe-5644R/5645R/5646R Instrument Design Libraries 13.5 from NI PXIe-5644R/5645R Instrument Design Libraries 13.0.


ID Fixed Issue
438745 Fixed an issue in which LabVIEW crashes when the niRFSA Initialize VI or the niRFSA_init function is called with an invalid RIO alias name.
437169 Fixed an issue in which the VST Streaming Sample Project provides poor streaming throughput.
417655 Fixed an issue in which interacting with a VST resource control causes the program to pause for several seconds.
431606 Fixed an issue in which the fixed point representation of the data overflowed on the FPGA while configuring the IQ Out Digital Correction.
366548 Fixed an issue in which the amplitude settling parameters are not present in the niRFRIO RF In Create Settling Settings VI and the niRFRIO RF Out Create Settling Settings VI.
404057 Fixed an issue in which you cannot create a new VST Streaming sample project with a filename prefix.
401346 Fixed an issue in which fetch requests can start past the end of a completed record.
395781 Fixed an issue in which you cannot rewrite a waveform.
387196 Fixed an issue in which NI PXIe-5644R and NI PXIe-5645R devices do not appear in the resource controls when using NI-RFSA or NI-RFSG.
356334 Fixed an issue in which not closing an external calibration session causes the device to lock.
365006 Fixed an issue in which uninstalling the NI PXIe-5644R/5645R/5646R Instrument Design Libraries does not remove files from <Program Files>\National Instruments\RT Images\NI VST\.
385412 Fixed an issue in which PXI backplane triggers are invalid digital Start Triggers in the Simple VSA/VSG Sample Project.
420800 Fixed an issue in which the documentation for NI PXIe-5644R/5645R/5646R devices is not installed in document specific sub-folders at <Program Files>\National Instruments\NI VST\documentation\.
385746 Fixed an issue in which the Help button in the VST Self Calibrate application opens an invalid webpage.
386784 Fixed an issue in which fetching a record not configured in the Simple VSA/VSG sample project is allowed.

The following items are changes in NI PXIe-5644R/5645R Instrument Design Libraries 2012.1 from LabVIEW 2012 Support for NI PXIe-5644R.


ID Fixed Issue
386326 Fixed an issue in which calling Configure Clocks more than once could cause the DAC outputs of the VST to load in unexpected phases.
372623 Fixed an issue in which the DIO can fail to enable if a Boolean TRUE is wired to an Output Enable line.
372033 Fixed an issue in which the NI RF Vector Signal Transceivers Readme version 1.0.0 does not state that local compilations require a 64-bit operating system.
365866 Fixed an issue in which the NI PXIe-5644R Specifications includes an incorrect footnote in the Absolute Amplitude Accuracy table.
365671 Fixed an issue in which the Open Session VI from the ECB instrument design library does not clear the ECB port memory when the clear memory parameter is set to TRUE.

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. However, starting with the August 2012 releases (products using NI Installers version 3.1 or later), you may need to perform additional steps before or during a silent installation of NI software.


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:


How to Use NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.x

When you install National Instruments software on Microsoft Windows 8.x, 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.


Using NI Launcher

NI Launcher helps you find and launch installed NI products. It provides you with a method of finding NI products similar to the Start menu in previous versions of Microsoft Windows. To use NI Launcher, click the NI Launcher tile in the Apps view. NI Launcher launches the desktop and opens a menu containing a list of NI products. Click any NI product to launch it.


Note  NI MAX does not appear as a desktop shortcut when installed on Microsoft Windows 8.x. You can launch NI MAX either from the Apps view or from within NI Launcher.

Pinning Frequently Used Applications

For convenience, you can pin your most-used NI applications, such as MAX, to either the Start screen or the Taskbar on the desktop, as necessary.


Current ApplicationIcon LocationPin to Action
Windows 8.x DesktopDesktop TaskbarRight-click application and select Pin to Taskbar
Windows 8.x Desktop Start screenRight-click application and select Pin to Start
Windows 8.x Start screenDesktop TaskbarRight-click application and select Pin to taskbar from the menu bar on the bottom of the screen

Finding All Programs

If you want to find a particular application or related files, such as documentation files, from the Start screen, you can access all installed files from the Apps view. To get to the Apps view, right-click anywhere on the Start screen and select All apps (Windows 8) or click the down arrow on the bottom left of the screen (Windows 8.1).


For more information about NI support for Windows 8.x, visit ni.com/windows8.


NI LabVIEW Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers Drops Support for Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 in 2016

NI LabVIEW Instrument Design Libraries for Vector Signal Transceivers will drop support for Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 as of July 1, 2016. Versions of instrument design libraries that ship after July 1, 2016 will not install or run on Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003. For detailed information about NI application software product life cycles, visit ni.com/info and enter one of the following Info Codes.


Product Info Code
NI LabVIEW lifecycle
NI LabWindows/CVI cvi_lifecycle
NI Measurement Studio mstudiolifecycle
NI TestStand tslcp
NI DIAdem ddlcp
NI SignalExpress selcp
NI VeriStand nivslifecycle

Legal Information

Copyright


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Under the copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an information retrieval system, or translating, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of National Instruments Corporation.


National Instruments respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. NI software is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Where NI software may be used to reproduce software or other materials belonging to others, you may use NI software only to reproduce materials that you may reproduce in accordance with the terms of any applicable license or other legal restriction.


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:


  • Notices are located in the <National Instruments>\_Legal Information and <National Instruments> directories.
  • EULAs are located in the <National Instruments>\Shared\MDF\Legal\license directory.
  • Review <National Instruments>\_Legal Information.txt for information on including legal information in installers built with NI products.

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.


Trademarks


Refer to the NI Trademarks and Logo Guidelines at ni.com/trademarks for information on National Instruments trademarks. Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.


Patents


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


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