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NI-XNET 21.0 Readme

July 2021

This file contains installation instructions and compatibility information for NI-XNET.

You can find more release information on ni.com.

  • NI-XNET Release Notes: Known issues, bugs fixed since the last release, and other notes about this release
  • NI-XNET Manuals: New features, behavior changes, and other documentation

If you plan to use LabVIEW NXG, refer to LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations.


Overview

Supported Operating Systems

Application Software Support

Installation Instructions

Product Security and Critical Updates

New Features

Supported Hardware

Accessing the Help

Finding Examples

LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations

Automating the Installation of NI Products

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10

Unsupported Windows Operating Systems

NI Software Drops Support for Phar Lap ETS Real-Time Operating System in 2022

Legal Information


Overview

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

Supported Operating Systems

NI-XNET 21.0 supports the following operating systems:

  • Windows 10
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2016
  • NI Real-Time Phar Lap ETS

Note  Refer to Unsupported Windows Operating Systems for more information about support for Microsoft Windows OSes.

Note  NI-XNET 21.0 will not install or run on an unsupported OS. You cannot deploy or distribute applications that use NI-XNET 21.0 to an unsupported OS. Additionally, after installing NI-XNET 21.0, you cannot use any installers built on this computer with any version of LabVIEW, LabWindows™/CVI™, NI TestStand™, or Measurement Studio on an unsupported OS.

For more information about the changes to our OS support, visit https://www.ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.

Application Software Support

NI-XNET 21.0 supports the following application software versions, including service packs. If you are not using NI application software, refer to Microsoft Visual Studio Support.

Application SoftwareVersions Supported by NI-XNET
LabVIEW 2018 SP1, 2019 SP1, 2020 SP1, and 2021
LabVIEW Real-Time (RT) 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021
LabVIEW NXG5.0, 5.1
LabWindows™/CVI™2017 and later

Microsoft Visual Studio Support

If you are using the NI-XNET .NET Class Library, .NET Framework 4.0 (minimum) is required. The NI-XNET .NET Class Library can be used with Visual C# or Visual Basic .NET in any Visual Studio version that can target .NET Framework 4.0 or .NET Framework 4.5.

To use the .NET API, you must install the .NET class libraries or the .NET wrapper in addition to the NI device driver. For information about versions of the .NET Framework and the drivers each supports, as well as the download location of the installer files, refer to .NET Resources for NI Hardware and Software.

Installation Instructions

Download the NI-XNET installer from ni.com/downloads. NI software includes NI Package Manager to handle the installation. Refer to the NI Package Manager Manual for more information about installing, removing, and upgrading NI software using NI Package Manager.

Product Security and Critical Updates

Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. For information about critical updates from NI, refer to Available Critical and Security Updates for NI Software.

New Features

  • Added support for LabVIEW 2021.
  • Added support for LabVIEW NXG 5.1.
  • Added sleep/wake capability based on OPEN Alliance TC10 Sleep/Wake 2.0 specification. (This feature is currently supported only on the PXIe-8523 Automotive Ethernet module.)
  • Added new property, Interface:Ethernet:Output Stream Timescale, which enables an XNET Stream Session to output individual Ethernet frames at specified times.
  • Added new property, Session:Interface:Ethernet:Signal Quality, to indicate signal quality of an NI Automotive Ethernet interface.
  • Added support to create FlexRay timing sources for Linux RT.
  • Added support for PXIe-8623.
  • Replaced the NI-XNET Database Editor with new version (previously NI-XNET Database Editor Preview).

Supported Hardware

The following list details the hardware models supported in NI-XNET 21.0.

  • USB-8501 Low-Speed/Fault Tolerant USB CAN Interface Device
  • USB-8502 High-Speed/FD USB CAN Interface Device
  • USB-8506 USB LIN Interface Device
  • PCI-8511 Low‑Speed/Fault-Tolerant CAN Interface Device
  • PCI-8512 High‑Speed/FD CAN Interface Device
  • PCI-8513 Software‑Selectable/FD CAN Interface Device
  • PCI-8516 PCI LIN Interface Device
  • PCI-8517 FlexRay Interface Device
  • PCIe-8510 PCIe Vehicle Multi-Protocol Interface Device
  • PXI-8511 Low-Speed/Fault Tolerant PXI CAN Interface Module
  • PXI-8512 High-Speed, Flexible Data Rate PXI CAN Interface Module
  • PXI-8513 Software-Selectable PXI CAN Interface Module
  • PXI-8516 PXI LIN Interface Module
  • PXI-8517 PXI FlexRay Interface Module
  • PXIe-8510 PXI Vehicle Multiprotocol Interface Module
  • PXIe-8521 100BASE-T1 PXI Automotive Ethernet Interface Module
  • PXIe-8522 1000BASE-T1 PXI Automotive Ethernet Interface Module
  • PXIe-8523 100/1000BASE-T1 PXI Automotive Ethernet Interface Module
  • PXIe-8623 100BASE-TX/1000BASE-T PXI Automotive Ethernet Interface Module
  • TRC-8542 CAN HS/FD Transceiver Cable
  • TRC-8543 CAN HS/FD or LS/FT Transceiver Cable
  • TRC-8546 LIN Transceiver Cable

C Series modules:

  • NI 9860 C Series Vehicle Multiprotocol Interface Module
  • NI 9861 Low-Speed/Fault Tolerant C Series CAN Interface Module
  • NI 9862 High-Speed, Flexible Data Rate C Series CAN Interface Module
  • NI 9866 C Series LIN Interface Module

Supported platforms for XNET C Series modules:

  • CompactDAQ—NI-DAQmx 17.1 (or later) is required for:
    • USB Chassis: cDAQ-9171, cDAQ-9174, cDAQ-9178, and cDAQ-9179
    • Ethernet Chassis: cDAQ-9181, cDAQ-9184, and cDAQ-9188
    • Wireless Chassis: cDAQ-9191
    • cDAQ Controller: cDAQ-9138 (Windows only) and cDAQ-9139 (Windows only)
    • cDAQ Controller: cDAQ-9132 (Windows and RT) and cDAQ-9134 (Windows and RT)
    • cDAQ Controller: cDAQ-9133 (Windows and RT) and cDAQ-9135 (Windows and RT)
    • cDAQ Controller: cDAQ-9136 (Windows and RT) and cDAQ-9137 (Windows and RT)
    • Ethernet Chassis: cDAQ-9185 and cDAQ-9189
  • CompactRIO—CompactRIO 20.0 (or later) and LabVIEW 2017 (or later) are required for the following targets:
    • Integrated CompactRIO Real-Time Controller: cRIO-906x, and cRIO-903x
    • Single-Board RIO: sbRIO-9627, sbRIO-9607
    • CompactRIO Real-Time Controller: cRIO-9032, cRIO-9037
    • CompactRIO Real-Time Controller: cRIO-9035 (Sync), cRIO-9039 (Sync)
    • When using a cRIO-903x or cRIO-906x, a bit stream is not needed with NI 986x modules in the project
    • When using a cRIO-903x, cRIO-906x, or sbRIO-96x7, installation in the "Other" programming environment is not supported
    • CompactRIO Real-Time Controller: cRIO-9040, cRIO-9042, cRIO-9043, cRIO-9045, cRIO-9046, cRIO-9047, cRIO-9048, and cRIO-9049
    • When using a cRIO-904x, NI 986x modules will only be usable in Real-Time mode, and no bit stream is necessary
  • CompactRIO—CompactRIO 20.0 (or later) and LabVIEW 2018 (or later) are required for the following targets:
    • CompactRIO Real-Time Controller: cRIO-9053, cRIO-9054, cRIO-9056, and cRIO-9057
    • When using a cRIO-905x, NI 986x modules will only be usable in Real-Time mode, and no bit stream is necessary
  • CompactRIO—CompactRIO 20.0 (or later) and LabVIEW 2019 (or later) are required for the following targets:
    • Single-Board RIO: sbRIO-9603, sbRIO-9608, sbRIO-9609, sbRIO-9628, sbRIO-9629, sbRIO-9638
    • When using an sbRIO-9603, sbRIO-9608, sbRIO-9609, sbRIO-9628, sbRIO-9629, or sbRIO-9638, NI 986x modules will only be usable in Real-Time mode, and no bit stream is necessary

Note  NI-XNET software supports only NI Automotive Ethernet, 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.

Accessing the Help

Refer to NI-XNET Help, accessible from the Help menu in LabVIEW, for information about NI-XNET.

Finding Examples

Select Help»Find Examples from LabVIEW to launch the NI Example Finder.

You can find Automotive Ethernet, CAN, FlexRay, and LIN examples under Hardware Input and Output in the Example Finder.

LabVIEW examples for NI-XNET are located in the National Instruments\LabVIEW\examples\nixnet directory. You can modify an example VI to fit an application, or you can copy and paste from one or more examples into a VI that you create.

LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations

The following sections detail considerations for using LabVIEW NXG with NI-XNET 21.0.

LabVIEW NXG Operating Systems and System Requirements

Software support for LabVIEW NXG differs in the following ways:

  • System requirements—Only 64-bit (x64) processors are supported.
  • Operating system—Only 64-bit operating systems are supported. Refer to the Supported Operating Systems section for more information.

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.

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 4.6.2, 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 4.6.2 separately before you install NI software.

For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to Automating an Installer in the NI Package Manager manual.

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, refer to NI Product Compatibility for Microsoft Windows 10.

Unsupported Windows Operating Systems

NI-XNET no longer supports Windows Vista/XP/7/8.x, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012, or any 32-bit Windows operating system. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2021, may not install or execute correctly on these operating systems. For detailed information about NI operating system support, visit https://www.ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.

NI Software Drops Support for Phar Lap ETS Real-Time Operating System in 2022.

NI Software will drop support for Phar Lap ETS Real-Time Operating System starting in 2022. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2022, may not install or execute correctly on this operating system. For high-level information on the support roadmap for Phar Lap and its replacement, NI Linux Real-Time, visit ni.com/r/xf35k1. To find out what hardware is supported on PXI controllers running NI Linux Real-Time, visit ni.com/r/b7g5wi.


Legal Information

Copyright

© 2009–2021 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.

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.

NI 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.

IVI Foundation Copyright Notice

Content from the IVI specifications reproduced with permission from the IVI Foundation.

The IVI Foundation and its member companies make no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The IVI Foundation and its member companies shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

Trademarks

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

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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