Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

"J. Frederick Bartlett ([email protected])" <[email protected]> · Wed, 10 Dec 1997 15:15:34 -0600 (CST)

  This seems to be the month for GPIB problems. I am attempting to
install a National Instruments GPIB-1014 controller in an EPICS IOP
running on a Motorola MVME-162 processor and have set the ibDebug
variable in the drvGpib.c module to 1 to enable diagnostic
messages. Part way through the initialization of the driver (iocInit
phase) the controller apparently enters a state in which it no longer
responds to read or write transactions, over the VMEbus, to any of its
registers (see the Access Fault dump below). A reboot command to the
VxWorks shell does not clear the lock-up of the GPIB controller; only
the VMEbus SYSRESET* action (or a power-down/power-up cycle) seems to
do that.

  I had a few unsatisfying words with one of the tech-support people
at National Instruments who informed me that any condition in which
the controller is waiting for a response on the bus can cause this
behavior. Apparently the concept of time-out is too exotic and the
term robustness has not yet entered their vocabulary. I now understand
John Winans' marginal comment in the driver code about launching a
campaign against the use of National Instruments hardware.

  Before I launch into a detailed reading of the driver code in an
attempt to solve this problem, I thought that someone else in the
EPICS collaboration might have encountered a similar problem and found
a simple solution. I have included below the print-out from the IOP's
console in the hope that it will help to localize the problem.

						Fritz Bartlett
						Fermilab
-----Included text

VxWorks login: vxworks
Password: 

-> <~bartlett/epics/test/bin/mv162/st.gpib
# Example vxWorks startup file
#Following must be added for many board support packages
cd "/home/bartlett/epics/test/bin/mv162"
value = 0 = 0x0
ld < iocCore
value = 3196348 = 0x30c5bc
ld < seq
value = 3859152 = 0x3ae2d0 = seq_bss + 0x1c
ld < gpibSupport
value = 3429896 = 0x345608 = gpibSupport_bss + 0x2bc

dbLoadDatabase("../../dbd/gpib.dbd")
value = 0 = 0x0
dbLoadRecords("../../gpib/db/dbExample.db","user=bartlett")
value = 0 = 0x0
iocLogDisable=1
_iocLogDisable = 0x30523c: value = 1 = 0x1
iocInit
############################################################################
###  @(#)EPICS IOC CORE
###  @(#)Version R3.13.0.beta4 $Date: 1996/11/01 15:37:48 $
############################################################################
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): Gpib NI1014 driver initializing
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): short_base            0xFFFF0000
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): NIGPIB_SHORT_OFF        0x00005000
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): NIGPIB_NUM_LINKS        0x00000004
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): GPIB card found at address 0xFFFF5000
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): ibLinkInit(00318A18): entered, type 5, link 0, bug -1
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): Probing of address 0xFFFF5200 failed
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): Probing of address 0xFFFF5400 failed
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): Probing of address 0xFFFF5600 failed
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): ibLinkStart(00318A18): entered for linkType 5, link 0
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): niGpibIoctl(0, 4, -1, 00000000)
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): niGpibIoctl(0, 5, 1, 00000000)
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): writeIbCmd(00318A18, 00344B2C, 1)
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): niGpibCmd(0, 0x00344B2C, 1): command string ><
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): readIb(00318A18, 1, 0x003B5B10, 3)
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): 
Access Fault
Program Counter: 0x0033e686
Status Register: 0x3000
Access Address : 0xffff5115
Special Status : 0x00a5

  8510 _vxTaskEntry   +10 : writeIbCmd(00318A18, 003B5ABA, 4)
_shell (1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
 30e38 _shell         +138: 0x3b5eb8 (tShell): 30e56 ([1, 0, 0, 30c5c, 0])
 30fd8 _shell         +2d8: _execute (3b5de6)
 310c0 _execute       +70 : 30e56 (0)
 30fd8 niGpibCmd(0, 0x003B5ABA, 4): command string >_?A <
0x3b5eb8 (tShell): _shell         +2d8: _execute (3b5d22)
 310fc _execute       +ac : _yyparse ([0, 0, a, 3b5d22, niGpibRead(0, 0x003B5B10, 3, 5)
3b5de6])
 35366 _yyparse       +514: 33d30 (3a9ad4, 3a9af4)
 33e3c _yystart       +758: _iocInit (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
2d17f4 _iocInit       +13c: 2d1a10 ([&_yyval, &_iocInit, 3b5c12, 0, 5f696e69])
2d1a9c _iocInit       +3e4: _initGpib ([a, 3b5bd8, 3a9ad4, 2df407, &_drvGpib])
33d992 _initGpib      +496: 33eb4e (318a18)
33ebfa _niRdLong      +2e6: 33f0a8 (318a18, 1, 0, 5)
33f10e _niRdLong      +7fa: 33f5ac (318a18, 1, 3b5b10, 3, 5)
33f5c8 _srqPollInhibit+36c: _readIbEos ([318a18, 1, 3b5b10, 3, 5])
33f680 _readIbEos     +b2 : 33dfa6 (0, 3b5b10, 3, 5)
33dff6 _initGpib      +afa: 33e232 (0, 0, 3b5b10, 3, 5)
shell restarted.

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System