Author Topic: PXIe instrument in a regular PC (Read 8906 times)

Marsupilami · « **Reply #25 on:** June 13, 2023, 06:33:18 am »

Update!

Mechanical integration tests.

The 3D printed pieces will be replaced when the final parts come in.
I had a surprisingly hard time trying to find the card guide rails.

PCB are in transit, expected on Thu. That's gonna be the moment of truth. Fingers crossed... exciting.

Gribo · « **Reply #26 on:** June 13, 2023, 01:10:16 pm »

In a future rev, You might want to break out the PXI trigger lines and 10MHz Reference to an internal connector.

Marsupilami · « **Reply #27 on:** June 13, 2023, 03:01:56 pm »

Quote from: Gribo on June 13, 2023, 01:10:16 pm

In a future rev, You might want to break out the PXI trigger lines and 10MHz Reference to an internal connector.

In case of the NI VST all of that is accessible on the front panel, but maybe there's other practical use of the floppy-drive-backplane

so I can add an extra connector or two to it.

zrq · « **Reply #28 on:** June 13, 2023, 04:22:42 pm »

Card guide rails may be salvaged from broken PXI chassis I guess.

Marsupilami · « **Reply #29 on:** June 13, 2023, 05:55:15 pm »

Quote from: zrq on June 13, 2023, 04:22:42 pm

Card guide rails may be salvaged from broken PXI chassis I guess.

Yeah, I was looking at that but I couldn't find any on eBay that were cheap enough. Also I can't be sure they'd fit.
I though they are standard but apparently only the card facing interface is.
I designed my cage with Schroff horizontal rails and the guides from Vector or Wakefield don't fit.

I think I found a bag of them on Amazon now though. ETA Friday.

Marsupilami · « **Reply #30 on:** June 16, 2023, 01:16:05 am »

Pickle Riiiiiiick!!!

I'm so happy that it shows up.

coromonadalix · « **Reply #31 on:** June 16, 2023, 07:46:21 pm »

noob question do i see the pcb connector simply pushed inside the holes, pressure contacts ??

now it's the quest for driver(s) loll

Kudos

Marsupilami · « **Reply #32 on:** June 16, 2023, 11:46:26 pm »

And we're up and running.
Still need a bit of mechanical work for cooling and aesthetics.

Marsupilami · « **Reply #33 on:** June 16, 2023, 11:50:17 pm »

Quote from: coromonadalix on June 16, 2023, 07:46:21 pm

noob question do i see the pcb connector simply pushed inside the holes, pressure contacts ??

now it's the quest for driver(s) loll

Kudos

I wanted to respond immediately, that naaah the driver is easy, but then I run into an issue with the RF generator side. The soft front panel application freezes mid startup. I had to install an older version. Interestingly no such issue with the analyzer part.

You're right about the connector, they are press-fit. It's major pain to install them without appropriate tooling. I went through 3 iteration of 3d printed backers and it was still finicky pressing them it with a vice. They are not coming out of there before the end of times.

zrq · « **Reply #34 on:** June 17, 2023, 10:40:27 am »

Congratulations. I hope the cooling will not be an issue as I read on NI knowledge base articles recommending setting the fan of PXIe chassis to high to avoid FPGA overheating.
I'm so tempted to get a 5645 or 5644 from ebay and make a similar adapter board.

Marsupilami · « **Reply #35 on:** June 17, 2023, 02:03:39 pm »

Quote from: zrq on June 17, 2023, 10:40:27 am

Congratulations. I hope the cooling will not be an issue as I read on NI knowledge base articles recommending setting the fan of PXIe chassis to high to avoid FPGA overheating.
I'm so tempted to get a 5645 or 5644 from ebay and make a similar adapter board.

Thanks.
Yes, I'm a bit worried about the cooling. I will have 2x 50x10mm fans on the intake below and 2x pulling on the other side. I will set it up and monitor the device temperature. If this is not enough then some creative solutions will be needed.

I haven't decided yet, but I might make the board design open source and/or maybe try to sell it in various build stages.
Either way if you decide to build your own and have questions about the specifics of mine feel free to ask!

Marsupilami · « **Reply #36 on:** June 18, 2023, 05:35:00 am »

I am not proud of the Dremel carnage I did on the PC case, but at least I got the fan mounting brackets and those are nice.

oilburner · « **Reply #37 on:** June 20, 2023, 02:00:25 am »

I like those rivet/nut things, nice!

g

Marsupilami · « **Reply #38 on:** June 20, 2023, 03:21:41 am »

Quote from: oilburner on June 20, 2023, 02:00:25 am

I like those rivet/nut things, nice!

My second favorite thing after heat-set inserts

https://a.co/d/89Cz6SI
https://a.co/d/8vGicUl

Marsupilami · « **Reply #39 on:** June 27, 2023, 03:30:17 am »

TADA!

I'm pretty happy with this, but I'm already waiting for parts for Rev B.
The modifications to the PC case are not nice nor easy so I decided to ditch the double 5.25" bay compatibility and get a PC case that will house the instrument cage vertically with one big fan below, venting through the top of the case. It will be more silent and mechanically robust.
Until then check this out:

Marsupilami · « **Reply #40 on:** October 01, 2023, 06:10:58 pm »

For anyone that might care this is as done as probably it ever will be.
PCB files and info on hackaday.

jhov · « **Reply #41 on:** October 11, 2023, 04:44:42 pm »

This is an awesome project. Your end result is very clean. How flexible is the software for signal generation? Is it useful out of the box or is it just a basic demo and the user is expected to develop their own applications?

coromonadalix · « **Reply #42 on:** October 12, 2023, 05:24:37 pm »

just saw on ebay that you have dual / quad sff-8643 connectors pcie adaptors,

maybe it need a new backplane pcb to fit theses, if you expand it in the future ...

zrq · « **Reply #43 on:** November 23, 2023, 08:43:04 pm »

Very cool, just pulled the trigger for mine 5644R, should arrive in my apartment for <$400. Thanks very much for posting the files, it will be a nice Christmas project for me.
However I noticed a problem in 20 minutes after paying, the semi-rigid link between CAL IN and CAL OUT was removed by some dumb guy.

Despite the seller claim it to be in “Excellent working conditions”. I'm going to replace it with the best SMA cable I can find, and hope the VST not that sensitive to this.

I also want to help hacking together the Gnuradio blocks, although not sure I'm competent enough in the hard core C/C++ part, but I can try.

zrq · « **Reply #44 on:** November 24, 2023, 12:10:56 am »

Order placed at JLCPCB (101 EUR for 10pcs). So if anyone in the Europe (I'm an expat) interested in a board, you may let me know and I can mail you one.

zrq · « **Reply #45 on:** November 26, 2023, 08:06:29 pm »

May you bother to discuss a bit more on the software side?
If I understand right, if the description ini files in C:\ProgramData\PXISA\Chassis are created correctly (and the pxiesys.ini and possibly also the ChassisDescriptionFilePath registry), the adapter board can get recognized as a chassis and the VST board get enumerated (if it's already enumerated at UEFI booting and seen by Windows).
Or is it compulsory to write a stub DLL like NIPXIeSMu.dll to help enumeration and implement the SMBus operations?

Minki · « **Reply #46 on:** November 27, 2023, 11:30:26 am »

Quote from: Marsupilami on June 27, 2023, 03:30:17 am

TADA!

I'm pretty happy with this, but I'm already waiting for parts for Rev B.
The modifications to the PC case are not nice nor easy so I decided to ditch the double 5.25" bay compatibility and get a PC case that will house the instrument cage vertically with one big fan below, venting through the top of the case. It will be more silent and mechanically robust.
Until then check this out:

Hi Marsupilami
would you mind to share the case 3D print file...?
I want to print one...and does the main frame still need make by AL?

Thank


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Author Topic: PXIe instrument in a regular PC (Read 8906 times)

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