Unable to Detect NI-XNET Interfaces Using NI VeriStand and the Scan Engine and EtherCAT Custom Device

Issue Details

In my VeriStand project, I am using the Scan Engine Custom Device for C Series modules data acquisition. As the next step for my project, I tried enabling one CAN port so I configured the database and I configured the desired baud rate, but when I deploy the project I an error that says "Unable to discover XNET interface(s)"

Am I missing a required NI-XNET configuration?

Solution

Check the VeriStand System Definition File and confirm if there are specialty IO channels configured. If there is any specialty IO configured you may be hitting a known limitation of the Scan Engine and EtherCAT Custom Device.
You can find more details and three alternatives on this link to the reported issue on the Scan Engine and EtherCAT Custom Device GitHub page. With older versions of VeriStand you needed to add a blank bitfile to your VeriStand configuration to use the C series XNET Modules, the bitfile is no longer a requirement with newer VeriStand versions but the conflict with the driver remains.

Another alternative to the workarounds proposed on GitHub could be to evaluate if it is possible to move the Speciality IO to the FPGA using the FPGA Addon Custom Device.

If there is no specialty IO on your Scan Engine and EtherCAT Custom Device configuration, and you are still unable to discover the XNET port then you might want to troubleshoot the XNET port separately:

• Deploy a test System Definition File with just the XNET port configured.
• Use the XNET Bus Monitor to test the port and connectivity.
• Check the driver version and its compatibility with the OS and NI VeriStand.