Setting up a second router for practicing

[GuyM142]

Is it possible to connect the driver station laptop to a router which then will communicate with the robot's router? (Similar to what's happening on the field)

How can I do it? (What should the settings and IP of the router be?)
Will it improve communication during practice? We sometime have brief disconnections when connecting through Wi-Fi only.

Thank you!

[Mark McLeod]

I don't imagine it will change your brief disconnects much.
That can be due to many factors, such as heavy wireless use in your area, conflicting channels, etc.

Set the robot DLink to Bridge Mode.
Give it your team number as the SSID.
You can set it to acquire an IP address through DHCP or hardcode an IP address (10.te.am.1/255.0.0.0)

On the extra router set it to serve DHCP addresses in the team number range, 10.te.am.20 and higher
Also give it your team number as the SSID.

On your Driver Station PC, either wire Ethernet between the PC and the extra router, or connect to the team number SSID.

[GuyM142]

I don't imagine it will change your brief disconnects much.
That can be due to many factors, such as heavy wireless use in your area, conflicting channels, etc.

Set the robot DLink to Bridge Mode.
Give it your team number as the SSID.
You can set it to acquire an IP address through DHCP or hardcode an IP address (10.te.am.1/255.0.0.0)

On the extra router set it to serve DHCP addresses in the team number range, 10.te.am.20 and higher
Also give it your team number as the SSID.

On your Driver Station PC, either wire Ethernet between the PC and the extra router, or connect to the team number SSID.
Is it possible to do with a password on the robot's router?

[wireties]

We had some problems like yours. We recommend you do three things (at least):

1: Download an app on your phone that will show you what wifi channels are being used in your school. Choose a channel that is not being used.

2: Make your wifi connection requires a password. That way you do not get local cell phones randomly connecting all the time.

3: Remember wifi is not magic. It breaks down quickly if it has to go through walls (lots of solid brick/block walls in schools that do not exist at home) or metal (make sure the radio in your robot is not blocked in any direction, 360 in the plane of the field and vertically).


Good luck!

[Mark McLeod]

Is it possible to do with a password on the robot's router?
Yes, just use the same encryption and passkey as on the extra router.
You can also enable hidden wireless on the extra router to reduce automatic connect tries from other devices.

[Jacob Abel]

You can run the robot/robots through a primary router by just bridging the radios to the primary routers. If you are using 2 roborios, you have to reconfigure the 2nd roborio to have a different domain name. The easiest way would be to change the team number on the 2nd roborio.
The upside of bridging like this is that all devices have access to the internet and you can push code without changing networks.

[GuyM142]

You can run the robot/robots through a primary router by just bridging the radios to the primary routers. If you are using 2 roborios, you have to reconfigure the 2nd roborio to have a different domain name. The easiest way would be to change the team number on the 2nd roborio.
The upside of bridging like this is that all devices have access to the internet and you can push code without changing networks.
I don't think I understand how bridging works. Does the router with the bridge mode connects always to the router with the same SSID?
If so how does it work with more than one router?

[Jacob Abel]

I don't think I understand how bridging works. Does the router with the bridge mode connects always to the router with the same SSID?
If so how does it work with more than one router?

Well if you bridge them to a separate router like say the router that is used to access the internet then you would connect to the primary router and have access to both robots.

Bridging essentially takes a router and then makes it the slave of another router allowing you to connect multiple routers over WiFi. This essentially just creates one big network.

[Greg McKaskle]

If your team has multiple roboRIOs, you need to give them either unique names or unique IP addresses. As mentioned, one thing you can do is use another team number, like one 10,000 higher. You can also use a web browser to go to the web page for the roboRIO and change its name. The DS supports suffixes such as -1 or -alpha of -practice. It will choose one based on team number, but if you click on the list, it will show all of them and you can pick from the list.

Greg McKaskle

[fovea1959]

If your team has multiple roboRIOs, you need to give them either unique names or unique IP addresses. As mentioned, one thing you can do is use another team number, like one 10,000 higher. You can also use a web browser to go to the web page for the roboRIO and change its name. The DS supports suffixes such as -1 or -alpha of -practice. It will choose one based on team number, but if you click on the list, it will show all of them and you can pick from the list.

Greg McKaskle

Where does one add the suffix in the DS?

[Greg McKaskle]

You need to use the Web Interface to modify the roboRIO name to have a suffix.

In the DS, on the setup page where you enter your team number, you can also click on the drop-down button. It should list all discoverable robots that contain your team number, including the ones with the suffix. If only one is found, I believe the DS will automatically select it. If more than one is available, you select it from the list. I believe that you can also just type the team number and suffix into the Team Number field.

Greg McKaskle

[FrankJ]

You need to use the Web Interface to modify the roboRIO name to have a suffix.

In the DS, on the setup page where you enter your team number, you can also click on the drop-down button. It should list all discoverable robots that contain your team number, including the ones with the suffix. If only one is found, I believe the DS will automatically select it. If more than one is available, you select it from the list. I believe that you can also just type the team number and suffix into the Team Number field.

Greg McKaskle

That is so cool. Slightly different question: If you just change the MDNS name on the roborio's webpage to a different team number would the DS recognize the robot as a different team? IE connecting to is by changing the team number in the DS?

[Greg McKaskle]

The thing that assigns the roboRIO to a team is the device name. It used to be in the IP address as well -- still can be if you want.

A laptop connects to a network independent of team number. The DS identifies the robot with a name that matches the configured team number. The definition of matching was kept loose to allow for practice bots and such.

Greg McKaskle