2014 Simulator communication
 

First off, I'm new to FRC and robotics, but not Labview. I signed on as a programming mentor and I met with the team starting in October to learn and we played with the offseason simulator.

Since installing the 2014 software, I'm having some difficulty in getting the simulator to communicate. I've installed everything fresh, performed the updates. It is all licensed and running, but the driver station won't talk to the simulator like it did with last year's simulator or the offseason code. The driver station communication and robot indicators stay red.

I have tried a couple scenarios:

1. Start driver station (auto config wifi IP), start labview, start custom dashboard, start robot main - simulator comes up. No communication.

2. Start labview, start custom dashboard, start robot main, start driver station

3. Start labview, start robot main, start custom dashboard, start driver station

laptop IP : 10.32.6.9 (set from driver station)

The laptop IP is on the wifi network. All other network adapters are disabled. This configuration worked with the 2013 setup just before labview was reinstalled and the 2014 frc update installed.

Any insight on what to or where to look to find a solution would be appreciated. Thanks!

Re: 2014 Simulator communication
 

Welcome to FRC.

There are two simulation configurations that should both work. One is to run both the simulator and DS on the same computer. In this setup, once the simulator starts to run, it gives the DS the localhost IP address and tells it that is the robot to communicate with.

The second setup is to have the DS on one computer and the simulator on a second computer on on the subnet. In this case, I believe the simulator assumes the DS is at 10.te.am.05. It will send its own IP to the DS and the DS will locate the robot code running on the simulator computer.

Do either of these configs work for you? What are the IP address of the setup that doesn't work?

Greg McKaskle

Re: 2014 Simulator communication
 

Thanks for taking time to respond. The simulator runs on the same machine as the driver station, robot main vi, and dashboard. It lags a little, but it WAS working. I'm setting up a second machine to try the second scenario you mentioned, but I'd like to get this one working as it was before also.

One quick mention: I opened the offseason project from last year. It came up with the simulator first, then the dashboard, and then the driver station. The robot and communication indicators were green and the dashboard video from the robot simulator came up and then they went red and lost communication for some reason... almost like it was being blocked - like McAfee security? I'll look into that one. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

thanks!

Re: 2014 Simulator communication
 

The order that you launch things in shouldn't matter much. Most of the code is constantly reading and writing using UDP, so errors are pretty simple to deal with. Definitely check the firewall. You may also try launching LV as administrator.

Greg McKaskle

Re: 2014 Simulator communication
 

I was able to replicate both working (attachment 2) and non-working (see attachment 1) cases.

The Sim seems to be unhappy if the IP is changed after it starts.
I'll play with variations, but it behaves whether DHCP or 10.te.am.9 is used as long as it isn't changed

P.S.
The Sim is unhappy only if it is the DS that changes the IP, and here's the interesting part, even if the DS is started before the Sim, so it's really the DS that's unaccommodating.
I can change it by hand and the Sim will still work.
If the DS does change the IP, then just restarting the DS worked for me.

In my tests LV was started first and has been running the whole time. I just played with starting and stopping the Sim and DS. I also disabled all NICs except for the wireless to somewhat replicate your setup.

Re: 2014 Simulator communication
 

Thanks Mark! I found that I had to disable intrusion prevention to get it to work. The realization came as I was typing the last reply. With that disabled, it works fine. I have communication!!

Now on to the next issue. Thanks again!

Re: 2014 Simulator communication
 

That's a good reason :)

Re: 2014 Simulator communication
 

Doug tried to reproduce the order dependency and wasn't able to. Mark, do you have any additional info or any additional tests that you think would help reproduce this issue?

Greg McKaskle

Re: 2014 Simulator communication
 

Reproduced on two different model netbooks (HP & E12).

On the E12 Classmate
(new LV installation no previous LV installed, Win 7 - from 2013 image, did not reimage w/2014 image, no firewall, no additional 3rd party software)

1. Fresh boot
2. Start LV
3. Open existing default Arcade HW & Sim project (created for earlier build timing tests)
4. Set wireless to DHCP
5. Disable all other NICs
6. Start Sim
7. Start DS (previously set to auto configure wireless NIC)

No Comms

1. Stop DS
2. Restart DS

Get Comms established


P.S.

Interestingly.
If the NIC is DHCP, and I start the DS letting it change the NIC to 10.te.am.9, then no comms.
But leaving both Sim & DS non communicating, I can go in by hand and change the NIC back to DHCP and comms will be established.

If both SIM and DS are running I can go change the NIC IP by hand to DHCP (the DS disconnects of course), then let the DS reset the IP and it reestablishes Sim comms.

All tests are done leaving the Sim running. Just stopping/restarting the DS and changing the NIC by hand.

Re: 2014 Simulator communication
 

Hmm. Doug was doing this on a desktop. I wonder if this is being caused by having multiple NICs. The DS is using localhost IP address, or is doing a DNS lookup of this to get an IP, but perhaps it is getting the IP for the wrong NIC.

This helps. Thanks.

If others see issues, try disabling the wifi NIC.

Greg McKaskle

Re: 2014 Simulator communication
 

With the wireless NIC Disabled and only the Ethernet NIC Enabled, it does not happen.

P.S.
It also doesn't happen with additional Ethernet NICs installed, just the wireless.