Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Hey guys, my team has developed a way to actually get scouting done fairly quickly, but it requires an internet connect or Bluetooth. Basically a way to connect a laptop in the stands with the one in the pit. I know we are not allowed to use a router or anything like that, what suggestions would you have to actually connect these laptops together, that isn't using a hard wire?

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Sneakernet.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Yes, but this is not wireless and would need a person to carry a flash drive over right? Are there any wireless options? That are legal of course.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Unfortunately there are not. Due to rules.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

There are a lot of wireless options. None are legal.

Except maybe this one: IF, and ONLY IF, the venue has a wireless network active (and I mean the venue. Not the field. Not the teams. The venue.) that teams didn't arrange for, and teams are allowed to access it, then maybe there's a way to work around that. That being said, that's rather unlikely.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Flash drive? I was thinking floppy disks...

:ahh:


.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Team Storm Robotics 2729 has a nice solution using Android devices and QRC codes to transfer data. I believe they are working on this year's scouting app now.
I hope they see this and weigh in.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

We have fashioned a Raspberry PI with a Bluetooth USB dongle. It acts as a bluetooth router for our tablets. Attached is documentation.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

"Air cards" that use the cell phone network directly would be legal as far as I can tell. This is between the stands and the pit, not the stands and the drive crew. The drive crew is not allowed any powered communications devices, even flashlights.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

My app SuperScouter is available for both Android and iOS and can transfer data over QR codes. You can customize the data collection info that you want on the local server (which runs on Windows machines). If you're interested, let me know!

See the release thread here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=141002

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

This.

This is how 1678 does our scouting system, we have a cell phone internet hotspot thing that we hook our tablets up with(we used something a little different this year, I think we uploaded after each match). We upload to the cloud or something and have a phone app that pulls data from there.

I don't know that much about what I am talking about, read our white paper on scouting.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Here's the whitepaper with the specs. We use Bluetooth to collect data from our tablets, which is also legal. Our drive coach calls the system his "b*s* sniffer."

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/3156?

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.

-Andrew Tanenbaum

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Except that cell phone hot spots are not allowed. Rule T4, section 5.5.1.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Devin misspoke. We use Bluetooth for inter-tablet communication, not a wifi hotspot.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

I never said wifi hotspot, btw. Cell-phone-internet hotspot-thing, was my intended meaning. I should have worded it better

So, bluetooth works, you can do ethernet but the cords getting tangled can be an issue.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Still using paper over here.

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

We try to make sure to keep Devin away from our scouting system. He might try to fix it with a hammer... ::ouch::

Re: Scouting for FRC during competition?
 

Yep, our students have been working getting it on the Google Play store over this weekend. Here's a link to it in Google Play store and here's a link to the CD thread where we can receive feedback and discuss on it more. It does not use bluetooth or wifi at all, just QR codes between a user device (for scouters) and a master device (for the data compiler).