Field Issues
 

What are the week one field issues? Any communication problems?

Re: Field Issues
 

Team 20 has found that even though they say any laptop can be used legally, it needs to be set up very specifically to work.

Re: Field Issues
 

Many teams at the Alamo could not connect with the field system in early matches. Some of these issues were caused by the incorrect version of software on the Driver Station.

TEAMS can fix this by making sure they have the correct version of software on their Driver Station.

INSPECTORS can help resolve this by noting the correct version of software on their inspection list. It currently says to check for the correct version, but doesn't say how or what the version should be.

Re: Field Issues
 

Dan:

What specifically did you have problems with when using a non-Classmate lapop. Any specific advice for set-up for other teams doing the same?

Thanks!

-J-

Re: Field Issues
 

Related question:

Was the laptop(s) in question set up exactly according to this document?

Re: Field Issues
 

I can't speak for Dan, but one recurring gotcha I saw at Alamo is that the Driver account must be named "Driver", exactly. "Driver Station" won't work.

Re: Field Issues
 

In addition to checking your firmware version (10.10.22.0 = bad), make sure that your IP is set correctly. It should be 10.xx.yy.5 with a subnet mask 255.0.0.0, where xx is the first two numbers of your team number and yy is the last two numbers of your team number. So team 229 would be 10.2.29.5. Also check to make sure you only have one IP address assigned to your DS and that your wireless is disabled. Checking all these things on every driver station at FLR helped us resolve the problems the teams were having connecting to FMS.

All of these things can be checked by logging into the Developer account on your Classmate then running ncpa.cpl. From there, right click on the wireless connection and select Disable if that option is available then right click on the wired connection and select Properties. In the pop up that opens click on IPv4 then click the Properties button. The Properties window will display the current IP address which you can edit if necessary. Once your IP is correct, click the advanced button and delete any extra IPs.

It also helps if the venue doesn't have WiFi that interfears with the field as we learned after 10+ hours of trying to get

Re: Field Issues
 

I want to say for the record, that FIRST has been very upfront about making sure you have your non-classmates configured specifically for competition.

When you log onto your Driver Account, If the regular windows bar still show up on the Driver Station and Dashboard, then you have not configured it correctly.

Teams, if you have the opportunity, go ahead and download a copy of FMS 2009 Light on another computer. Plug your FMS computer and DS computer into your old Linksys Router (or any other router/swtich of choice). Make sure the router's IP is set to 10.0.0.4 Then run the FMS and DS in the Driver account. Set one of the team numbers to your team number in the FMS. Set your DS up as your normally would for competition. If all works you'll see your computer say FMS Locked, and the FMS will show your DS connected.

It would be a great idea for all teams to try this before arriving at events to help keep these problems from occurring.

Re: Field Issues
 

Radios:

• Radios mounted between/on-top-of/near the drive CIMs and/or buried deep in the robot metal lose communications when the robot starts to drive. Talk to the FTA before a match to ask him/her to watch the packet round trip time for your robot. Slow times (>20ms) probably mean the radio needs to be repositioned.
• Loose power connections to the radio. Even a momentary power drop from a robot sudden movement or collision loses field connection for at least a full minute.
• Radio power NOT coming from the special voltage dip protected Power Distribution Panel connection.
• When setting the WPA, plug in Ethernet before power.
• DLinks MUST be set to BRIDGE. Some tried AUTO, which eventually works, but only after the match is half over and the FTA had to bypass you to get the match started.

cRIO:

• Loose power connections. Tug gently on the power wires at both the cRIO and PD ends to see if they tug out.
• Image rev MUST be v28
• Sometimes, communications between the cRIO and DLink seemed to hold things up, but it's an easy fix and the FTAs handle that as second nature.

Driver Station:

• Wrong rev. Must be this year. Either 01.05.11.00 or 02.27.11.00 are fine. Older ones mean your robot will never link to the field.
• Check the cRIO rev here too. Image rev MUST be v28.
• Remain wary of misplaced joystick inputs. Check them by pushing a button and seeing them light up blue on the Driver Station Setup tab.
• Remain wary of the joysticks and Cypress appearing, BUT not getting enough power over USB to operate. Cypress should NOT share a USB port with anything else. The same is true for power hungry bells & whistles joysticks.

Field:

• The minibot tower's can give false positives when robots hit them hard in the endgame, so refs are scoring them by hand. FTAs are playing with the sensitivity.

General:

• Plugged in and charged batteries are always welcome.
• Powered up robots work well.
• Being in the correct player station works better.

I'll have to go through my notes to see what else.
The FTAs have their own more complete list of course. I was mostly in the pits and infrequently on the field watching a particular team with problems until the end.

Re: Field Issues
 

Mark, can you explain this entry in more detail?

Re: Field Issues
 

One of the more interesting problems we had was when the field unexpectedly reset. We set up for a re-match, and the match starts. Our robot arch wildly hitting almost every field element and crushing our manipulator against the field wall. A programming post-mortem found that because we chose to send values directly to our speed controllers, that was the last value they were set to. Our driver was holding up and right, and during autonomous, it continued to move only up and right, instead of setting back to zero.

Be prepared for unexpected events like that during qualifying matches. If a re-match is called, I would try to remember to reset your robot, or account for this in autonomous (setting all motors to zero before continuing with code.)

Or, you could have used watchdog...

Re: Field Issues
 

The 12V Robot radio connector on the end of the PDB uses a buck/boost converter to maintain 12V down to a very low battery input voltage (4 or 5V if I recall correctly).

Because of this protection (and because the rules require it), the 12V-5V converter for the robot radio should be plugged into this connector and not one of the generic 20A/30A Wago terminals.

Re: Field Issues
 

At Kettering, eventhough 1.05.11 was supposed to be fine, it was found only 2.27.11 worked with field.

all classmates had to be flashed to 2.27.11, there was one flashdrive with the firmware in the building and no open wifi to the internet.

There was many factors to the 3-4 hour delay we experienced on Friday, this was one of them.

Robot inspection was passed on Thursday with 1.05.11 firmware, shown to not work on Friday.

Re: Field Issues
 

What he means is: The 12 Volt WAGO output at the end of the PDB supplies the 12-5V converter, which then powers the radio.

At NJ we saw many teams powering the 5V converter from regular 12 V breakered connections, and several powering their radio from the 5V PDB output. All bad.

As for week 1 problems, as a spectator I can say there were FAR fewer problems than in recent memory. FIRST seems to have done their homework this year. :) Of course it helps to have Pete K as the FTA...

Re: Field Issues
 

That was happening over at the granite states regionals too. They had to redo some matches because the whole red alliance side was not working. Then at the begining of friday we go to our first match and it is not working and the told us it was because we had the wrong firmware on the drive station but no one ever told us it had to be switched and it was working fine on thursday.