[mandrews281]

We had comm issues at Palmetto and here's what happened.

1. Started out OK.
2. We turned on our camera software (image processing on the netbook DS). Ping times reported from the FMS tech were spiking at >1sec!!!!! (no data on CPU usage on netbook). The field techs down graded our radio firmware.
3. Tried again with the redone radio. Ping times still >1sec.
4. Turned off camera processing on netbook DS. Everything OK.
5. Setup a laptop to replace the netbook as the DS.
6. We turned on the camera processing with a notebook. Everything OK from both our and the field techs point of view. Notebook CPU < 35%.

Our experience is that many communication issues are probably tied to CPU usage on the netbook or cRIO. This was mentioned in one of the team updates.

On a related note, during eliminations, we started setting up the notebook at the driver station and connected to the FMS. Then we spotted that we only had 10min of battery life left and decided to do a quick swap to the netbook to avoid problems in the match. Sop we unplugged the joysticks, enhancedIO and network from notebook and plugged it into the netbook. DON'T EVER DO THIS !!! Once you connect to the FMS you should consider yourself committed to that DS computer. Our netbook didn't recognize the joysticks soon enough and we couldn't drive the robot during the match. Functions on the EnhancedIO worked (shooter). Nearly cost our alliance the quarter finals.