Thread: Einstein 2012
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Unread 29-04-2012, 20:44
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Re: Einstein 2012

I was there and after the second match on Einstein myself and the others I was with were not watching the robots during the match. We focused our attention on the driver station lights. Particularly at approximately a minute left it was inevitable that one or two would start flashing. My team dealt with connectivity issues in WI in 2010. We made it through F1 undefeated and then F2 and F3 comms dropped right after switching to teleop. Field personal told the students "Your comms were in a tizzy" As others have said I'm really hoping that because this finally happened on Einstein that FIRST will deal with the issues.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cgmv123 View Post
The FMS access point is a CISCO product. The Control System advisor that helped us with our one hangup said it was ~$10,000. I don't know the model number. I'm trying to find out, but I have nothing so far. It's about the size of the D-Link, but with 6 antennas sticking out the top.

Edit: the one place I thought the details would be doesn't have it. All the Field setup manual says is "Field Access Point" and "Cisco radio". It does have an image though. Still looking.
I'm going purely off the looks but the AP looks like a Cisco AIR-AP1252 with a wireless G and wireless N modules installed. We have these same access points were I work and they run about $900. My experience is they are a rock solid device.

In the little information I have found on the FMS (FTAA Training section of the FIRST site) there is also a Cisco router involved not sure of the model number there.

Multiple people have indicated that the FTA has told them to wait until the robot is on the field and there team number is displayed before powering on the robot. My guess is that each team is on there own SSID and VLAN. If the robot connects prior to the correct VLAN being configured on the fly then all the devices are not able to take part in the initial discovery phase and the ARP cache is then lacking key entries. I'm guessing/assuming the router is reconfigured in between each match automatically by the FMS. My theory is that the FMS configures the AP SSID first and then the routes on the router. If the robot connects to it's SSID but the route is not yet configured for it to speak to the driver station and possibly the FMS server then problems arise.

With all that being said I could see it taking a while for the robot to connect or for it to not connect at all. But I can not think of how the above scenario would cause it to die a minute or so into the match.

Any FTA's or FTAA's out there that care to weigh in on this?
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Is this a "programming error" or a "programmer error"?

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