[nuttle]

Just in case people who are looking into the issue haven't already considered doing this, I think one thing I would certainly do is to set up 'tcpdump' to capture an entire match where the problem reproduces. In order to reproduce the problem, I'd consider using 'netem' to simulate an impaired network. What you really want to see happen at all times, but particularly under adverse conditions, is that each team gets an equal fraction of the available bandwidth, with the most important packets getting through and things like the video stream being throttled. It isn't too hard to make this sort of thing happen using TCP/IP. What you really don't want to happen is for any team to lose enough bandwidth that heartbeats get held off for long enough to cause problems.

We had very similar problems in 2010, when rookie teams had a different radio than veteran teams. This seemed to hit Red 2 especially hard, IIRC. I imagine the teams on Einstein all had this covered, but we have always tried to mount the radio in the open, high and not surrounded by metal, as well as put a glob of hot-melt glue so it is holding the power plug in place. If your team doesn't already do these things, they can only help.

Congrats to all, it was hard to watch things unfold as they did but it is a fantastic achievement to make it onto Einstein and no one should let what happened mar the pride in finishing in the top 12 teams in the world. The Chairman's Award was very well deserved and more than anything, FIRST really is a fantastic program that continually works to improve and everyone involved deserves to be recognized for inspiring everyone else and for demonstrating Gracious Professionalism under very intense circumstances.