Quote:
Originally Posted by protoserge
The OpenMesh radios fixed many connections issues on the field. I hope the FRC-specific firmware can pass the FCC regulations. The radios are part of the reason there are no more "x-mas trees" with FMS. They also actually perform QoS versus the D-links and can enforce bandwidth caps.
If your robot repeatedly reset on the field, it may have been the power connection to the radio or a brownout condition. I watched several teams drop after an impact of some sort. A more resilient connector would be great.
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In the 4 events I FTA'd, I can't remember one instance where the power problem was the connector at the radio. Every instance that I quickly troubleshot at the end of a match was at either the VRM or the PDB if it was only the radio that cycled and not the whole robot. All I had to do was touch the wires at those points and the radio would cycle. Wiedmuller connections still seem to be a difficulty for many teams to master as many of the problems were too much/little stripped or whiskers shorting between contacts.
However, most robot power problems I witnessed were with 6 gauge wire connections at the Battery, Breaker, and/or PDB being loose and those didn't change from last year. If those are not tight (zero wiggling allowed), you will lose connection with impact or just acceleration.
Even though I could have done without the long bootup, I loved the connectivity vs the D-Link. I went from previously having to tell teams to reduce camera resolution/framerate to keep matches clean for everyone on the field to suggesting they ought to for their own happiness since they were only hurting themselves. I had one team in their first match have issues when they had Qty 3, simultaneous 640x480/30fps camera feeds going, and no other teams in that match were affected. It was very nice looking at the log on the FMS for that match with beautiful numbers for everyone else.