Something about the way joysticks are handled on the classmate is flakey. We were left dead in the water during two matches because our joysticks didn't work.
At the KC regional, the field tech instructed us to use the following procedure, and we never had the problem again:
- Enter the field with the robot turned off and the classmate logged off.
- Have the people who set the robot down watch the display above Your Team's DS, and have them signal the person at the DS to plug in and then log on when your team number shows up.
- Have the person at the DS signal the people at the robot to turn it on when the classmate displays the "FMS connected" message.
- Win your match!