What's a good Access Point for FMS Lite?

[terbos]

I've been running two off-season events each year for the last 7 years. On the transition to the new (current) FMS in 2009, I built a network setup with all the pieces except for the expensive WTR610N access point. (The access point alone cost more than the rest of the pieces combined.)

At my events, I always managed to find a team with a WRT610N in their kit which I could borrow for the field. Over time, this has become increasingly difficult to do.

At my most recent event (SCRRF Fall Classic), I tried to purchase and use a DLink DIR-815, but it didn't work reliably. Robots would constantly connect and disconnect from the AP, making the game unplayable. Fortunately, one of the teams in attendance just happened to have a WRT610N with them so the day was saved.

Moving forward, I'd like to get a reliable AP in my FMS kit.

Questions for the group:
1) Is it possible to configure the DIR-815 to work reliably for an event? Maybe I just didn't have it set up correctly. (I was on 5GHz, wide, auto-channel)
2) Is there a recommendation for a replacement for the WRT610N? I tried to locate a refurb one for sale, but they're really not available any more. Is there another currently available AP that is known to work in a competition environment? There are plenty of APs for sale, but I don't want to choose randomly and get bit again like I did with the DLink.

Thanks,
Terry

[R.C.]

Terry we had the same issue at MTTD, we had a really nice router hooked up but teams would drop in and out. Luckily 971 had a spare WRT610N Router with them. Their router worked for the rest of practice matches, also worked for all of saturday (quals/elims).

They are still available here.

I can't recommend another router as many have failed for us. Maybe Greg from NI can?

-RC

[dcarr]

Terry, I know we've lent our WRT610N at Harvey Mudd in the past but obviously counting on teams to bring one isn't an ideal solution...although I do think we'll be at Harvey Mudd and the Fall Classic for the foreseeable future.

This also ends my wondering about the hiccups early on at the Fall Classic, while things seemed to run smoothly for the rest of the day. Thanks for donating so much of your time to make these events a success!

RC, if off-season events switch to full FMS in the future, will that negate this issue?

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by dcarr

RC, if off-season events switch to full FMS in the future, will that negate this issue?

This shouldn't be a problem in the future for California. The full FMS has its own router.

-RC

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by dcarr

Terry, I know we've lent our WRT610N at Harvey Mudd in the past but obviously counting on teams to bring one isn't an ideal solution...although I do think we'll be at Harvey Mudd and the Fall Classic for the foreseeable future.

This also ends my wondering about the hiccups early on at the Fall Classic, while things seemed to run smoothly for the rest of the day. Thanks for donating so much of your time to make these events a success!

RC, if off-season events switch to full FMS in the future, will that negate this issue?

Yes the router was a major part of the problems early on. It made the normal first-round issues much worse. After we switched routers and got everybody linked up things went much better. I can't recall the last time I saw Terry spend as much time sitting around as he did in the afternoon at the Fall Classic. This is a good thing. It means the robots were behaving themselves and hooking up nicely, without our help.

If we were to use the full FMS it would mitigate this issue, but CA is a big state and the normal place for West Coast FMS is about 400 miles away, and there is only one. So we still need a router for the pre-ship scrimmage. The Full FMS this past year also took a LOT of work to wire. We had already decided not to use it when we found out it was going to be unavailable because it was too much set-up time for a 1 day event.

[timytamy]

We used a E3000 for our off-season, being the direct replacement for the WRT610N it worked without a problem.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by timytamy

We used a E3000 for our off-season, being the direct replacement for the WRT610N it worked without a problem.

Same, we have 2x Linksys E3000 and they work quite well including outdoors where we practice.

[Jon Jack]

At Battle at the Border this year we used a Cisco AP541N-A-K9 Dual-Band Single Radio Wireless Access Point and had no field related connections issues at all. I know the cost is a little high, but this was hands down the best investment we've ever made for Battle at the Border.

[terbos]

Originally Posted by dcarr

Same, we have 2x Linksys E3000 and they work quite well including outdoors where we practice.

Thanks for the suggestions. I managed to find an E3000 refurb at NewEgg for a good price and ordered it. I think I should be in good shape.

The funny thing was I tried ordering it from Cisco first. They didn't have any new ones, but claimed to have refurbs in stock. 2 clicks into ordering one, they changed their mind and said they were all out. Bummer for them.

Thanks again,
Terry

[JesseK]

I don't know if IROC had an E3000 or a WRT610N. It rebooted itself twice in the middle of matches towards the end of the day. Hard to tell if it was due to robot packet dumps since it occurred two different sets of robots were on the field. Some teams did have difficulty connecting (like 1885), but eventually all did connect. Overall it was a smooth day.

[omgnocomms]

Originally Posted by terbos

Is it possible to configure the DIR-815 to work reliably for an event? Maybe I just didn't have it set up correctly. (I was on 5GHz, wide, auto-channel)

While I don't have any information about the DIR-815 being used in practice, [anecdotally] I have heard reports of using the DAP-1522 in AP mode [I know, a completely different question] being a complete failure. While the clients can connect, the routing/throughput is terrible.

Originally Posted by terbos

Is there a recommendation for a replacement for the WRT610N? I tried to locate a refurb one for sale, but they're really not available any more. Is there another currently available AP that is known to work in a competition environment? There are plenty of APs for sale, but I don't want to choose randomly and get bit again like I did with the DLink.

Anecdotally, I've heard of positive experiences at many off-season events using both the Linksys WRT610N as well as the Linksys E3000 (The WRT610N's replacement¹).

The only issue that I've heard with either of these (and this is likely an issue that you'd see with other devices as well) has to do with too many simultaneous connections. If you're using a gym for both your field and your pits, you may experience an issue where robots that are on in their pits connect, or attempt to make a connection, to your field router (as they're programmed to work on the field.) [Again, very anecdotally], at some number in the vicinity of 14-15 clients, the router can't accept any more connections, and robots turning-on on the field won't be able to connect. I wish I had more data or a resource to cite when describing this.