Radio Problem on FRC

[TuaMater]

Our team just started having serious radio problems tonight. Basically, when we plug the radio into the FRC, no lights come on the radio itself, and it doesn't respond, and we get the corresponding red light on the mainboard of the FRC. When we tether the RC and OI together the code executes fine and life is happy. In addition, when we plug in the radio for the RC into the OI port, we get the Standby light on the RC radio. However, when we plug the OI radio into the FRC radio port, we get nothing again. This would leave me to believe that there's an issue with the Radio port on the RC, but I have no idea how to fix this short of getting a new RC. Any ideas from anyone here?

[CmptrGk]

are you plugging the one with the silver antenna into the rc, and the one with the short stubby one into the oi? the radio with the silver antenna is supposed to plug into the oi, and the short stubby black antenna radio into the rc.

[TuaMater]

Originally Posted by CmptrGk

are you plugging the one with the silver antenna into the rc, and the one with the short stubby one into the oi? the radio with the silver antenna is supposed to plug into the oi, and the short stubby black antenna radio into the rc.

Well the idea was to put them in backwards to attempt to isolate the problem. They weren't working when plugged into the correct ones, so by plugging the one that wasn't working (the RC radio) into the OI port, we would be able to see whether it was a problem with the radio or simply the RC radio port. Since the radio did power on and go to standby, I concluded that there was a problem with the RC radio port.

[Chriszuma]

Well based on the fact that the RC radio works in the OI but not the inverse, I would also conclude that something is wrong with your RC. If you had another set of electronics, you could make absolutely positive by testing another RC radio on the RC, but if you don't have access to another one (maybe another team nearby?) I would probably try to get FIRST to replace your RC.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Tua,
About 90% of the problems with RC modem connections come down to the cable. Remember that power is being supplied up the cable for a transmitter as well as serial control. Small guage wire in the cable, intermittant pins, and kinks can all lead to problems.