Radio Problem - Firmware?

[Tanner]

Hi all,

After we got home from Regionals we noticed we couldn't control the robot via radios anymore. It works fine when we connect the tether, but radios do nothing. Off of that we assume it must be a hardware problem of some sort. One theory is that since the receiver was upgraded at regionals that the transmitter needs upgrading? Of course thats just one theory. I haven't actually seen the problem yet.

Anyone know if that is possible?

Thanks
-Tanner

[Ryan Foley]

Out team is having similar issues. We can never get a radio link for more than 10-30 seconds, despite never having problems before the regional. I dont know if the transmitter needs upgrading, but I would guess that the problem has something to do with the radio firmware upgrade.

[Dave Flowerday]

Can either of you provide more information about the problem? Important information would be what the 3 LEDs on each radio look like, which channel you're using (and have you tried another channel?), what the "Radio Modem" light looks like on the RC, and what the "Search/Tx" and both "Valid Rx" lights look like on the OI.

[EHaskins]

Are you using an older version of the OI or RC?

Are all of the cables to/from the radios connected properly?

Is the team number synchronized between the OI and RC? I doubt this is the case because as soon as you tether the OI and RC their team numbers are synchronized.

Have you tried the radios since you tethered the robot? If you tethered the robot, but haven't tried the radios again it might work now that the team numbers are synced.

Like Dave said we need more info to help you.

[Bomberofdoom]

We had that in our robot before it was sent (boy, what a rake he did). From what FIRST reported, it was a problem with the new 2007 radios. Teams after the 3rd or 4th week recieved 2005 or older radios which worked fine.
Ask for those from other teams or FIRST.

[Adam Shapiro]

Originally Posted by Bomberofdoom

We had that in our robot before it was sent (boy, what a rake he did). From what FIRST reported, it was a problem with the new 2007 radios. Teams after the 3rd or 4th week recieved 2005 or older radios which worked fine.
Ask for those from other teams or FIRST.

I was under the impression that IFI did firmware updates on the radios to help fix the problem at competitions. Did they really approve the use of past radios? I would imagine that there would be quite a few issues with this, especially since the radio tree on the field was outfitted with 2007 radios. Are the new radios compatible at all with the old ones?

[Bomberofdoom]

I don't think so, they gave us the old robot controller radio in the competition. After the competition our mentor borrowed a 2005 RC radio and Operator radio and we didn't have anymore "lags".
Oh and in the competition they took our new robot controller radio...
So hang on, mabye it does work with old-new....we'll have to check sometime later.

[tseres]

make sure the OI is plugged into a power supply. it works by tether because the techer gives the OI power. with the radios though, you need a wall supply (it comes with it).