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Unread 28-01-2011, 23:43
Coach#3536 Coach#3536 is offline
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wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

Rookie coach needs help. The communication with the robot from the driverstation is inconsistent and in my opinion too dangerous to allow us to drop the robot off the jack stands. The communication on the driver station turns on and off in sparatic intervals. Causing the robot to respond witf a delay. Hard wire connection with cRio is flawless. What could be going wrong? I need to fix this so we can drive the chassis. any ideas??
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Unread 29-01-2011, 05:40
Greg McKaskle Greg McKaskle is offline
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

The two most likely causes are the DS and the code on the cRIO.

On the DS, verify that the CPU load is reasonable. Especially when the DS reawakens from sleep, there are tasks that can be run which cause the CPU load to be 100% for thirty seconds to perhaps a minute or two. For this reason, short sleeps are not a problem, but I'd recommend an end of day shutdown. It is also possible that multiple users are logged in and background apps are loading the CPU.

On the cRIO, you don't mention a language, but each of the environments has a way to determine the CPU usage on the cRIO. If you are using LabVIEW, go to the Tools menu>>Real Time Module>>System Manager. For the best CPU readings, flip to the VIs tab, disable the Track checkbox, flip back to the Resources tab, disable disk and enable CPU, then press the button to Start Monitoring. This will not tell you what is hogging the CPU, but will tell you if it is occurring.

There are other possibilities, but I'd check these first.

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Unread 29-01-2011, 07:52
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

Also, check that your battery is charged, that you have good solid connections on all supply wiring and everything is wired as per the "Robot Power Distribution Diagram".

It seems simple but, sometimes, this gets overlooked if you are concentrating on software.
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As easy as 355/113...
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Unread 29-01-2011, 08:35
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

Greg,

Im a Real rookie coach. When you say DS i have to go look that up. I will in a second, I am loading from a single laptop that has no other user access. All of the other applications are off. On the class mate no other software was available to the robot communication I believe.

You said,

On the cRIO, you don't mention a language, but each of the environments has a way to determine the CPU usage on the cRIO. If you are using LabVIEW, go to the Tools menu>>Real Time Module>>System Manager. For the best CPU readings, flip to the VIs tab, disable the Track checkbox, flip back to the Resources tab, disable disk and enable CPU, then press the button to Start Monitoring. This will not tell you what is hogging the CPU, but will tell you if it is occurring.

I am using lab view and have loaded code that was unchanced from the NI code. There are some errors when I run the code even with it being unchanged from NI. The thing that confuses me is when I wire direct to the robot the code errors don't impeed the robot fucntioning. When you say to go to LabView you mean to run it on the laptop the code is deployed from. Is this correct?

Last edited by Coach#3536 : 29-01-2011 at 08:37. Reason: new at this
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Unread 29-01-2011, 08:39
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

Are there other wireless networks in the area that could be conflicting/saturating the airwaves?
I have even known of locations that actively suppressed unregistered access points, although that's more likely in a University setting than a secondary school.

I assume you have the Classmate wirelessly connecting directly to the D-Link on the robot per the Rev A setup instructions?

P.S.
When you hardwire the Driver Station directly to the cRIO do you plug directly into the cRIO Port 1 or are you connecting to the D-Link (which is then hardwired into cRIO port1)?
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Last edited by Mark McLeod : 29-01-2011 at 08:46.
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Unread 29-01-2011, 08:47
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

Mark,

Thanks for the response.Yes I did follow the set up per revision A and went step by step as I know little to do things any other way. I even went so far as to repeat the steps several times to make sure I did not miss somethng.

Then I called for help and had help from a few local teams. They were a great help but I did a few things that I truely had no clue what I wad doing from their direction. So there is a bit of concern there.

There school has no wireless network. So that wasnt the issue there. I have one at home were the robot sits with me now and have turned it off. Local neighbors, well they just don't understand, refuse to turn thiers off for my testing purposes.

The network that I set up has limited connectivity. I assume that is because of the lack of internet, but as a rookie it is PURE speculation!
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Unread 29-01-2011, 08:52
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

To finish the P.S. Mark,

When I ran the robot wired it was directly into cRio in Comm1
When I deploy code it was through the d-link
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Unread 29-01-2011, 08:55
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

Your local friendly neighborhood networks shouldn't be a problem, so no need to disturb the peace.

Since everything works fine while it's hardwired I doubt it's a code or battery problem.

It could be a bad power connection to the D-Link robot radio.

Try hardwiring from the Driver Station to the D-Link, then the D-Link to cRIO port 1 to see if you still have communication troubles.
That will eliminate, or point to, wireless being the issue.
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Unread 29-01-2011, 09:10
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

Just wired in through the bridge. No issue or delays. So it appears that is good then. Kinda hoped it would have been that, I could fix a wire pretty easily. Any other ideas??
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Unread 29-01-2011, 09:18
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

i do get errors in the NI code though, there is a 44061 code at "Left and Right Motors" in the VI path: Robot Main.vi

FRC: The loop that contains RobotDrive us not running fast enough. This error can occur if the loopcontains too much code, or if one or more loop sare starving the robot drive loop.

Just to be clear this is the code directly from NI
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Unread 29-01-2011, 09:48
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

The code errors in the NI default are common. There are a couple of bugs in it that can be remedied.

There are two NI default frameworks, which one did you select when you created your project?
  • Robot Framework
  • Robot Framework with Game Code
And are you just enabling teleop mode from the Driver Station?

--------------------------

Now that we know it's just the wireless portion that's causing a problem you should probably take a look at the wireless setup on the two ends:
  • Driver Station side - is this just with the Classmate?
  • D-Link side - you'll need to browser to the D-Link and verify the wireless settings.
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Unread 29-01-2011, 09:56
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

I have to ask, are you using the power module supplied in your KOP to power the DLink from the regulated 12 volt radio output of the Power Distribution board? You cannot use a normal output of the PD for this purpose. Second question, is your Dlink buried inside the robot surrounded by metal, motors, Crio, wiring? The Dlink needs to be away from such devices so that they don't interfere with the radio communications.
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Unread 29-01-2011, 10:17
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I've been trying to find way to get the CPU usage on the cRIO. You said its possible with all languages, can you explain how this would be done with C++ or direct me to where I could find out.
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Unread 29-01-2011, 10:59
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

prior to the hijack.

I am deploying robot framework with game code
and going teleop from driverstation while testing

Wireless I think is the issue. How to do the checking is new to me. How and where is need.


As for Al's comments.

Cut the converter off of the d-link and wired it to the location specified in the wiring diagram.
Moved the d-link out of the frame yesterday an is on a desktop away from frame and motors
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Unread 29-01-2011, 11:23
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Re: wireless communication sparatic/dangerous

I'm going to disappear for a while. It's a three team day, so I'll be moving from place to place.

While it's running via wireless and getting the sporadic dropouts, describe what the D-Link lights are doing on the front.

One possible option is to switch from the 2.4Gz band to the 5GHz band.
You can see this referenced in the "How To..." document on page 7.
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