Wireless in pits

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by Michael Blake

I have no problem with this rule... excluding Wi-Fi routers from the pit areas because of possible affect on robots competing on the field... what I don't understand is the technical need for this... maybe someone here can help...

If too many Wi-Fi signals interfere with the FMS, shouldn't the Wi-Fi also be disabled on individual laptops (used to program robot in the pits) and smart-phones (in the pits and viewing stands)?

The Wi-FI signal on almost all laptops/smart phones turns on automatically, the way I understand it, and is broadcasting with no termination point until you select a router to send/receive with... but, even without a router to terminate to, the laptops and smart phones are sending a Wi-Fi signal out to the ether unless you disable the Wi-Fi hardware on-board...

Can someone more knowledgeable than me clear this up? THANKS! ;-)

I know at the FL regional, it was broadcast in the pits and in the stands that all wireless signals were required to be manually disabled. It took a little while, but eventually it was reduced from the 60+ down to 3 wireless ad hoc signals (probably people that had no idea their phones or laptops were configured like that).

Even though its a little more complicated than this, wireless modems were really not designed to deal with more than 11-15 different access points in an area (one per channel), or you begin to deal with connection reliability issues, low speeds, etc. Ideally, you shouldn't even set routers on consecutive channels, to reduce interference. As a result, most commercially available routers default to channels 1, 7, and 11. Keeping in mind a FTA would know better than me, the main issues I saw encountered were wireless connection issues due to signal interference and an inability to find the correct network, since the FIRST networks were dropping to the bottom of the list. They did try to override all the signals by attaching more powerful antennae to a pole directly pointing at the field, but it didn't solve many issues.