2012 Team Update 4

[linuxboy]

Originally Posted by TD912

The alternate "Bondé" radio is bigger, heavier, and has external antennas, compared to the more compact radio with internal antennas currently being used. I'm guessing the DIR-825 simply has better reception with the larger antennas than the compact DAP-1522.

I don't think anybody expected for a situation to arise where the current radio bugs out when there are over 60 APs in one place drowning out a single FIRST field AP. I'm imagining FIRST does test for some radio interference, but not extreme interference coming from over 60 WiFi APs at once.

I don't think there will be any major issues with the current radio, but it's good to see FIRST is thinking about these things.

The current radios will be set to only use Wireless N over the 5GHz band, which means there shouldn't be any interference from all the old APs on 2.4GHz.

The only way I can see this becoming an issue is if the venue recently upgraded their entire wifi network and installed tons of brand-new, high-end, 2.4/5Ghz dual-band, Wireless N APs relatively close together.

The Field Access Point has both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz antennas (3 of each), so I imagine that before going to Operation Bondé, FIRST would try switching the frequency, in case the venue has a lot of 5 Ghz APs (I obviously don't know, but I think that Operation Bondé would be avoided if at all possible). Does anyone know about a regional last year that had an issue with too many APs that would cause FIRST to start sending better radios, or does it seem like they are preempting the problem?

[Pat Fairbank]

Originally Posted by linuxboy

The Field Access Point has both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz antennas (3 of each), so I imagine that before going to Operation Bondé, FIRST would try switching the frequency, in case the venue has a lot of 5 Ghz APs (I obviously don't know, but I think that Operation Bondé would be avoided if at all possible). Does anyone know about a regional last year that had an issue with too many APs that would cause FIRST to start sending better radios, or does it seem like they are preempting the problem?

I have a post from last year explaining the problem. The issue manifested at FLR and Florida, and matches couldn't be run until they were able to get the venues to shut down some of the APs.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank

I have a post from last year explaining the problem. The issue manifested at FLR and Florida, and matches couldn't be run until they were able to get the venues to shut down some of the APs.

Ah the memories (Actually more like AHHHHHHHH! THE MEMORIES! as they drag you off to the padded room in a straightjacket).

[AlexD744]

As stated above, this issue did occur in Florida last year. Considering that the regional is on UCF's campus, a campus with over 50,000 students, it's not a surprise that there was a lot of wifi in the area. Teams would spend over 5 minutes trying to connect to the field only to be told to try again next time because it was taking too long. Once a team did connect, however, their chances of being found the next time increased exponentially, at least that is what was explained to me. I believe that is why the problem only really occurred on Thursday, because by Friday everyone had been able to connect at least once. At our next regional the FTA wanted everyone to connect to the field at least once on Thursday whether or not they were inspected, probably for this reason.