Team Fusion #364, Bayou Regional, FMS Woes

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by familyguyfreak

Several teams were experiencing communication issues with the field, us included. Ours weren't anything nearly close to team Fusion's but we tried everything, switching Ethernet cables, moving the radio up away from motors. We still had comm issues and brought it up with FTA along with another team and gave them a list of teams that were having the same issues. We never heard back from them but we understood that they were extremely busy. We dropped it because we saw that majority of the teams weren't having problems and just assumed it was us.

I think it has to do with the crowd. Maybe our router is set to a bad channel or something?

FTA let us run our robot Friday night after everyone else left. No one was in the stands, and just a few people were still on the admin table. We ran a full match without any problems at all. We thought we had fixed our problem and packed it up for the night. Came back this morning and we had the first match of the day, and couldn't connect to the field, even while the other 5 robots were off. I think there is too much interference. I'm not sure why we were the only ones affected the entire competition. They just said we had bad network latency and packet loss. We, again, tried 2 different Dlink routers, one was ours, the other was a pit loaner.

So yea, when no one else is near the field, our robot ran fine. With the crowd and everyone working, the robot didn't work.

We were running all PWM, no CAN, no Camera, no closed loop control. Just the basic FRC Robot Framework, with the configuration for our Cypress board, and the basic controls to make our robot work in some fashion. (bare minimum code & it's attached).

What I've ruled out: it's not programming, it's not the cRIO, ethernet, Dlink, power converter, sidecar, NI Modules...

We never replaced our PD board, but replacing it makes no sense. What's the difference with running it wireless at the practice field and running it on the field as far as power is related? Nothing.

Here's our stripped down code. Don't expect anything extravagant at all, it was written & debugged in about an hour, and is meant to be bare minimum.

New Fusion Code (Stripped Down Code).zip

It's not a programming problem. If it was, it wouldn't work in the pit or the practice field, or even the real field when it does work.

It's also not an electrical problem. We stalled our 4 CIMS, got our voltage down to 7V, and no data loss. We shook, dropped, rattled, beat, and kicked our robot during communication, and again, had no loss. We started up our 4 noisy 550 motors for our shooter to full speed, and started our 4 CIMs at full speed, no load to try to create some bad EMI, and again, no loss or problems.

It's not us. I'm not saying it's the field. I think it's an environmental factor, which isn't our fault, but it is the responsibility of the FTA to control environmental factors. They should be sniffing the air for WiFi hotspots... I know there were tons of WiFi networks being shown. Everyone with a smartphone is polling the air. The ultimate question is why just us? Why were we the only team at the Bayou that constantly had communication failures? Is there something the FTA isn't telling us? Do they have equipment on the 10.3.x.x network for some of their stuff? (Would affect Beachbots 330 too). Conspiracy? I have no idea... I know we weren't the only ones having problems, but I do feel we were cheated out of an equal opportunity during the competition.

Team Fusion all left with a sour taste in our mouth, but we'll manage. FTA did not help us at all, and just stuck with blaming our code (attached), and electrical (explained above). All the mentors are on the same page now. We all know it's not us. We were treated equally. FTA was not able to help anyone really with this issue. When other teams had the issue, they just said to check your code and bandwidth as those are the 'common' problems. I'm upset with FIRST about this. I hate to say this, but this was one of the things that the IFI system didn't have. Someone told me today that IFI can hold huge competitions with dozens of robots running at the same time, without any problems, but FIRST cannot run 6 robots at a time. I'm not blaming any single person or organization, but NI & FIRST needs to get this figured out.

We're not blaming any of us on the team. There were many ideas Thursday and Friday, but after today, we're all confident that our robot is not the issue. It was personally hard for me to remain professional through this whole ordeal. A few of our mentors lost their temper, but I understand why. When we spend 3 days replacing, reconfiguring, and fixing our robot and we yield no results, it gets really frustrating.