FIRST is really looking into the Einstein problems

[trilogy2826]

One additional data point to add to the pile that I don't believe was mentioned in any of this years previous "Communincations Issues" posts:

Specs:
Bridge Firmware: 1.21
DS Laptop: HP Elite
Axis camera
Vision targeting through separate PC connected through ethernet into bridge
C++
4 port cRio

When 2826 arrived on Archimedes for the first practice match:
- We noticed an extremely high, relatively constant trip time (> 150ms) through the diagnostic tab on the DS.
- Our FMS connection indicator would rapidly turn off and on and our axis camera feed was extremely lagged.
- For the first 30 seconds, we were pretty much dead in the water.
- We "jiggled" the ethernet connection and check CPU and network utilization, and the numbers were low and consistent with times where no errors ocurred
- We then unplugged and re-plugged our ethernet connection to the DS laptop mid match. For an unknown reason, everything suddenly worked perfectly. No latency, no lag and full control
-Afterward, the FTA mentioned that our trip time suddenly decreased per their diagnostics, so that was consistent

For Practice Match 2:
- We had the same rapid disconnection issues as match 1 as soon as we connected the ethernet cable to the DS laptop
- The FTA came to us before the match was started and we tried unplugging and re-plugging the ethernet cable. This did not fix the issue, same symptoms
- The FTA's curiousity was piqued, so he allowed a bit of troubleshooting
- We could ping the bot with consistently high latency
- We disabled and enabled the DS laptop network adapter - No fix
- The FMS was rebooted - No Fix
- Robot was rebooted - No Fix
-DS laptop OS (windows 7, obviously) was restarted - At this point we had a completely new behavior in that we could ping the robot with low latency, but the FMS would not show connection. Quote from FTA "What the heck?! I've never seen this before"
-We started the match anyway and had no control or feedback from/to the bot
-About 10 seconds into the match, we disconnected and reconnected the ethernet cable and viola! Everything worked again.

*At this time, we had a consistent set of failures and symptoms, but no consistent correction method. We were starting to freak out...

For Practice Match 3:
- Immediately prior to approaching the Alliance station, we rebooted the DS laptop
-We waited for at least 1 minute for the robot and bridge to boot
-We waited for the DS and dashboard applications to fully launch.
-We confirmed that "2826" was established on the LCD board above our alliance station
-We plugged in the ethernet cable into the DS laptop and got immediate connection to the robot and FMS. Little to no latency (<2-3 ms on average)
-we ran the match with no glitches or issues

At this point we knew our DS laptop was somehow perpetuating the issue, if not directly causing it. We ran the process described in 3 more practice matches, all Quals and elims with absolutely no issues.

We know that we did not solve anything, but hopefully this process can shed some light on other noted issues.