Robot wireless bridge.

[Mk.32]

Hello all,
We have two of the dlink KOP routers and are trying to set them up so that one is on the robot and the other is a bridge that is plugged in to the DS laptop.

We have tried looking at FIRST docs and configuring the radio on the robot to Bridge mode and the radio connected to the DS laptop to AP mode but it doesn't seem to work.

Any suggestions?

[shawnz]

On the web interface of the D-Link serving as the Access Point, open Network Settings and change Access Point IP Address to 10.xx.yy.4, and leave Default Gateway blank. This will mimic the configuration of the WRT610N from previous years. Although, why not use the laptop's wireless adapter and set the robot's bridge to AP mode instead?

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by shawnz

On the web interface of the D-Link serving as the Access Point, open Network Settings and change Access Point IP Address to 10.xx.yy.4, and leave Default Gateway blank. This will mimic the configuration of the WRT610N from previous years. Although, why not use the laptop's wireless adapter?

We just tried this and it didn't seem to work...

We would like the laptop to be hooked up to the wifi network so we have internet. Also the router to router connection seems stronger.

[shawnz]

What are the symptoms of "doesn't work"? What LEDs are lit on each D-Link?

[Mk.32]

Both routers have there enternet ports lighted and flashing really fast, the AP router has the blue light flashing, the bridge router has the orange light fashing.

[daniel_dsouza]

You should be able to configure one Dlink as a access point, and the other as a bridge. The bridge would go on the robot, and you would connect your programming computer and/or DS to the Dlink configured as an access point. But you already know that...

Instead of using the FIRST configuration for the bridge, look up the manual for the version router you have (update firmware if needed! It helps!), and use the Dlink instructions for joining a bridge to an existing network (The one created from the Access Point Dlink). I haven't tested this out (I don't have 2 dlinks), but when we use bridges and access points, this tends to work best for us.

JAVA note: If by not working you mean "can't deploy code", then try having only one network connection: to the network where the robot is. At least last year, our team was scratching our heads, untill we found that netbeans was trying to deploy the code to a nonexistant robot on our other (school) connection.

If none of these work, shawnz's method is one of your best bets. The "laptop to access point on robot" connection should be good enough for programming, testing, and indoor demonstrations (given 802.11n wireless cards). In our case, updating the router's firmware inexplicably made a huge 5db difference, and also gave much better trip times and packet reception.

Good luck!

[shawnz]

Hmm... When was the last time you have successfully used the robot? What setup were you using then?

Originally Posted by daniel_dsouza

JAVA note: If by not working you mean "can't deploy code", then try having only one network connection: to the network where the robot is. At least last year, our team was scratching our heads, untill we found that netbeans was trying to deploy the code to a nonexistant robot on our other (school) connection.

I've had similar issues with LabVIEW also. I'm pretty sure 10.9.7.0/24 is not used by our school, so I don't know how it could possibly get confused, but... it seems to happen sometimes.

[Mk.32]

When I say cannot connect, I mean I can't ping the robot with the CMD

[daniel_dsouza]

Originally Posted by Shawnz

Hmm... When was the last time you have successfully used the robot? What setup were you using then?

This is a very important question to ask, especially if you need to fix something ASAP.

Originally Posted by Mk.32

When I say cannot connect, I mean I can't ping the robot with the CMD

What can you ping? (AP, bridge, etc?) If you don't know an the IP, let Windows generate a network map for you. Once that is done, you can check to see if your bridge is even connected to your AP by checking your AP's log to see recent events (like something connecting...). If the bridge is connecting, then this is a problem with your computer. If that bridge isn't connecting, reset it and try connecting it as a bridge using Dlink's manual's instructions.

[Mk.32]

We have not had the dual router setup in awhile... when we just do the robot router in AP mode i can connect to it fine with my laptop and run stuff. But we want the 2 router setup for demos/future use.

With the DS laptop we can ping the router plugged into the laptop, but not the robot/nor it's router. The two routers are not connection; so is there way to get the two router to talk to each other?

[shawnz]

Are you sure the robot router is not still configured with competition settings? Maybe try running them in reverse -- use the robot d-link as the AP, and the laptop d-link as the bridge.

[Mk.32]

We reset both routers and configured them as per the FRC doc... and we tried that as well to no advil...

[shawnz]

Originally Posted by Mk.32

we tried that as well to no advil...

Can you confirm that, when trying this, you did not use 10.36.47.1 for both devices, like it says to do in the manual, but rather gave one of the two d-links the IP address 10.36.47.4 (preferably the one connected to the laptop) instead?

[Mk.32]

Yes