How to avoid radio config hell at off-season events?

[ebarker]

We got this down perfect. We do about 40 events a year including wi-fi hellish places like CNN Center and large schools and campuses.

Forget AP mode, forget setting IP addresses, forget 2.4 GHz. That is the top three rules.

1) go buy an N-Router and configure it just like you do for an FRC competition, but you don't need FMS or FMS lite unless you want to do a full event demonstration.

2) all driver stations are hardwired into the N-Router. NO WIRELESS.

3) disable the wireless using the control panel on the driver station. ( this will also very much help out when running the FRC cRio format utility )

4) configure the router / bridge pair to connect on 5 GHz ONLY. for example have the router have two different SSIDs. for example MYROUTER2 and MYROUTER5 for the two bands.

5) configure the bridge to connect to MYROUTER5.

6) in our shop where it is relatively wi-fi quiet a development pc can connect to MYROUTER2 ( if it isn't 5 GHz capable ) and can push code into a robot, pc to router is 2.4 GHz, router to 5 GHz.

7) let the DS setup screen configure the IP address for you.

benefits
reliable communication
essentially identical to FRC field operations, no retraining or reconfiguration.
no reconfiguration of bridges, pc, or routers
better performance when formatting cRios with crossover cable from DS to cRio

It's awesome.