Communication Issues?

[DominickC]

Watching some of these regionals, I've noticed an abnormally high number of robots remaining stationary for at least a portion of the match, if not all of it. Lone Star replayed at least two of it's qualifying matches, from what I saw.

Has your team had any field communication issues, and if so, what was the cause/outcome?

[DjScribbles]

Our team had some issue in Traverse City, I didn't watch enough matches to draw many conclusions; but I saw during the finals our side had issues a number of times, our drive team said that the team in the Red #3 station would drop from the FMS (the volunteers tend to cast that stuff aside in our experience, I'm unsure if they reported it, or assumed they wouldn't care and did not report it)

From their reports it was not "media disconnected" from windows, but the "FMS not connected" on the driver station, the robot was not off.

Here's a video showing the issue in our second match of the finals (watch the middle robot on red)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=457aHSYmFtU

[engunneer]

I haven't noticed many still robots in ONTO and ORPO. I'm sure they are working on any issues as they come up.

[DominickC]

To teams competing this week and at future events - If you're unsure about a sudden loss of control of your robot, approach the FTA and ask questions. Take note of as much information as possible, such as what your FMS connection light was doing at the time of the issue (The blue/red blinking lights at the alliance station), what your dashboard/DS was saying, and any symptoms seen on the robot (complete loss of control, latency in command execution).

The volunteers don't have anything to do with the field system, and can't give you a definitive answer. Only the FTA and FTAA(s) can really help you.

[Hallry]

I hate to say it...but it seems that NYC is having some comm issues with the blue alliance station...hey had to replay a few matches, and they had to replay one of them twice.

EDIT: They are about to replay the first quarterfinal match, but just made the announcement to all teams to "turn off your dashboard for all matches unless you really need it."

[Becca334]

NYC had all teams with cameras not use them in eliminations due to comm issues - even teams that said they needed it. Even then we had some matches with 10-30 minute delays. and many many elimination match replays.

[Racer26]

ONTO had only one apparent comms issue that I saw all weekend, 2809 in QF4.3.

I don't know if the cause was determined, but the match was not replayed.

[marcusb258]

I was part of the Backup Team for one the blue alliance for the first quarter final. I noticed some issues with one of our alliance bots, but I had just figured that it was a malfunction on the part of that team. I spoke to one of the volunteers at the FTA table, and they told me that the bandwidth usage on one of the robots was through the roof. They couldn't figure out who caused the problem so they told everyone to shut off their Dashboard. No cameras, all of the teams were driving blind. We also had to restart an earlier match because of a bad battery given to an alliance member. The number of match resets in NYC was too high, and there were also problems with scoring,

[Gregor]

Please keep in mind that stationary robots does not equal "no comms" or whatnot. 1114 lost their battery in a qual match, and funnily enough were stationary for the rest of the match. Was that a "comm issue?"

[DominickC]

Gregor - I was sure to look for the telltale orange RSL of the robot(s) in question on the various webcasts I was watching. During the time I was watching, I didn't see any unpowered stationary robots.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by DominickC

Gregor - I was sure to look for the telltale orange RSL of the robot(s) in question on the various webcasts I was watching. During the time I was watching, I didn't see any unpowered stationary robots.

That was just an example. Unmoving robots does not equal a field fault. A dead DS laptop, siezed gearboxes, loss of radio power, and a CRIO reboot are some of the hundreds of reasons that can stop a robot in its tracks (wheels?).

You cannot diagnose anything useful from a webcast.

[DominickC]

Which was the purpose of this thread - to get a general feeling of how many of those non-moving robots were due to a communication issue.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by DominickC

Which was the purpose of this thread - to get a general feeling of how many of those non-moving robots were due to a communication issue.

My original post wasn't directed at you, more so to the other posts.

[stuart2054]

Several teams at GULL LAKE district in Michigan had some issues. most notably team 858 the Demons. We tried to help them figure it out but could not. It was probably a bandwidth issue as they experienced servere latency. I.E. the robot did not respond to the driver input until seconds later.

Other teams such as 2767 had a break in communication as well. Our robot went "dead" for about 20 seconds in a semifinals match. I think it is problem that needs attention.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by DominickC

To teams competing this week and at future events - If you're unsure about a sudden loss of control of your robot, approach the FTA and ask questions. Take note of as much information as possible, such as what your FMS connection light was doing at the time of the issue (The blue/red blinking lights at the alliance station), what your dashboard/DS was saying, and any symptoms seen on the robot (complete loss of control, latency in command execution).

The volunteers don't have anything to do with the field system, and can't give you a definitive answer. Only the FTA and FTAA(s) can really help you.

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS.

Thank you.

Stop screaming at field resetters/queuers when your robot doesn't move. Whether it's a comm issue, a robot issue, a field issue- whatever. Only the FTA (navy blue polo with 'FTA' on the back) and FTAAs (yellow vest with 'FTAA 'on the back) can help with those sort of issues. Approach them calmly with your notes on the observed issue and they should do their best to help you out.