Non-wifi communication?

[MechEng83]

I'm looking for options for some off season projects for my team that won't use wifi and/or interfere with the current/next FRC control system. The desire is to have the off-season robot runnable during matches.

My first preference would be to use the cRIO and new roboRIO (so my kids get experience working with them) with something other than a wifi router for communication, though I don't know if that is possible.

The next option would be to use some alternate controller that is on a separate band. I think the old IFI controllers satisfy this, but I'm not sure. Are there other alternatives?

Thanks.

[tStano]

There's always ethernet cable.
But beyond that, I wouldn't be so sure IFI-style and wifi control won't interfere. Worth a try, but be sure to check for lost packets.

[Greg McKaskle]

You should check with FIRST or whatever organization is running the event. They may say not to use wifi. They may say not to use 5GHz wifi. They may say not to use any wireless band of any kind.

The existing control system uses ethernet. It works over a cable or anything capable of bridging ethernet. So for example, if you set the bridge and AP to 2.4GHz, the system will work fine and will not interfere with the field that is normally running on 5GHz. This would also be true if it were simply on another channel of 5GHz. And in fact, it would likely be fine to be on the same exact channel as the field.

But the folks responsible for the event will have their guidelines and restrictions. You should ask about them and abide by them. You should also bring a cable in case they change their mind. I'd recommend printing the email that gives you permission and sets those guidelines and keep it with the robot in case you need to show a volunteer that you received permission and are following the guidelines.

Good luck.
Greg McKaskle

[wilful]

You could use an RC vehicle controller, or infrared. Just be sure to stop all actions on loss of coms, you don't want a rouge robot in the pits...or anywhere.

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by Greg McKaskle

You should check with FIRST or whatever organization is running the event. They may say not to use wifi. They may say not to use 5GHz wifi. They may say not to use any wireless band of any kind.

The existing control system uses ethernet. It works over a cable or anything capable of bridging ethernet. So for example, if you set the bridge and AP to 2.4GHz, the system will work fine and will not interfere with the field that is normally running on 5GHz. This would also be true if it were simply on another channel of 5GHz. And in fact, it would likely be fine to be on the same exact channel as the field.

But the folks responsible for the event will have their guidelines and restrictions. You should ask about them and abide by them. You should also bring a cable in case they change their mind. I'd recommend printing the email that gives you permission and sets those guidelines and keep it with the robot in case you need to show a volunteer that you received permission and are following the guidelines.

Good luck.
Greg McKaskle

The plan was always to clear whatever we do w/ the event coordinators. I doubt they'd be pleased with a random robot driving around w/o permission in any case.

So I guess what I'm hearing from you is that wifi/Ethernet is the only way to run the current set up? Wired really isn't an option for what we want to do.

It's good to know that it can be done w/o interfering over wifi. Thanks for the info.

[Jpatterson1710]

We had planned to use our T-Shirt Shooting robot at an event earlier this year, however, the restriction we were given was that we needed to be tethered between DS and Robot, in order to insure that there would be no interference with the field. I was unhappy with the idea of having the robot on a 'leash', so my simple solution was to use a wireless Xbox 360 controller. All you need is the $10 USB adapter from amazon, and a quick driver download from microsoft, then I just zip-tied my laptop to the bot and used the controller wirelessly while still tethered. On top of that, I used a controller mapping software to interpret the 'Start" button as a press of the 'Enter" button so that I could remotely disable.