Operating two Robots Simultaneously

[Qbot2640]

I need help...we've done this many times before, but for some reason we can't get it to work now. We'd like to run our previous two robots at the same time for demonstration purposes. In the past we've taken one of the two and reprogrammed the bridge and driver station to a different team number (we usually pick 9999). When we try that now the robot does not respond.

To run both, we've begun to run RR with an Ethernet cable, and AA wirelessly.

Ideally, we'd like to run the last three robots simultaneously - but we currently have only two driver stations set up.

RR is (of course) a RoboRIO bot, with the newest version of Labview and the newest Driver Station. AA and UA are both CRIO bots, but we have the 2014 driver station software in a separate folder on our main driver station laptop. We usually just try to use any of the other Labview-installed laptops to run RR, since they all have the latest driver station software.

Please help - We have a demo scheduled for July 3 where I'd really like to have 2 or even 3 robots running together.

[FlamingSpork]

When we attempt to do such a thing, we use two separate laptops.

I think that having the Driver Stations for two different years on the same computer may cause some conflicts, so we have multiple laptops with different years and one laptop with a dual-boot.

The 2013 robot might require the 2013 Driver Station, and might not be compatible with 2014.

[Mark McLeod]

One of the easiest ways to run multiple robots simultaneously, all with the same team number, is to set them all up for solitary wireless operation as would be normal. Then just give each robot's DLink a different unique SSID, and connect each laptop wirelessly to the appropriate paired Robot/Dlink.

Turn off the laptop connecting automatically to DLinks with your team number.
That puts everyone on separate networks, and fully separated networks can have common IP's just like your neighbor's home network probably uses the same IP settings that your house does.

DLink's won't talk to laptops unless they have been connected, and there is no conflict with duplicate robot numbers unless they are on the same network.

[Greg McKaskle]

We do this quite a lot, and there are in fact many ways to carry it out.

Can you describe what is going wrong? What your network topology is, etc.?

Greg McKaskle

[Qbot2640]

Originally Posted by Greg McKaskle

We do this quite a lot, and there are in fact many ways to carry it out.

We have done it quite a lot too...but lately it has not worked.

Originally Posted by Greg McKaskle

Can you describe what is going wrong? What your network topology is, etc.?

Greg McKaskle

Yes, whenever we set up a radio and driver station with a different team number, the laptop will find the radio, but we continue to get a "no robot code" message

Not sure what "network topology" means or is... I have re-programmed the dlink successfully with a different team number, then changed the team number on the driver station options, but it will not connect to the robot...only when I have the actual team number does it work.


To the other responses - FlamingSpork: we do use two different laptops. One has both the new and the old versions, and the rest only have the new. I seriously doubt that the presence of both driver station programs is causing a conflict, because I can operate either the new or the old robot with the same driver station IF that robot is set up with our correct team number, and I can not operate a robot that is set up with a different team number on any laptop. Mark McLeod: Thanks for the response, but I'm a mechanical guy - I don't understand a thing you are saying. If you can dumb down your recommendation to my level it will probably work, since it does not involve changing the team number (which seems to be causing our problem).

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Qbot2640

Not sure what "network topology" means or is... I have re-programmed the dlink successfully with a different team number, then changed the team number on the driver station options, but it will not connect to the robot...only when I have the actual team number does it work.

If you're going to do it by changing the team number, you must change the number on the [robo/c]RIO as well. But that's not the easiest or most reasonable way to do it. It's best to keep the team number consistent. The only thing you need to do is to make sure the SSIDs on the D-Links are different. That way you can connect the appropriate Driver Station computer to each robot. With the two robots' networks thus separated, there is no interference.

We've always used a distinctive SSID on each robot's access point. It's easy to do. Just log into the D-Link's admin web page and change it to something that identifies that particular robot. Then you can connect your driver station computer to the wireless network corresponding to the robot you want to control.

[FrankJ]

The IP of the dlink really doesn't matter unless you need to connect to its web page. The address range of the DHCP is important if you are not running static IPs. For the RoboRio bot make sure the DHCP is turned on and set for the correct range. Just changing the IP of the dlink will not do this. The Week zero page of screensteps is a good read for the Crio. The IP of the driver station for the crios needs to be 10.te.am.xx where the te.am. matches the CRio.

[SenorZ]

Hmmm. We've programmed our 2014 robot radio to be 4276b, and just connect to that wireless.
BUT we must go into the settings in the driver station software and set it to the '14 DS mode.

[Qbot2640]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

If you're going to do it by changing the team number, you must change the number on the [robo/c]RIO as well. But that's not the easiest or most reasonable way to do it. It's best to keep the team number consistent. The only thing you need to do is to make sure the SSIDs on the D-Links are different. That way you can connect the appropriate Driver Station computer to each robot. With the two robots' networks thus separated, there is no interference.

We have done this before, and I am fairly certain we did not do anything significant to the c-RIO. In 2014 we used our 2013 robot to practice defense, and after the 2012 season we used our 2011 robot in demos to load balls into 2012.

That being said - I would much rather do this without having to change the team number, and what you're recommending sounds easy.

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

We've always used a distinctive SSID on each robot's access point. It's easy to do. Just log into the D-Link's admin web page and change it to something that identifies that particular robot. Then you can connect your driver station computer to the wireless network corresponding to the robot you want to control.

Once again...please don't judge, but I have no idea what an SSID is. It's sounding like you want me to pull up the configuration page on the D-Link, not make my change by using the FRC bridge configuration tool. I've never done that, are there instruction somewhere for what you recommend?

Originally Posted by FrankJ

The IP of the dlink really doesn't matter unless you need to connect to its web page. The address range of the DHCP is important if you are not running static IPs. For the RoboRio bot make sure the DHCP is turned on and set for the correct range. Just changing the IP of the dlink will not do this. The Week zero page of screensteps is a good read for the Crio. The IP of the driver station for the crios needs to be 10.te.am.xx where the te.am. matches the CRio.

I'll look at the link you recommend...does this have instructions that will get someone who hates, and is awful at network configuration stuff, through the process? Like with "SSID" I have no idea what "DHCP" is either...remember...I'm the mechanical guy trying to fill a gap left by the loss of our programming mentor.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Qbot2640

Once again...please don't judge, but I have no idea what an SSID is. It's sounding like you want me to pull up the configuration page on the D-Link, not make my change by using the FRC bridge configuration tool. I've never done that, are there instruction somewhere for what you recommend?

SSID is what the network is seen as by other wireless devices that are looking for networks. Example, FRC1234 is an SSID that team 1234 would be using on the competition field while competing. Home router networks are often nicknamed "linksys" or "netgear" or something creative. Hotel wireless is often the name of the hotel. I know that 1197 has one of their robots (last summer's practice base) SSID'd as "Smooth Jazz" for some reason that I can't recall.

Now, how to change it I'm not entirely sure, but I think it is the D-Link's configuration page.

[Ether]

Here's the SSID setup for Netgear WPN824. I assume other routers have something similar in their config setup.

[Mark McLeod]

First you can start by setting up your DLink using the FRC Bridge Utility if you aren't sure what state it was last left in.
It also gives you a known starting point at any time if you feel that something may have been messed up.

Changing the DLink SSID:

1. Change your PC Ethernet IP address to 10.26.40.5 solely to be compatible with logging into the DLink. Remember the original settings so you can set it back later. (see addendum below if you've never done this before)
2. Connect directly to the powered DLink via Ethernet cable
3. Browse using Internet Explorer to 10.26.40.1 and you should see the DLink login page
4. Default user is Admin/(leave password blank)
5. Click on Wireless Settings on the DLink homepage from a short list on the left hand side (seen highlighted also in attached image).
6. (Attached is a picture of the page you should have up now)
7. Change the SSID line (highlighted) to something unique like the name of the robot.
8. Click Save Settings at the bottom of the page.
9. Disconnect DLink and repeat on the next robot's DLink using a different unique SSID name.
10. Disconnect and reset your PC's network adaptor to normal.

Addendum on changing PC's IP address:

1. Left-click on the PC's START button (lower left of the desktop)
2. Use the search box there to type in Network
3. Choose Network and Sharing Center from the resulting list of finds.
4. Left-click on Change adaptor settings in the upper left sidebar.
5. Right-click on Local Area Connection and choose Properties
6. Double-click on the list entry Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
7. Select Use the following IP address
8. Enter 10.26.40.5
9. Click in the netmask area and you will get a default netmask (just use that)
10. Click OK at the bottom of the pop-up window
11. Click OK at the bottom of the previous pop-up window