OM5P-AP wifi dropping out

[camtunkpa]

Yesterday during our six hour unbag window we were working on our competition bot and ran into issues with our wifi disconnecting. We found that when the robot would get bumped, the wifi would disconnect. First we thought this was surely a wiring issue. We checked all connections and they were all good. We let the radio sit undisturbed for a bit and after about 80 seconds the wifi dropped out. We then decided to replace the VRM in case that was the issue. We still experienced the same issue. Have any other teams experienced similar issues? It is to be noted the radio never lost power...the lights remained lit on the radio the entire time. One thing we do question is that our wifi light never lights on our radio.

This radio had previously been used on a test electronics panel and did not exhibit any wifi drops. We finally gave up and ordered a new radio as we are competing at a week one event.

We are very frustrated because instead of finishing up the competition bot we wasted 2/3 of our unbag time on troubleshooting the radio.

We are looking for any kind of suggestions at this point. We left the radio out of the bag to continue testing on in hopes of a solution.

[Sperkowsky]

Is the radio near a battery or a lot of metal. Try exposing it more.

Check all connections maybe test it on a robot from another year.

Are you running on the 2.4ghz band or 5ghz band?

Are your battery terminals all secure?

Also, I do not know if leaving your radio out of your bag after the fact is legal. I am going to let some people with more knowledge comment for sure but its worth noting.

[camtunkpa]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Is the radio near a battery or a lot of metal. Try exposing it more.

Check all connections maybe test it on a robot from another year.

Are you running on the 2.4ghz band or 5ghz band?

Are your battery terminals all secure?

Also, I do not know if leaving your radio out of your bag after the fact is legal. I am going to let some people with more knowledge comment for sure but its worth noting.

Thanks for the input, but the radio exhibits the same behavior completely outside of the bot.

I'm not sure how the first configuration tool sets up the radio, but I'm guessing we configured for 2.4

Definitely not a battery issue as the unit never loses power

Also the radio is a COTS item so it is completely legal to leave out of the bag.

[Greg McKaskle]

Can you post the log file, or image of the file loaded in the viewer?

The school network is pretty crowded, the DS laptops only do 2.4, and sometimes the OpenMesh decides to setup house on channel 9, or 4. This leads to lots of retransmissions on wifi and to bursts of packet loss that would cause the robot to be disabled and disconnected.

A wifi channel scanner app will help you identify whether the channel is the problem. Mac laptops have this built in. Connect to the robot and option-click on the wifi symbol. It will list how it connected to the robot. But this may not be how the DS laptop is connected. If you choose to Open Wireless Diagnostics, then go to the Windows menu, you can choose Scan and see both the 2.4 and/or 5 channel that the AP is on, and you can compare it to the others in the area.

Greg McKaskle

[camtunkpa]

Greg I will look into this tomorrow night as we have a work session, but I highly doubt wifi congestion is the cause as we are in a rural area and have never had issues with robot wifi before.

Also I forgot to mention once wifi drops out it take approximately 2 minutes to reappear.

[Greg McKaskle]

It may be worth running ipconfig when this happens and again when it comes back. You can also try ipconfig /renew while disconnected. With it taking two minutes, I'm curious if the laptop and router are not doing what they should to get your laptop an IP.

Greg McKaskle

[camtunkpa]

Will try that as well. Fairly certain it is not the laptop as we monitored the wifi with several devices. Thanks for all the good suggestions

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by camtunkpa

Also the radio is a COTS item so it is completely legal to leave out of the bag.

Not too sure about that, it is definitely a grey area.
As a team going to a regional I could not a week early dive into our bag and take out the radio to troubleshoot. If you had the radio out of the bag to begin with I would have a different opinion but IMO its not in the spirit of the rules.

[camtunkpa]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Not too sure about that, it is definitely a grey area.
As a team going to a regional I could not a week early dive into our bag and take out the radio to troubleshoot. If you had the radio out of the bag to begin with I would have a different opinion but IMO its not in the spirit of the rules.

I am well aware of the rules. We are in a district system. Please read the rules.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by camtunkpa

I am well aware of the rules. We are in a district system. Please read the rules.

I am also well aware of the rules and aware you guys are in a district system. What I am also aware of is the fact that it says no where in the rule book that you can un bag your robot and take out parts to troubleshoot with.

[Anthony Galea]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

I am also well aware of the rules and aware you guys are in a district system. What I am also aware of is the fact that it says no where in the rule book that you can un bag your robot and take out parts to troubleshoot with.

In the week leading up to district events, district teams are allowed to take the robot out of the bag for 6 hours. And, if I look up team 222, they have a week 1 district event, so what they have done is completely legal. If them counting it as part of the withholding allowance is what is bothering you, they essentially have returned it to its KOP state, and if that is a 'gray area', consider that they could consider it part of their static set of 30 pounds, and they just originally bagged part of their withholding allowance.

[team222badbrad]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

I am also well aware of the rules and aware you guys are in a district system. What I am also aware of is the fact that it says no where in the rule book that you can un bag your robot and take out parts to troubleshoot with.

Please don't quote something as fact if you haven't read the manual.

Please see the administration manual under section 5.5. "Robot Access Period"

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by team222badbrad

Please don't quote something as fact if you haven't read the manual.

Please see the administration manual under section 5.5. "Robot Access Period"

5.5 “Robot Access Period” – For Teams Attending District
Events
Two-day district events for the 2016 season include:

■ Mid-Atlantic Robotics District (DE, NJ, Eastern PA)

Teams attending these events will not have as much time to work on their robots at events as teams
attending traditional three-day regional events. Due to this, teams are granted an additional “Robot Access
Period” to un-bag their robot between the “Stop Build Day” and their two-day district events.
Teams attending Traditional Regional Events are NOT granted a “Robot Access Period” after
“Stop Build Day.” This section only applies to teams attending district events
.
5.5.1 ‘Robot Access Period’ - Permitted Actions

During the Robot Access Period, teams may perform any activity they would normally do during the build
season, including practicing with the robot.

5.5.2 ‘Robot Access Period’ - Schedule
Teams may unlock their robot for a total of six (6) hours during the 7-day period preceding any two-day event in which their team will be competing with their robot. The six hours may be broken up in any way the team wishes, with the exception that no single access period may be shorter than two (2) hours. The robot must be locked up in between sessions and this must be documented on the Robot Lock-up Form each time.

I do not see an exception anywhere allowing you to remove COTS parts from a robot bag during an access period. I had no problem calling it a grey area but, you can not simply say its completely legal without either a Q/A ruling or a rule in the manual.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by 3175student17

In the week leading up to district events, district teams are allowed to take the robot out of the bag for 6 hours. And, if I look up team 222, they have a week 1 district event, so what they have done is completely legal. If them counting it as part of the withholding allowance is what is bothering you, they essentially have returned it to its KOP state, and if that is a 'gray area', consider that they could consider it part of their static set of 30 pounds, and they just originally bagged part of their withholding allowance.

If they had originally bagged it as their withholding allowance I would have a very different opinion. I think they should have left the radio in the bag. As, I cant legally reach into the bag a week before my regional event and take the radio out to fix it.

[Chris_Ely]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

If they had originally bagged it as their withholding allowance I would have a very different opinion. I think they should have left the radio in the bag. As, I cant legally reach into the bag a week before my regional event and take the radio out to fix it.

The Robot Access Period is a replacement for the practice day at a traditional 3-day regional. As the manual states, teams may do anything they would normally do during Build Season during the Robot Access Period. This includes adding, removing, and replacing parts. The radio is also a COTS part, and it does not count against the Withholding Allowance.