Wireless roboRIO control with a non-standard router

[ProfessorAlekM]

Hello!

My school is not competing in FRC this year so we are experimenting with autonomous instead.

However we do not have a standard OM5P-AN radio to run the bridge connection software and we can't control the roboRIO wirelessly through our N600 Netgear router. I can ping the roboRIO when connected to the network, and I even have UDP working between the roboRIO and a BeagleBone. However the driver station won't connect.

I've tried disabling the windows firewall (Domain profile, private profile, and public profile). However it doesn't work.

Is there any way to set up a non-standard radio for roboRIO control?

[teletype-guy]

I took an old dlink router I had lying around, configured it to turn off dhcp, gave it a name of grio, and it works great. I connect my laptop wifi to grio, and driver station works properly.

[codedr]

If you can ping the roborio through the network, does the roborio config page come up in a browser?

[teletype-guy]

Prior to doing the router hack, I connected the roboRIO over USB to update firmware, lay down the team-specific image...

Used a little 12V to 5V dc/dc converter to power router on robot. After that I tweaked the old router (turning off dhcp is the main thing):

Got an ancient D-Link DI-524 (T-Mobile-branded TM-G5240) -- this to become GRIO (Gils' roboRIO).

Press-hold Reset until lights off, to restore factory settings.

Turn computer wifi off.

Plug ethernet cable from computer to Port-1 on router.

Browse to 192.168.0.1 (if you use a different router, this all may be different).

- Username admin, password admin.

- Click wireless tab -- radio ON, SSID = GRIO, Chan-6, Open-System, and click Apply.

- Click DHCP tab -- select Disabled and click Apply.

- Click LAN tab -- just leave it at IP = 192.168.0.1, and mask = 255.255.255.0.

- Bridge Mode tab -- should be disabled.

- WAN tab, just leave alone.

Reboot just for grins.

Disconnect cable from computer and connect router Port-1 to roboRIO.

Turn computer wifi on and connect to GRIO.

Can use browser to get to roboRIO Sys Config home page at:
http://roborio-698-frc.local

Or, run DriverStation.

Easy-peasy.

[teletype-guy]

Just to clarify:

By turning off the router's dhcp, it becomes a wireless access-point (I think that is the proper terminology), which simply connects wifi to the wired ethernet cable that goes to the roboRIO. I have also given it an ssid name to wirelessly advertise: "GRIO."

For robot use, I am connecting my laptop's wifi directly to the robot's GRIO (NOT through my home router). I can connect to the home router when I need internet, or connect to GRIO for controlling the robot. Not both.

The roboRIO seems to have its own DNS, so when I type http://roborio-698-frc.local into my browser (or when driverstation does the same sort of connection), it is resolved to whatever ip address is needed and the connection is made.

Note that 698 is our team number, and you need to substitute your team number (after you lay down the team-specific roboRIO image, of course).

gil

[ProfessorAlekM]

Thank you so much for the help!

I've got a wireless bot now!