InfraRed Problem

[Daniel Bathgate]

Pay attention to the error lights as you train your board. If I remember correctly, my Tivo dogbone was sending a "button held down" code instead of repeating the signal, causing the error light to flash four times, while the remote to a Panasonic receiver worked fine. Just keep grabbing remotes (unless, of course, a ridiculous number don't work).

[Ponderous]

I may not understand fully how this works but isn't it likely with over 1000 teams the there will be an overlapping signal? Seriously am I missing something??? If this is a problem won't team be able to control each others' robots? This could prove problematic...

[ay2b]

Originally Posted by Ponderous

I may not understand fully how this works but isn't it likely with over 1000 teams the there will be an overlapping signal? Seriously am I missing something??? If this is a problem won't team be able to control each others' robots? This could prove problematic...

This is similar to the Birthday Problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem). It states that with 365 possible birthdays, you only need 23 people to have a greater than 50% chance that at least two people have the same birthday. With 57 people, you have greater than a 99% chance.

I don't know exactly how many different remote codes are out there, but the odds are very good that there will be at least two teams that pick the exact same remote.

Personally, I would like to see someone at the field coordinate the remotes, just like the way they coordinate the RF frequencies used by the IFI radios.

[Mr. Freeman]

Originally Posted by ay2b

I don't know exactly how many different remote codes are out there, but the odds are very good that there will be at least two teams that pick the exact same remote.

It's not just the remote that has to be the same, the settings on the remote have to be the same as well. Universal remotes can be programed for a ton of different devices.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Ponderous

I may not understand fully how this works but isn't it likely with over 1000 teams the there will be an overlapping signal? Seriously am I missing something??? If this is a problem won't team be able to control each others' robots? This could prove problematic...

FIRST understands this problem, and has left this up to the teams to ensure that their signal doesn't get jammed.

While I don't know how your team will prevent jamming, I think ours will use a tube from a paper towel roll.

[Pittiho]

Originally Posted by Daniel Bathgate

Pay attention to the error lights as you train your board. If I remember correctly, my Tivo dogbone was sending a "button held down" code instead of repeating the signal, causing the error light to flash four times, while the remote to a Panasonic receiver worked fine. Just keep grabbing remotes (unless, of course, a ridiculous number don't work).

I believe our RCA remote sends a "button held down" signal rather than a continuous signal. the remote shows an alternating value of "0" and "1" in the online control. does anyone know of a remote that sends continuous signal?