Scouting w/ Wifi: Powering Access Point?

[Cartwright]

There has been quite a lot of talk about whether or not Wifi is allowed at competitions for scouting or not along with other discussions about how actually to scout using computers, video game consoles, PDAs, etc.

However, for those teams who use Wifi, I was wondering how teams power their routers? Is it in your pit? Does that distance from pit to stands usually work? Is it in the stands with the scouters? Do you plug it in to a wall outlet? Is that legal at the competition site? How do you do it?

[merybar]

Last year was the first year we attempted to do a computer scouting system. We plugged the router into a plug on in the seating section of the arena. Lets just say it worked horribly. we can not figure out where to go with a scouting program....

[RyanCahoon]

Can't say how long it might last, but the idea 2046 had this year was to take along a car battery and one of commonly available AC inverters that plug into your cigarette lighter. This is the basic solution, if you want to improve efficiency, a better solution would be to use a DC-DC converter of some sort to convert the 12 volts of the car battery to whatever your router needs.

[EHaskins]

I've rigged up a pair of 9.6v RC car batteries (wired so they provide ~20v) and a 12v voltage regulator from RadioShack to power both the DS and the router for the robot.

I've only run it for about 1.5 hours straight, but by my calculation it should run ~4 hours. If you need longer life you could always just add another pair of batteries.

My choice would probably be a back pack with 4 or 6 9.6v batteries and a router in the stands.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jamie et al,
Although this question has come up before, First is still considering the possiblity of interference at events with other Wifi networks. Please ask the question and watch for answers on the Q&A and Team Updates before committing to a Wifi solution. Event staff will be monitoring for interference just as IFI staff has done at every event in the past.