Wireless Connection Problem

[Travis Hoffman]

Here's a fun one to ponder:

So the rookie team I mentioned earlier was still having trouble getting their wireless to link up even after changing to the 2.4 GHz setting on the bridge. Everything was configured exactly as intended, verified by me, but the system still wouldn't link up. So I set their bridge and router aside.

I took Team 48's router and bridge from last year - only the boxes - no cables or anything else - and connected them to the rookie team's kitbot and Classmate and such, using their cables. I reconfigured 48's hardware with the rookie team's IP's - wireless communication picked right up - no problems. Could ping the cRIO. Downloaded default program. Vision camera was transmitting images. Good stuff.

Now, after this, I individually reintroduced the rookie's gaming bridge and router into this system, such that a 48 device was talking to a rookie device each time. I expected at least one of the rookie devices to not work, based on the fact they never worked together, but guess what? Both devices worked. Weird. So I finally said what the heck, and connected both rookie devices back to their robot and Classmate. Instant wireless communication, vision camera pictures on the dashboard, no problems whatsoever. Other than unplugging and plugging the rookie devices, no other changes were made to their router and bridge between the time the devices wouldn't talk wirelessly and the time they would.

Maybe the rookie router/bridge needed to "learn" from the veteran router/ bridge how to do things the right way before they could stand alone and work on their own? Network device mentoring...awwwwww.