does anyone have OI and RC radio issues

[Cody Carey]

Originally Posted by Bharat Nain

So is playing with broken radios this year a part of the game challenge?
..

I would certainly hope not...

[nuggetsyl]

I wonder if first will let you use last years oi and rc if yours does not work????

[Dave K.]

Originally Posted by mormannoob

our radio channels are different RC is 32 and OI is 40 anyway to fix and i'll try it at regionals

It doesn't work the way you are describing it.

The radio 'channel' involves a pair of channels between the OI and RC.

The channel pair is determined from the OI side via the dip switches OR via the competition connector. The OI radio begins transmitting on the selected channel, and the RC radio scans all available channels until it finds an active transmission that contains your team number.

The initial tethering process after setting your team number on the OI is how the RC comes to know which 'team' it is associated with.

Set your team number, tether the OI and RC, remove the tether and you should be good to go.

[Madison]

For what it's worth -- we just received an e-mail from the Pacific Northwest Regional Director asking that veteran teams bring along 2006 radio sets to act as backups, should they be needed.

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

For what it's worth -- we just received an e-mail from the Pacific Northwest Regional Director asking that veteran teams bring along 2006 radio sets to act as backups, should they be needed.

The Regional Committee Chairman for the Los Angele Regional will be doing the same if she hasn't already. Team 330 alone has six working units of the old radios. If all of the veterans in our area bring their radios as well we should be well covered.

Just a reminder... bringing old radios is a cheap, low impact fall back solution. We will at least start with the new radios.

ChrisH

[Bharat Nain]

If there are too many problems, a decision will have to be made on whether FIRST should use the new radios or old radios for a particular regional. I say this because you cannot just keep switching radios on robots and player station randomly. It will create too much confusion and maybe unnecessary work. It will also waste a lot of time.

Luckily, we sent ours to IFI and they told us that there was a bad board in it. They also confirmed that it is now repaired and it will work flawlessly at the regional. I hope everyone else having problems connected with IFI(and something was done about it).

[heydowns]

All teams should closely examine team update #15 for vital radio information:

http://www2.usfirst.org/2007comp/Upd...pdate%2015.pdf

[Mark1153]

No radio trouble for us at BAE Regional.
We had a ton of trouble with our radios at a pre-season mini-meet and during our own testing sessions. When Cingular cell phones rang within about 30' we lost communications. The radios also broke up at other times, not sure why.
** But with the v15 RC update, and the update done by IFI to our RC Radio [and everyone elses] at the event, we had absolutely no radio problems. I just wanted to say thanks to IFI for working the problem and getting it solved.

[whytheheckme]

Originally Posted by Mark1153

No radio trouble for us at BAE Regional.
We had a ton of trouble with our radios at a pre-season mini-meet and during our own testing sessions. When Cingular cell phones rang within about 30' we lost communications. The radios also broke up at other times, not sure why.
** But with the v15 RC update, and the update done by IFI to our RC Radio [and everyone elses] at the event, we had absolutely no radio problems. I just wanted to say thanks to IFI for working the problem and getting it solved.

Ditto. Also, Cingular cell phones wiped all the room key cards at our hotel...

Jacob

[mtaman02]

The IFI guy at the NJ Regional (Rick) had each team informed to bring their radios to a secluded room at the arena and he would flash the RC Radios with new software. The process took all of about 5 minutes to complete. While the update made the radios work a bit more better, it also made the location of the radios in teams robots seem more of the problem and a few teams had to re-locate the radios so there were no more problems with data packet loss. All in all once all the RC Radios were upgraded and the RC's upgraded to v15 there were little to no problems with the robots working on the field. You still had interference while working off the tether and no interference on the tether but thats to be expected while working in a room down the hall, at a practice field or in the pits.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by mtaman02

...You still had interference while working off the tether and no interference on the tether but thats to be expected while working in a room down the hall, at a practice field or in the pits.

Actually, at competition it's expected that you never run the robot without the tether unless you're on the field. If you used your own OI radio, you were interference.

[Bharat Nain]

IFI did a great job coming up with the fix(es) for the radios. At NJ, I did not notice any radio problems - which is better than even previous years. Nice. I love it when there are less unnecessary problems to worry about.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Actually, at competition it's expected that you never run the robot without the tether unless you're on the field. If you used your own OI radio, you were interference.

Just so you all know, the IFI people use a monitor device that shows your team number and a variety of stats on your robot when you are using the radios, even in the pits. Use your tether at all times you are not on the field or you may invite a visit from a friendly inspector or IFI rep.

[Gary Dillard]

Originally Posted by mtaman02

The IFI guy at the NJ Regional (Rick) had each team informed to bring their radios to a secluded room at the arena and he would flash the RC Radios with new software. The process took all of about 5 minutes to complete. While the update made the radios work a bit more better, it also made the location of the radios in teams robots seem more of the problem and a few teams had to re-locate the radios so there were no more problems with data packet loss. All in all once all the RC Radios were upgraded and the RC's upgraded to v15 there were little to no problems with the robots working on the field. You still had interference while working off the tether and no interference on the tether but thats to be expected while working in a room down the hall, at a practice field or in the pits.

Dumb question from a Mechanical Engineer: by RC radio, do you mean the box with an antenna that is connected to the RC by a cable? Do they need the IO radio as well?

[petek]

Originally Posted by Gary Dillard

Dumb question from a Mechanical Engineer: by RC radio, do you mean the box with an antenna that is connected to the RC by a cable? Do they need the IO radio as well?

Yes, IFI is updating the "box with an antenna that is connected to the RC" on the robot, and No, IFI is not doing anything with the teams' OI radios that you would attach to your driver control panel (or wasn't in NJ, anyway).