Radio Problems

[JimWright949]

Hello all,

Say, is anyone having the radio drop out issues that we saw last year? We just got our robot driving today and set it out on the world. It gets about 20 feet away from the OI radio and stops communicating (the radio comm red light comes on).

If we stop the robot the radio light goes back to green. If we try to move the robot forward even slowly the radio light turns red again.

We are running the robot outside but I can't figure out why that would effect us.

Is someone else seeing this issue?

-Jim

[DonRotolo]

Temporarily mount the radio (on the robot, and on the OI) far away from any metal, not less than 6 inches, and see if that helps. Remember that both the RC and OI radios are transmitters and receivers. Any metal will impact their function.

When the robot is moving? Can there be interference from something that's energized only then to either the radio, or the wire to the radio? Re-route the wire temporarily to see.

Don

[tseres]

this might help...make sure that your battery is charged. sometimes crazy stuff happens when there isn't enough current to power the motors and the RC at the same time...our RC would flicker on and off, and so would the victors, and consequently the motors....so ya, check the battery

[adamm]

Also, make sure your back up battery is charged and plugged in properly. If the main voltage drops to low levels, the radio is then powered by the backup battery. This should fix the problem if power is the issue.

However if the problem is not resolved, then you have some sort of signal interference. Step 1 is to make sure the radio not close to metal. Step 2 is to shut off any devices that could be interfering with the robot. We had a serious problem with packet loss last year. We had everyone in the room shut off thier cell phone and the robot started responding better.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jim,
I think the secret here is that communications goes away while driving and returns when the robot stops. I would agree with the others here that the backup battery is the likely source of the radio tally light. Low main battery during driving is also a complicating factor.

[JimWright949]

Yep, you guys are right, I think. We are chargen' the batteries now. We are so worried about plowing the robot into someones car we were not paying attention to the battery levels.

Thanks all,

-Jim

[Mike Hendricks]

Originally Posted by JimWright949

Yep, you guys are right, I think. We are chargen' the batteries now. We are so worried about plowing the robot into someones car we were not paying attention to the battery levels.

FWIW, you might want to have your drivers/programmers/anyone who operates the robot to make a habit of looking at the center of the OI to see if the following lights are ever on: Low Main Batt, No Main Batt, or Backup Batt.

If Low Main Batt comes on while you're trying to move .. it's probably best to change it out. During driver practice and training, we usually leave the OI set to display the battery voltage and the kids watch it constantly.

[kaszeta]

Originally Posted by JimWright949

Yep, you guys are right, I think. We are chargen' the batteries now. We are so worried about plowing the robot into someones car we were not paying attention to the battery levels.

We've been seeing the same issues, and I'm suspecting the same problem (low/dead backup battery).

Training the driver and pit crew to always check the backup battery is very, very important...