Questions about the UNLV competition

[hiigaran]

I was hoping I could ask some questions to people who attended the regional at UNLV last year. 3006 is a first year team and we have a couple of questions concerning the internet access and wireless networks at the actual site of the competition.

1. At the site of the game will we have wifi? if not will we have any form of internet access?

2. Are we connected to a global network the whole time, including in the pit? (can we ditch our own wireless router)?

Anyway thanks for helping us out, hopefully we can get some of the answers we couldn't find on the UNLV website

[MrForbes]

Section 3 of the manual has answers to this type of question, you might want to read up!

http://usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=452

usually there is no internet available at the regionals....I think it's like that on purpose

also if you want to power up your robot in the pit, you need to tether it (disconnect the wireless stuff and do not power up the wireless stuff, connect the DS to the cRio with a network cable)

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by hiigaran

I was hoping I could ask some questions to people who attended the regional at UNLV last year. 3006 is a first year team and we have a couple of questions concerning the internet access and wireless networks at the actual site of the competition.

1. At the site of the game will we have wifi? if not will we have any form of internet access?

2. Are we connected to a global network the whole time, including in the pit? (can we ditch our own wireless router)?

Anyway thanks for helping us out, hopefully we can get some of the answers we couldn't find on the UNLV website

The wireless router you got in your kit is a stand-in for the field router to enable you to operate your robot at home. You will not need it at the event and might be better off leaving it home. At least there it will not be forgotten when packing up. If you are on the official field you do not need it and any other place you are operating your robot it should be tethered.

No team wireless networks are permitted at any venue. That is one of the rules and exists to protect the field network. If you set up your own network, it will probably be detected (the technical staff will be watching for this sort of thing) and you will be asked to shut it down.

On the other hand, UNLV is a university and as such it probably has it's own wireless network. I doubt FIRST would be able to shut the UNLV network down, so you might be able to make arraingements to access it. But I wouldn't count on it, even if you can it will probably be expensive. They probably do not have a huge demand for internet service in thier gym. So there might not be anything to connect to.