Is is possible to use a WiFi router other than the OM5P-AN for temporary development use only? With the OM5P-AN being in short supply at AM we’d like to setup our secondary control system with a linksys router. Anyone have any experience doing that?
Any WiFi router/access point will do just fine. There is nothing particularly special about the OM5P-AN for simply controlling your robot.
All that you should need to do is configure the access point to serve up 10.te.am.xx addressess. In your case, it should serve IPs starting with 10.40.04.20.
The OM5P-AN does offer a great signal strength and some features that make it more reliable for use at competitions, but at home those features shouldn’t be as critical. Also be aware that your own AP will allow you to break the 7Mb/s bandwidth limit, whereas an OM5P-AN with the FRC firmware will enforce that limit.
Be careful.
The OM5P-AN uses 12 volts, and prior years’ D-Link uses 5 volts. Unfortunately, they have the same plug.
So, if you ever “accidentally” plug the Dlink into a 12 volt plug, you will likely fry the d-link.
We have learned that you will not fry the dlink with 12 volts, but that does not make it advisable.