Changeing the Channel

Technical Control System
1

I was wondering how to change the channel on one of the Robot controllers. so we can drive both of our robots at the same time

Thanks in Advanced

Barry Preston

STAG Robotics
Team #1997
Programming and Communications Officer

2

Change the team number on the OI for the second robot, then power up tethered to pass the change on to the robot.

3

On the 2005 and later systems, the team number has to be set greater than 2048 in order to enable alternate channels. In your case, it might be most convenient just to flip the leftmost switch on the OI and use team number 3045 for the other (older?) robot. You will have to use the tether cable in order to get the number transferred to the robot.

Once you have the team number changed, use the channel select switches to choose the other channel. Here’s the key:


1  2   3   4  Channel
X  ON  ON  ON  04
X  ON  ON OFF  13
X  ON OFF  ON  22
X  ON OFF OFF  31
X OFF  ON  ON  40
X OFF  ON OFF  01
X OFF OFF  ON  40
X OFF OFF OFF  40

A couple of weeks ago, we had no fewer than four of our robots running around simultaneously, all on separate channels.

4

thanks i’ll try this out tomorrow

THANKS!!!

Barry Preston
STAG Robotics
Team #1997
Programming and Communications Officer

5

Thanks…

Does this mean that you can’t use more than 6 robotics on RF at a time

Barry Preston
STAG Robotics
Team #1997
Programming and Communications Officer

6

That’s correct: you can’t have more than six simultaneous robots under radio control. However, FIRST can have up to 40, using an undocumented protocol. Unless you find a way to properly simulate the field control communication through the competition port connector, you won’t be able to access the other 34 radio channels.

7

Technically, you could change team numbers to have more than six robots working at a time, correct?

8

You’d need different team numbers unless you wanted one set of controls to operate two robots simultaneously, e.g., maybe for a push test.
You’d need separate radio channels too. Different team radio packets on the same channel can cause interference if the timing of the packet transmissions happen to overlap and garble the messages, making the robot response jerky.