We plan to utilize two coprocessors in our robot, but the Open Mesh OM5P-AC router only has two ports available - one connected to the Roborio, and the other to the first coprocessor. We need to find a solution to integrate the additional coprocessor into the system. What would you recommend? Thanks in advance.
You can use a network switch
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We use this one. Brainboxes (SW-005)
We also do not use the second port on the Open Mesh router because it sometimes has issues.
We plug the rio into the switch and the switch into to the first port on the open mesh
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Thanks for the detailed answer.
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You really really should use a network switch. There have been documented issues with the second port occasionally causing a connection issue that can only be solved with a power cycle—and guess what you can’t do mid-match when you discover it.
Fortunately, anyone with a soldering iron (to get around the barrel jack) and a cheap network switch can get a reliable one; see 900’s ZebraSwitch. While researching this for 1293 this year, I noticed Pololu has newer lines of converters that are a bit cheaper—hooray for the march of progress. The TP-Link one from FIRST Choice is adequate for many things, but they make a gigabit model to be done the same way if the speed is desirable.
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This explains the random issues we’ve had before. A lifesaver, thanks!
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Yeah, fun story from ECR, we had the RIO into the first port, and the limelight in the second, and during practice matches the limelight kept disconnecting, so one of the mentors on our team went out to the nearest best buy and bought a 5 port netgear switch, and we stripped the power adapter to it and plugged it into our PDH and it worked flawlessly after that, after ECR we did buy the Brainbox 5 port network switch, and we highly reccomend that all teams use a network switch, saves so much headache
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