cRIO random connection failure

Our team uses a cRIO from last year, which should be the same as they have this year. Our software and firmwares are all updated to the latest version. Today, we flashed the cRIO because our laptops were not connecting to it last night, and it connected once and deployed code just fine. But we turned the robot off and when we deployed code the second time, it no longer connects. Same thing happened last night: works some of the time after we power cycle everything but mostly refuses to connect. How would we fix this?

Our configurations:
Laptop IP: 10.30.70.6
Wireless Router IP: 10.30.70.4 (gateway)
Robot Wifi IP: 10.30.70.1
cRIO IP: 10.30.70.2

Setup:
Laptop-(eth)->Router-(wifi)->Robot Wifi–>cRIO

Testing results:
ping 10.30.70.6: pinging localhost works
ping 10.30.70.4: connects to router fine
ping 10.30.70.1 or 2: request timed out

Driver Station Output: “No Robot Communication”

Have you tried a hardwire setup, just to see if it’s a networking issue? Plug an Ethernet cable from the router to port #1 on the cRIO, just to see what happens.

EDIT: You’re not alone, apparently: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80393

Thanks for that cross-link to the other thread. It’s a little confusing to have discussions in the “parent” forum, and the “child” forum at the same time.

I have 2 theories in that other thread. One involves problems when going back and forth between tethered and wireless … and the other is related to wireless only.

I’m leaning towards a theory involving a boot-up race condition. See the other thread for the details, but, in a nutshell, our theory is that the cRIO boots up faster than the wireless bridge causing the cRIO network port to time-out.

Resetting the cRIO after the bridge is up appears to fix the problem for us.

(your mileage may vary)

edit: I just posted a question on the NI forums. Perhaps their engineers could shed some light on this theory.

Thanks for your help. Unplugging and plugging the cRIO back in works for us too.

The boot order does seem to provoke an issue, and we are investigating it. It appears to be an issue with how the game adapter/bridge computes its routing table. In the meantime, the warm reboot of the cRIO will correct the issue.

Greg McKaskle

Please see the explanation of the issue and resolution here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?p=905071#post905071