Since the beginning of January, we’ve been having a really odd error in which the DS software repeatedly connects and disconnects, even when the robot is disabled. We’ve tried replacing the Rio and radio (twice each) and all latest firmware/Rio image is installed. We’ve tried this on 3 laptops - my programming computer and both Driver stations. The only other solution we’ve seen on CD is to reinstall Windows 10 - but trying 3 different laptops should mean that isn’t the solution. It doesn’t seem like it’s linked to us moving around the robot. Also, it happens really infrequently and didn’t start as soon as we built this robot. Any ideas?
Thank you for helping us out
Hello,
I have not experienced this issue myself, but there are a couple things I think could be behind it.
1: You mentioned replacing the Rio and the radio, but not the wiring between them. If you haven’t already, check the wiring to make sure it is secure and try replacing the wires with new ones.
2: If you are programming in C++ there is a chance that a memory leak is causing problems with the radio. This is likely to be the case if the disconnect problem happens consistently after some action is done with the robot.
If it isn’t those 2, then I don’t know.
I’d recommend working through the troubleshooting steps here: Known Issues — FIRST Robotics Competition documentation
I have had this issue. I’m pretty sure it’s because your 2.4GHz band is clogged up. If you have a spare radio, I would recommend setting it up as an access point so you can utilize 6GHz. It says you need a VH-117 PoE injector, but you can also find a 12V DC power adapter off of some random electronics and splice it into an orange PoE injector (the one found in the KoP, I think?). It’s been working great for us. I would also recommend zip-tying it to some aluminum extrusion to act as a heatsink.
I would first recommend checking on the laptop/device Power and Sleep settings to ensure that the Recommended settings are NOT selected - you will want to use “Best Performance” instead. Windows will tell other components of the laptop to use less power or “sleep” when not used 100% of the time.
Another idea is to ensure that you are not sending too much over network tables (feedback, diagnostics, cameras, etc) and/or updating and polling too frequently, this will interrupt the data stream between the robot and the DS. This bit us a few seasons ago during a debugging effort as we forgot to remove all of the captured feedback…
Thank you all for these suggestions! We will try them and update the thread based on the results.
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