Hi
Looking for recommendations for network switch to install on robot.
Thank you
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One should show up in FIRST Choice later this month. If one doesn’t show up, we use a 5 port D-Link switch.
I found a few similar topics with a quick search.
Small networking switch needed for eboard?
Ethernet Switches
Small sidenote, this should probably be somewhere in #technical, not #cd-forum-support
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It’s a shame regulars can no longer change that
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Based on multiple CD recommendations, we used this Brainboxes 5-port switch this year, and I don’t see any reason we’d change next year. It’s got a screw terminal block for power input (no barrel connectors!) and runs on 5-30 VDC, so you can power it straight from the PDP without worrying about low battery voltage taking out your switch.
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Wow, those look great! Bookmarked immediately!
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So I think I was one of the first people to recommend these and I still like them but we did stop using ours last season. We had it between our radio and our limelight and at the Greenville event every time we took a big hit (even just running into the feeder station), we would stop getting limelight video for a few seconds. We didn’t have anything else plugged into the switch so we just plugged the limelight straight into the radio and our problems went away. Not sure if that was just the single switch we had but it’s at least a data point to know that all of them aren’t perfect and something to watch out for.
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Thanks for the update. We haven’t had any similar problems, but will keep your experience in mind.
To the OP and others interested in this switch, as with any part that’s not designed for the repeated mechanical shocks of a robotics competition, we travel with a spare, and recommend you consider doing the same.
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We have used this switch with a lot of success:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074W5NW95/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
We picked that one in particular because of its small size and because you can power it off the USB port on the Roborio.
We also used the Brainbox 5 port switch last year. It worked very well. I wonder, however, if this 2020 change to Wpilib might reduce or eliminate the need for an Ethernet switch: from https://docs.wpilib.org/en/latest/docs/software/wpilib-overview/new-for-2020.html
“ Added a PortForwarding class to allow forwarding a ports from a remote, to a client. This can be used when connecting to the roboRIO from USB and needing to access Ethernet content.”
RLB
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We have also used the XtremePro switch, for the same reasons. No problems at all.
The Brainbox does look like a good switch and the voltage range is nice. It is only a 10/100 Mbps switch (XtremePro is gigabit), but OTOH, the Rio is also only 10/100. Both are actually 10/100.
If I read that correctly, that will allow the drivers station to see a coprocessor when connected via the USB cable. I doubt it will allow routing of Ethernet packets through the Rio (that would turn it into a NAT box), and it would be a bad idea anyway; it would increase network latency and load on the Rio.
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