Hopefully we are approaching the end of the time where we need to switch between the new and old radios while attending offseason events but i suspect there will be times that the old radio is the required unit.
How reasonable would it be to have a way to turn off the Vivid wifi and simply attach the open mesh radio to the DS port. Possibly even one of the POE pass through ports
Doing so would definitely require a Firmware update to either radio. Both the OpenMesh and VH radio have an always on DHCP server. Having 2 DHCP servers on the same network, both pointing to a similar IP config is problematic.
However, if either radio had a way to disable its DHCP server, that actually is a decent idea. You could even leave the both radios powered. As long as you disabled the 2.4 GHz radio on the VH radio, the WiFi on the 2 radios wouldn’t interfere with each other.
You could leave the wifi on (different frequency bands, so they won’t conflict), but it would be necessary to switch off the DHCP server of one radio or the other, as they’d conflict otherwise… although you might be able to get away with just making everything static addresses.
I would envision the Vivid radio being permanently install since its the default radio from 2025 forward. Also it feels like Vivid is actively developing firmware and if there was a way to add the DHCP and Wifi disable option now is the time.
Having a easy way to temporarily revert to the old radio i see a benefit.
Thanks for considering and talking through the possibilities.
My angle on this idea is to alow groups who run small offseason events to slowly adapt the new field radios.
Hot take: having just used the new radios with 0 experience with them at Rainbow Rumble. We were handed a pre-flashed radio. Plugged it in with our same poe setup per usual, zip tied it to a metal beam and away we went. No issues. Vivid sponsored the event so they had new radios for teams that didn’t have them (us). It was super simple to just switch back and forth by moving the main poe injected Ethernet we already used.
Why would you want/need to chain the two together? Just simply disconnect one and plug in the other one while leaving them both mounted. Also leaving both powered on at the same time is just draining battery (yes it’s less than a compressor or motor but so what).
Don’t power the radio you are not using?
The downside of that is you lose the switch functionality of the new radio when it’s powered off, so you’d need another powered switch in addition to the radios.
Without actually rereading the text of the rule, It seems that having two radios powered would violate the rule around unauthorized wireless devices. You are allowed one wireless device to talk to the FMS. I will leave it to your LRI to argue the finer points of the rule.
It would definitely not be legal at official events, for the reasons you state. However, for offseasons and at home use, it’s a worthwhile question.
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