Hi everyone! Over this last year, we put together a box with tablets and networking equipment to legally connect to the internet at competition to scout with. This document goes through our setup and operations process. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask here.
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Is the usage of a 16 port Ethernet switch due to having 8 tablets + server (so 9 connections), or is there something I’m missing? Considering making something based off of this, and since we only use 6 tablets + server a 8 port switch would be cheaper + potentially suited better for us
Sweet packaging!
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This is correct. We have a scout per team and then a scout per alliance with our current scouting system config, which gets us to 8 tablets. Additionally, we wanted the flexibility of being able to support more devices in case we wanted to double up scouts or augment our super scouting.
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Do you think a smaller wattage battery pack would work, or is this the size you would recommend? We would be using 6 tablets, so I am on the fence about whether or not we should go for something a bit smaller if we were to build something like this. Thanks!!
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If you don’t care as much about packaging, we just use an inverter with pit-grade robot batteries. They’re nominally specced at 216 Wh, so even a degraded battery will be in the ballpark of their better-integrated pack.
One and a cheap AutoZone inverter is enough to get our ThinkPad through a day in the stands without a care in the world, you have a steady supply of them each year if you weed and demote batteries like you ought to, and you have the infrastructure to keep them charged.
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The battery that we use powers the ethernet switch and the router during the competition. We also use the battery to charge our 8 tablets during breaks. Occasionally we come close to or have to switch our battery during competition. For around 6 tablets I would recommend using a similar-sized battery such that your team has a little leeway during scouting.
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If you packaged both the networking hardware and the battery in Zero Halliburton cases, you could make the setup at competition look a lot like this scene from my favorite movie:
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