Teams are encouraged to mount the wireless bridge away from noise
generating devices such as motors, PCM(s), and VRM(s).
Has anyone mounted their radio near their VRM? Is the noise an actual PROBLEM or a lesser annoyance?
As mechanisms get tweaked and some stuff gets added, we’re shifting parts around the bot; our radio’s new home is directly next to our VRMs and I’m a bit worried about it.
Edit: Is there any good way to put a shield around the VRM to block it from interfering with the radio?
We have been mounting radio as far away as electrical components, especially motors. The newer radios are supposed to be less prone to noise but we have been very cautious. Also we mount radio on either polycarbonate (aka lexan) or wood. Except for rookie year we never had communication breakdown. I am not conclusively saying our communication problems were solely due to electrical noise.
The switching nature of the VRM constant voltage power supply can generate noise in the form of switching “spikes”. These may be high enough in frequency to affect radio communications. However they are very low power and as such do not travel very far. Best practice is to mount the radio as high in the robot as possible. Do not surround it with metal, keep it away from noise sources like motors, speed controllers and the VRM. Be sure to secure the power connector with any method that prevents movement in the connectors
Do not try to shield the radio from noise coming from other components in your robot. Anything that would be effective at this will also be effective at blocking the radio signals from the field.
Following good practices such as locating the radio away from other robot components (VRM, PDP, motor controllers, motors, RoboRio) and not running the radio power/signal wiring parallel to other power wiring should be sufficient to get reliable operation.