Solutions to Communication Problems

Sometimes our drive station operator console does not talk to the wireless radio. We experienced this most recently March 26th at our test at Olympia Robotics Federation test field in Tumwater.

Sean F. (student Lead Programmer for Olympia's Team 4450) suggests
1) Unplug roboRIO at radio. Plug directly into a computer.
       Wait 20 seconds. This should refresh the IP address.
2) Plug roboRIO back into radio. This may fix the problem.

When the above does not work, K.O'Connor (FRC Robotics Engineer at forums.usfirst.org) suggests
3) Set drive station IP to 10.TE.AM.5 (TE.AM = 52.95)
     Instructions to Reimage RIO
4) Make sure the adapter is not dual homed. Follow These Steps
5) Disable Windows Firewall. Instructions at Bottom of this Link

6) L.Spoldi of Team 230 Gaelhawks of Shelton High School in Shelton, Connecticut adds
(6A)As noted above, I would strongly suggest verifying that your Windows Firewall is turned off.  You should also disable any networking configurations that are not being used (eg. Local Area Connection is not being used when connect through the WiFi).  Also make sure that you have successfully re-programmed the new OpenMesh radio after your competition.  This is required to reset the WPA key to allow the wireless communication.  Note that you can verify the basic interface by plugging the driver station into the radio with an ethernet cable.  Make sure that the connection to the roboRIO is plugged into the ethernet port that is next to the power connector.  This is also very important. 

(6B)The version of windows running on your driver station may be a factor.  There have been several teams that have had issues with Windows 10 but I believe they were all fixed with the latest driver station software update (https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-46527).

(6C)In addition there are several threads on chiefdelphi.com that provide additional tests that can be performed to validate and test the communications.