We created “field boxes”. Each field box contains:
2 25’ Ethernet cables - red and blue
1 VEXNet controller
1 USB Type A to B cable
1 Raspberry Pi in a case (Recommend 3B+ with the built in wireless) and SD card
1 Pi - power supply – ours have on/off switches
1 HDMI - HDMI cable
1 HDMI - VGA cable
2 50’ Ethernet cables - purple
1 Cube tap
all of this in an Orange Homer box along with
2 Towers with Ethernet cables (ours stay ziptied to the towers) - pro tip, get thumb screws to attach the Z bracket to the field.
We have three sets. Pro tip, get colored tape, put color tape on all the cables, Pi, etc. to keep everything in a field set together (red, yellow and white are our colors).
This will let you either set up fields using Raspberry Pi controllers and then do ethernet or do old school VEXNet back to control central. Raspberry Pi goes at the field and you can plug an optional monitor on the field. You need to drag power to the field (extension cords in another box). Cube tap lets you plug in Pi, Monitor, and feed another field with power.
The control central box has
Wireless router
16 Ethernet port switch
USB Hub
Additional Ethernet cables @6’ long
VGA to VGA cable
HDMI to VGA cable
VGA to HDMI cable
HDMI to HDMI cable – you can set this up to match the computers you own these are to let you connect an external display. Ours has all four since sometimes the “host” uses their computers.
Power strip
in Homer Box. (All this stuff has orange tape on it)
Display box has
3 Raspberry Pi in a case (Recommend 3B+ with the built in wireless) and SD card
3 Pi - power supply – ours have on/off switches
3 HDMI - HDMI cable
3 HDMI - VGA cable
3 cube taps
in a Homer Box
This lets you set up three different remote displays (Pit or Audience). We have 2 (green and blue tape) display boxes.
Here you go:
VRC event? Grab one field box (and towers) for each field and the control central box. Optional display boxes.
VIQ event? Grab central control box and display box.
Nice thing is you can do small events (one field, two boxes) or big events. If you are going to do events with divisions consider building two control boxes so your divisions can run separately.
*** There is a delay when using Pi systems over wireless ***
We connect the field Pi’s to the control switch by wires, the displays are wireless. The list above lets you do the fields either way.
Organization is the key! All things of one color come out of one box and back into the box. People helping you can actually help vs making a huge mess.
And that brings us to the last box. It has gaffers tape, masking tape, zip ties (4",6",10"), scissors, clipboard, pens, paper. Buy the good gaffers tape. Tape / zip cables. write down the addresses of the Pi’s, etc. it also contains two extra Ethernet cables for the towers and a competition switch (hand controlled skills field?) It our case it has a spare tower splitter and VEXnet to USB device. Hand full of thumb screws, regular field assembly screws and the right T-Handles for them.
For three fields you are looking at about $1000 for all the above.
On the pit side you will need a power strip for two pits (we bought ones with 8 foot cords). We have a giant flip top box with ~25 of these. I like the Arko-Mills ones and they come in colors too.
Extension cords, 25 and 50’ Also in a flip box.
We have about $500 worth of power stuff.
Good luck!