I would like to add further information about the thread started by the Pilons Coach regarding the loss of connection between the cortex and the joysticks. Sorry to start a new thread but I was unable to post to his thread. Our team has the same problem. We have replaced the vexnet keys with new ones and the same think happens. We researched the problem on the internet and one answer was that the WiFi in the school could be the problems it sniffed out unknown channels and shut them down. I contacted the IT department and they assured me that although they watch for unknown channels they do not use any software to close that down, they just monitor it. They watch the network for a few days and could not see any indication of shutting down WiFi connections.
This problem also seemed to occur last season in a couple of the competitions we attended. Has any solution been found? Are there any fixes?
Hi head Gopher,
I’m not sure exactly what problem you’re describing, but I’m sorry you’re seeing issues and I want to make sure we help you figure things out.
As Eli discussed in that thread, the probably causes are:
Some sort of wifi interference
A poor physical connection between the VEXnet key and Cortex Microcontroller or VEXnet joystick.
A damaged VEXnet key
Since you seem to be discussing #1, I can talk about that a bit:
VEXnet is actually pretty good about “finding gaps” in Wifi noise, which is why it is able to run even in poor environments. However, it is always better to disable ALL wifi if possible to provide the best environment possible for the robots.
In addition, we’ve seen some facilities which have Wifi hunter-killer systems, these will target devices with unknown MAC addresses and block them. There isn’t a whole lot that VEXnet can do to find gaps in that.
In these situations, we encourage the devices be turned off, or the robot MAC addresses be added to the “whitelist.”
If you’re sure this isn’t the problem, is it possible #2 or #3 are the issue?
Please note – there are a number of issues that can occur (including the ones PiLons Coach alluded to at the beginning of his post) which can cause robots to have problems during a match. Most of these issues have nothing to do with VEXnet. (You may be surprised to hear this, but as we compile reports from our field techs, the VAST majority of robot failures result from batteries coming unplugged.)
What problems are you seeing specifically?
I’m happy to help you talk through it or you can contact tech support ([email protected] or 903.453.0802) and they can work through things with you. Let us know how we can help.