During auto skills, our bot would disconnect from the field, and field controller logs show this error (attached below). Is this our robots fault or is it the field controller’s fault. If any official vex staff or support could confirm this that would be greatly appreciated.
You had a disconnect between your robot and V5 controller, that is, a radio disconnect. Not a field control issue.
This happened to multiple teams on multiple different fields. Could it be due to density? I know vex uses Bluetooth. We are using vex net here. Attached is an image of skills field area. Additionally, another example of the error where the bot completely disconnects and gets sent back to the program picker.
We run the skills fields at worlds with the radio switched to Bluetooth.
That sounds like more of a problem with the robot/code either stopping the program or rebooting.
environment could be an issue, impossible to diagnose remotely..
Unless I am mistaken,
VEXNet uses a non-competition channel and then uses a competition channel when connected to a field. (essentially is why when you disconnect the controller from the field, the robot disconnects from the controller for 1-2 seconds before reconnecting).
If the competition channel is being overused in a densely packed area, I would assume teams might need to use bluetooth. This is consistent with what I have done while competing at VEX Worlds and was instructed to me back in 2018 when V5 was first released for Worlds 2018, 2019, 2020, and I believe also 2022.
There are multiple competition channels, any event which is not the size of worlds need not really worry about this. At worlds we run10 divisions each with three fields plus around 16 skills fields and multiple practise fields. We have the ability to designate which channels are used for divisions to minimize interference. Only one of the three fields will be on that competition channel when TM activates it.
Bluetooth is not allowed for normal matches, the V5 controller display will be red with a message saying bluetooth is not supported for field control.
For skills a different version of the field control app is used that will allow either VEXnet or Bluetooth to be used depending on how the event staff has decided to run them (a setting in the app). If you connect with the wrong radio type selected it will show an error.
I have no insight into the OPs specific event and how it may have been setup. Was wifi disabled in the arena, any microwave ovens present (known to cause issues) etc. OP should discuss any concerns with the event staff,
Thank you all for your help. We were not able to diagnose the issue but we believe it may have been due to the individual radios of the bots. Additionally, the specific field was set up in a corner surrounded by concrete walls as well. Our event staff was also unable to diagnose the issue and were unable to pinpoint the source of error without running skills on Bluetooth, which for some reason was unable to be enabled on the field controllers. Microwaves were present I believe but they were on higher floors of the arena. Thank yall for your help though!!