Trouble with the Wi Fi

Ok so my school suddenly got a few sets of Vex parts, and decided they were going to start a robotics club in the school. Great plan and all, I basically got voted by the group to learn to program everything.

So we’re having a bit of a problem, so I plug the controller and the Cortex part into the computer and update them, like EasyC tells me to.
I go and plug the controller and the cortex together and have then sync to each other like the guide says.
Now I know that when I have the cortex and the controller wired together, then the programming wire in the computer, I can load a program onto the system. It’ll work, i can move some motors and whatnot. But the second I remove the cable between the controller and the cortex, and plug the wifi cards into both. They stop working, and I can never get it to come out of the yellow VEXnet light blinking really fast which the guide says “its searching for its mate.”
One time it did manage to get a connection for all of about 5 seconds when we tried a different pair of Wifi cards, but now they don’t work with any combo of cards no matter what I try.

I realize this might go more into a hardware oriented forum, but if someone can tell me how to get around this connectivity problem, or direct me to someone who can help, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you all and have a nice day

You cannot swap USB connections with system powered up. You must turn off everything before plugging or unplugging the USB cables.

Thanks for you help, but it turns out the WIFI adapters were damaged inside, if you push on them slightly down it forces the broke solder back into place, so until we can replace them we’re just sticking some paper in the space.

I wonder, could a regular belkin or netgear Wifi USB adapter be able to operate with the VEX machines in a pinch? Cause I’ve got a handful of those lying around.

No, the chipset must match the VexNet keys. Call Vex they will help you.