Rule says that your robot isn’t allowed to be connected to WiFi during the match.
I’ve also heard others say that you yourself aren’t allowed to use WiFi during the match.
But are you allowed to use cellular data to access alignment images and the such?
At regular competitions I am unsure. At VEX worlds, heck no. I believe they track wifi/cellular activity with small towers by the event tables to try and reduce interference.
I’m no radio engineer, but cellular data is on different frequencies than WiFi, no? They have definitely scanned for errant WiFi networks, but I’m not sure cellular data is a concern for radio interference.
However, the relevant rule is G7 (emphasis mine):
<G7> Only Drivers, and only in the Alliance Station. During a Match, each Team may have up to three (3) Drive Team Members in their Alliance Station and all Drive Team Members must remain in their Alliance Station for the duration of the Match. Drive Team Members are not allowed to use any sort of communication devices while in the Alliance Station. Devices with communication features turned off (e.g. a phone in airplane mode) are allowed.
While it is not really practical to enforce that every driver has their pocketed phone in airplane mode, a driver using one of those connections during the match would definitely be in violation of G7.
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I think the implications of G7 are more for listening to mentors, other team members, etc, via a phone for instructions rather than to reduce interference. But I could be wrong.
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So, if you had walkie-talkies (technically known as two-way radios), would that be legal, or would you have to power them off during a match? Or would they be fine if you turn the volume down and set it on the floor?
Power off was the practice in the past. Even with volume down, their radios are still active.
[real world example - “Mom I am going to take a shower”, run the water, but don’t step in for 1/2 hour. Are you still using the water? … Radio frequencies do interfere with one another. Lots of effort goes to optimize digital use, but those pesky consumer radios made wherever, probably not paying as much attention to interference as you would like.]
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Yeah, that’s what I thought it implied as well. But I’m wondering whether it would be allowed to use cellular data to see alignments or something else online (that isn’t necessarily communications, but it’s using data).
Literally cellular data is communication.
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What if the alignment images were accessed before the match, and you turned off data for the match, but could still access the images, since they were displayed for you
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This should be totally fine. Like I wouldn’t worry. If it really is a problem just take a screenshot, or save the file in whatever program you are using locally.
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