Built in WiFi at FRC Events

[kenschenke]

I am an FTAA, FTA Trainee, and mentor for 1987. I have questions and thoughts about how the built in WiFi on the SystemCore would be handled at FRC events.

Hopefully there will or should be a rule about it not being used and/or disabled while on the field. This is an important safety concern as a team could easily enable their robot while still connected to the FMS. We have successfully done this in 1987's shop while connected to our Cheesy Arena FMS.

Will it be allowed in the pits or while on the practice field?

My suggestion would be for the SystemCore to force it off when it connects to the FMS and disable the checkbox on the web page. I am not sure, but the 2027 Driver Station might have tell the SystemCore that an FMS connection is active.

The honor system is all well and good until a team realizes right before match start that they forgot to correctly position a mechanism and quickly enables over WiFi. It could even be done from a second laptop that isn't even plugged into the field's ethernet.

I know there is a current rule that forbids tethering without the FTA's permission. The rule should be broadened to prohibit the robot from being enabled by any means without the FTA's permission. Right now, tethering is somewhat easy to spot because of the physical presence of an Ethernet cable. WiFi makes it much harder to spot. In that scenario, teams might be so hyper-focused on their robot they might not even notice people nearby.

[ThadHouse]

This is an important safety concern as a team could easily enable their robot while still connected to the FMS. We have successfully done this in 1987's shop while connected to our Cheesy Arena FMS.

When on a real field using the official network setup, this is actually something that is blocked. And the DS will report this when it occurs.