🏡Practicing At Home

This article discusses how to run your robot at home with the VH-109 radio. These methods are organized in the order that requires the least amount of effort/time for teams.

VH-109 As An Access Point (Recommended)

This method uses a second VH-109 Robot Radio as an access point. The method does require you to have two VH-109 Robot Radios, one for the robot and one to act as an access point. In addition, you will need to program one VH-109 to act as an access point.

In addition, the VH-109 does not have the cooling features found in the VH-113. If you are using the VH-109 Robot Radio as an access point, we strongly recommend that you use it in conjunction with a heatsink.

While this method is a little more involved (need to re-program one VH-109 and need to use a heatsink), this allows teams to use hardware they likely already have to take advantage of the added performance and reliability of Wi-Fi 6E.

In addition, using a switch in this setup allows for other laptops (ex: programming laptops) to connect to the robot, making wireless programming and debugging easier.

In order to power the VH-109 Robot Radio being used as an access point, we recommend using the VH-117 PoE Wall Adapter. This will enable you to power the VH-109 from a wall outlet using Power over Ethernet.

If you aren't using the VH-117 PoE Wall Adapter, you can use the 12V input on the VH-109 Robot Radio. You will need to use a power supply that can provide 12V@1A.

What You'll Need

Connectivity Diagram

VH-113 Access Point

This configuration is the closest you can get to playing on a real field. This uses the VH-113 Access Point, which is the wireless access point used on all official fields. This not only allows teams to take advantage of the added performance and reliability of Wi-Fi 6E, but also test their robot on hardware that is almost identical to what is used on a real field.

In order to setup this option, you will need to purchase the VH-113 Access Point. The VH-113 is extremely similar to the VH-109, except that it has additional cooling features which allow it to run for longer periods of time.

The VH-113 Access Point can be powered through one of two ways:

1. We recommend using the VH-117 PoE Wall Adapter to power the VH-113 Access Point using Power over Ethernet.

2. You can power the VH-113 through the 12V power input connector. You will need to supply a power supply capable of providing 12V@1A.

What You'll Need

Connectivity Diagram

Laptop Direct To VH-109

Some laptops do have Wi-Fi 6E functionality. These laptops can connect directly to the VH-109 Robot Radio when configured as an Access Point while running the radio firmware without any other hardware.

What You'll Need

Connectivity Diagram

TODO

2.4GHz Access Point

This configuration uses the 2.4GHz capability of the VH-109 Robot Radio to connect to your driver station laptop.

In order to make this work, you will need to remove the DIP Switch cover sticker from the bottom of the VH-109 Robot Radio and change switch #3 to the ON position.

It is important to note that using this configuration will likely lead to poor wireless performance. School campuses tend to be noisy environments, with many Wi-Fi networks broadcasting at 2.4GHz. In addition, the performance will be degraded by any older wireless hardware on the driver station laptop.

In testing, we were able to reach PHY rates of 286Mbps. This was in an uncongested area, using an 802.11ax compatible wireless adapter. However, actual performance will be much lower depending on how much wireless congestion there is, and the age of the wireless adapter on the driver station laptop.

We only recommend this method in extreme cases.

What You'll Need

Connectivity Diagram

VH-113 Full Field

If you are running an offseason event or scrimmage and want to use the VH-113 Access Point, this is the setup you should use.

What You'll Need

Wiring Diagram

VH-109 Full Field

This setup should be used if you need to run a full field, but don't have a VH-113. This does require that you re-program a VH-109 with the AP Firmware, allowing it to setup SSIDs and VLANs for 6 different robots.

What You'll Need

Connectivity Diagram