troubleshooting my adhoc setup

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Using an Adhoc Setup with Samantha Troubleshooting my AdHoc Setup

Thread: Troubleshooting my AdHoc Setup

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10-02-2010, 05:13 PM

Given that the FCS is seeing the Samantha from a

discovery mechanism, it is looking like you may not have

correctly named your NXT. The error message that the

FCS gives in this situation needs to be fixed, but if you

rename your NXT with your team number you should have

no problems selecting it from the FCS. I've entered a bug

ticket on this situation to get a better error message so

other teams don't run into this case.

#1

Join Date:

Posts:

Sep 2010

22

Mr 300

Samantha Expert Originally Posted by Hagerty4227

Our team is new this year and is trying to get familiar

with the Samantha module and the FCS software.

We have configured our Samantha to use an ad-hoc

wireless network controlled by a laptop without a

router. The static IP Address of our wireless laptop is

169.254.116.229 and the Samantha was assigned

169.254.252.104. The samostat program identifies

that we are correctly connected to the wireless

network. The FCS program "finds" our NXT with the

correct IP address, but when we "Choose" it, we get

the error (in red) of "Can't Find" (no other text), with

the team name automatically being chosen as NXT.

Since it doesn't seem to be a Samantha connectivity

issue, is there something else that we are

overlooking? Is it possible to test the FCS software

with only one team in a match? Any help would be

greatly appreciated.

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10-04-2010, 11:55 AM #2

Mr 300

Forum

Troubleshooting my AdHoc Setup http://ftcforum.usfirst.org/showthread.php?120-Troubleshooting-my-...

1 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

Ok this is quite curious. If the Samostat says that you

have the same IP address as the computer, it means you

are likely on different networks since the router should not

give out the same address twice. Let's start with some

simple debugging to understand what is happening.

What does Samostat say fully? It should have an IP

address (probably 192.168.1.100 if I am guessing

right). It should also report what network it is

connected to (look for the * to the left of the

network).

1.

How is your computer connected? The easiest way

for us to diagnose it is to do is give the output of the

following two commands (you have to run a dos

command to do this - just go to the start menu,

select run and type cmd and hit return):ipconfig /all

netstat -r

2.

As you might suspect, if the Samantha module and the

computer have the same IP address, there is no way that

they can talk to one another. It is the equivalent of two

people having the same cell phone number which we know

would be quite confusing.

Join Date:

Posts:

Sep 2010

22

Samantha Expert

Originally Posted by aljowe

We were also having trouble with getting the wifi to

work. We have a solid red and blue light and a slow

blinking white light, our Samostat program shows

that we have the same ip address as our computer,

but when we go to the FCS and click choose, nothing

comes up and it doesn't recognize our team number

when we just try to type it in. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

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10-06-2010, 01:00 AM #3

Join Date:

Posts:

Sep 2010

22

Mr 300

Samantha Expert Originally Posted by aljowe

We actually did make the ip addresses the same, and

we only tried that because we couldn't think of

anything else to do.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]

Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights

reserved.

C:\Users\general robotics>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : generalrobot-PC

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No


2 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection 3:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth Device

(Personal Area Network)

#3

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0C-78-33-CA-25

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:


Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR928X

Wireless Network Adapter

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-26-5E-F0-C0-7F

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No


Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . :

fe80::dc05:3b6:b1f9:460a%11(Preferred)

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . :

169.254.109.95(Preferred)

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 169.254.1.1

DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 268444493

DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-12-2D-

7D-57-00-24-BE-39-E5-AE

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1

fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1

fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:



Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8057

PCI-E Gigabit Ether

net Controller

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-24-BE-39-E5-AE

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes


Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:



Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.

{C1121A84-3E64-4076-93C4-3FECC1337

64B}

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . :

00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No






3 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP

Adapter #2


00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No





Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.

{4B0316E2-8C65-46BE-8234-A2B0C7014

347}


00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No





Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP

Adapter #3


00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No





Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{9F7205DA-

677A-46C3-9FC6-B9B7462CF

441}


00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No





Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling

Pseudo-Interface

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No





Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 6TO4 Adapter


00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No



4 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

C:\Users\general robotics>netstat -r

================================

==================

=========================

Interface List

11 ...00 26 5e f0 c0 7f ...... Atheros AR928X Wireless

Network Adapter

10 ...00 24 be 39 e5 ae ...... Marvell Yukon 88E8057

PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Con

troller

1 ........................... Software Loopback Interface 1

12 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 isatap.

{C1121A84-3E64-4076-93C4-3FECC133764B}

13 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP

Adapter #2

23 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 isatap.

{4B0316E2-8C65-46BE-8234-A2B0C7014347}

16 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP

Adapter #3

21 ...02 00 54 55 4e 01 ...... Teredo Tunneling

Pseudo-Interface

22 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 6TO4 Adapter

================================

==================

=========================

IPv4 Route Table

================================

==================

=========================

Active Routes:

Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface

Metric

127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306

127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306

127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1

306

224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306

255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1

306

================================

==================

=========================

Persistent Routes:

Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Metric

0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 169.254.1.1 Default

================================

==================

=========================

IPv6 Route Table

================================

==================

=========================

Active Routes:

If Metric Network Destination Gateway

1 306 ::1/128 On-link

1 306 ff00::/8 On-link

================================

==================


5 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

Ok from looking at the information here, it appears that

you are running Adhoc on Vista. Be aware that adhoc is

always dicey and Vista turns out to be the most unreliable

environment for getting Adhoc to work. In general we

recommend connecting through a router (there are some

pretty inexpensive ones out there) for the most reliable

approach and should be significantly less error prone than

Adhoc.

For going down the AdHoc direction, I'm assuming you

read the instructions on the FIRST web page at

http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...Hoc_setup.html.

Please make sure that you get to the last step where you

see that it has connected to the network.

From looking at the information you provided, what is odd

is that you don't appear to have a route to the Samantha

Module which means it can't talk. You can prove this by

looking at the IP address of the Samantha module with

Samostat. It should be a 169.254.x.x address. Knowing

that address, you can go to the windows command prompt

and try to ping it with the command: ping 169.254.x.x

(remember to put in the real address). Since I am

guessing that won't result in it talking you can confirm by

typing traceroute 169.254.x.x command. If it says "No

route to host" then we need to take out the default

gateway and try again.

=========================

Persistent Routes:

None

C:\Users\general robotics>

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10-25-2010, 06:36 PM

Troubleshooting my AdHoc Setup

#4

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Location:

Posts:

Sep 2010

Manchester, NH

110

GutterBall_FTCStaff

FTC Staff

Originally Posted by laird

Would like to use dedicated link between PC and

robot and do not want to use router (don't have one

and don't need complexity of another device in

network). Have tried all standard approaches and

some not so standard (have read every message in

forum relating to same and am having similar

problems as many). Using WinXP, Dell laptop,

standard built-in WiFi; network set to FTC_PIT using

secured and unsecured approaches; IP set to

169.254.100.53; netmask 255.255.0.0; gateway

169.254.1.1. Samantha module confirmed at

169.254.115.227; WiFi link confirmed to FTC_PIT.

WiFi connection successful, higher-level network

connection NO GOOD - cannot ping, cannot open

website, cannot tracert to Samantha module. Have

tried to froce PC onto same network as Samantha

module (set PC IP to 169.254.115.100) - still no


6 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

Please go to the Device Manager in Windows (control panel

-> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> Network

Adapters) and let us know the name(s) of the network

adapter(s) that is/are listed so we can better diagnose this

problem.

luck...

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10-25-2010, 07:17 PM

Ad Hoc Connections

#5

Join Date:

Posts:

Sep 2010

80

GOI <):)

FTC Staff

Originally Posted by jedutra

(Questions consolidated)

Hello,

We have not yet been able to get our Samantha unit

to connect to the wireless. The Wifi light never

blinks.

We followed the instructions for a Wireless:Ad

Hoc:Vista:No Security configuration. This is what we

have been able to do so far:

We created the SSID Network for the

Samantha and the Laptop. The laptop has its

IP address (Static using the team number

formula as it is specified on the web)

169.254.116.233

We compiled the Samostat program on the

NXT and the Samantha has broadcast its IP

address. However, it starts with 169.254, and

I think I saw in another post that means it is

not able to talk to the router, but don't know

what to do about this.

We have not been able to bring up a web

page using the url of Samantha.

I also read that that Samantha cannot talk to

LabView directly, it can only do so through the FCS,

but I don't understand exactly what that means. The

FCS brings up the match software for competition.

How can that be used to talk to Samantha? Sorry to

sound so clueless. Just trying to figure this out for

the kids.

Thanks very much for your advice,

We are having a terrible time trying to get our

Samantha unit hooked up and receiving wifi signals.

Please understand that no one on our team is an IT

person, so many of the concepts used are completely

new to us. We cannot get the white LED button to

light up at all. We have been through the Samantha

set up page numerous times trying to understand

where we went wrong.


7 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

It sounds like you might have a few things going on, and I

will see what I can do to clear up all of them at once.

I see that you are using labview. There are some tutorials

on the FIRST FTC site you will find some programming

resources. One will send you to http://decibel.ni.com

/content/docs/DOC-7152 where there are a lot of beginner

resources that will help you a little with this, and a lot in

general about FTC and labview.

To get samostat onto the brick, you must first have the

brick attached to the computer with a USB cable. Open the

samostat VI (samostat.vi) from the samantha folder.

Target Labview to your NXT and hit the run arrow. when

completed, you will be able to find samostat on the NXT

under Software files.

I see you are trying Ad Hoc. We have had some issues

with the intel wireless card because it does not want to

slow down to the speed Samantha requires. If you had

access to a router, it would make things a lot easier. Open

the control panel on your PC. You might have to switch to

a classic or icon view, but there will be a program simply

called "system." Double clicking on that will open up a

small window with tabs. Click on the hardware tab. Near

the top on the right there is a button that says "Device

Manager." Open that and you see a list of items. Click the

plus next to open up the "Network adapters." It will list a

few different lines, and if you could let me know what

those say it can help with the Ad Hoc.

We see on the posts that you are referring to

running the Samostat program on the NXT. How did

the Samostat program get onto the NXT? Are we

supposed to load it separately directly from a

memory stick?

We are very frustrated because we cannot get our

robot moving until we solve this problem. Is it

possible to give a step by step description of what

programs we're supposed to install and in what

order?

We configured the Unidentified Network, but after

that. we're not sure about the SSID thing. Is there a

help line we can call? Is there anyone else in the LA

area who can stop by and help us?

When we change the FTC laptop over to our

Samantha network configuration, we are no longer

able to connect to the Web. This has become a

problem because we are trying to troubleshoot why

we can't get our WIFI connection working and we

have to keep running into the next room to look at

the online Help pages and the Forum on a second

computer.

Frustrated,

Team 4231


8 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

An IP address starting with 169.254 simply means that is

is self assigned. When using AdHoc properly, it will have a

169.254 address. The time when 169.254 is bad is when

you are trying to connect to a router.

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10-28-2010, 11:32 AM

Connecting with AdHoc

We have had reliability issues when a default gateway is

identified, so you should start off leaving that blank.

Keep the "View Available wireless networks" open while

trying to connect to samantha. The AdHoc entry should

say "on demand" when Samantha is off, and switch to

"Connected" when samantha is powered in. Samantha's

white light will flash steady when it sees the AdHoc and

will only turn solid white when you "choose" it in the FCS

program.

Please let us know how this worked for you.

#6

Join Date:

Posts:

Sep 2010

80

GOI <):)

FTC Staff

Originally Posted by PSH407

My team had been using ad-hoc networks before

switching to routers. We were running on XP which

may be slightly better than Vista for ad-hoc.

However, the problem that was always prevalent

(regardless of ad-hoc settings, samantha setting, etc)

was that we had to have another computer connect

to the ad-hoc network before the Samantha to

connect.

So our setup was, one computer would broadcast the

ad-hoc network. Another computer would connect to

the ad-hoc network. And then, the Samantha would

connect to the ad-hoc network.

The second computer would always have to stay

connected to the ad-hoc network, otherwise the

samantha and host computer would disconnect.

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10-28-2010, 11:36 AM

Default Gateway

#7

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Posts:

Sep 2010

80

GOI <):)

FTC Staff

Originally Posted by PSH407

Team 407 has been attempting to use Ad-Hoc

networks to connect to the Samantha.

We are reaching a point where the Samantha has the

red power light on, the blue light on (if the NXT is

connected) and indicating the "heart beat", and the

white LED flashing. We have concluded that this

means that the Samantha has found the network,

but will not connect properly.


9 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

We have found that setting the default gateway to a static

IP to be unreliable, please erase it (leave default gateway

blank) and try again.

The rest of what you put seems to have been done

properly.

When using samostat on an NXT connected to the

Samantha, we get the information of:

Code:

169.254.147.2370/0/0:0.00Networks:

FTC_FIELD*@PSHROBOTICS

This seems to be incorrect as we are setting the

static IP address of our laptop to 169.254.102.159.

The other information that we have set as static is a

subnet mask of 255.255.0.0

And a gateway of 169.254.1.1 (however from

previous network experience we have tried

169.254.102.1 as the gateway). (This information

would be useful too.)

And the Samantha FCS cannot find the

Samantha/NXT (or anything at all) when using the

"Teams Found" dialog box and the "Rescan" button

on the dialog box.

This same problem has occurred with three different

laptops (although all are the same model and

configuration), three different ad-hoc networks, three

different NXT's, and three different Samantha's.

What steps should be taken to actually get the

Samantha to connect?

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10-28-2010, 11:49 AM

Configuring AdHoc

#8

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Posts:

Sep 2010

80

GOI <):)

FTC Staff


Hello,

Thanks very much for your reply. We did compile

and save the Samostat program onto the NXT brick.

I think the problem was that my son was concerned

about saving anything under the original file name in

case he accidentally overwrote something important,

so he had saved the file with the name

"samostat1.vi" after he downloaded the FTC

component and the NXT wasn't recognizing it.

I did check the Device manager under the System

folder as you requested. The two entries under


10 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

Don't worry about copying over any of the Samantha files.

The c and labview files stay in the Samantha folder on

your computer and you can copy them to the NXT

anytime.

I am not really understanding what the "Unidentified

network" is.

When generating an AdHoc on the computer, you can call

it just about anything you want as long as it's the same

name you put into SamoCFG. (We used FTC_PITS to test

in house). Also when setting up the AdHoc network, leave

the default gateway blank.

When using an AdHoc network, you need to have "Connect

automatically when this network is in range" as well as

"Connect even if this network is not broadcasting."

As for using the Verizion router, it is recommended to use

a wireless router for testing. Use SamoCFG to put in the

SSID and password and load that to your Samantha. You

then can use a computer connected to the router via an

Ethernet cable with the FCS loaded to grab the Samantha

and run matched from there. Events will use routers too,

and AdHoc will not be used for matches.

Network Adapters are:

Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter

Realtek RTL8102E Family PCI-E Fast Ethernet NIC

(NDIS 6.0)

When I checked the Adapter Properties window for

the SSID network, it is displaying the Atheros

adapter.

BTW, when we enter the Static IP Address on the

laptop, so that it can change over to the Unidentified

Network, we get this warning message:

" Multiple Default Gateways will not function properly

when they are on two separate, disjoint networks.

Do you want to continue anyway?"

We click "yes", but I wonder if that is a clue as to

why Samantha is not detecting any networks in her

range.

Also, do we need to configure the SSID Properties in

any particular way? One option is: Connect

automatically when this network is in range. So far,

we have left this unchecked.

Finally, we do have a Verizon wireless router installed

in our home. Is it preferable to use that instead of

the Wireless option?

Thank you very much,

team 4231


11 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

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10-28-2010, 12:01 PM

AdHoc Encryption

SamoCFG must be used with AdHoc. Check in SamoCFG

that it is an AdHoc network and put the SSID, password,

and encryption type you used when creating the network.

In a sense, AdHoc pretends it's a router except that AdHoc

is a 1 to 1 connection, only 2 computers can be used at

once and is not used to divide a connection (such as the

internet) to multiple computers.

You should leave the field as open if you did not put a

password on the AdHoc network, but it is strongly

suggested to use encryption on an AdHoc network because

otherwise anybody can connect to your computer when

you are not connected to another wireless source.

When trying to conenct via AdHoc, it's helpful to keep the

"View Available wireless Networks" Dialog box open on

your computer. It will say "On Demand" when it's ready,

"Connected" when the Samantha is communicating with

the computer. At that point, it should be ready for the FCS

to use the Samantha.

#9

Join Date:

Posts:

Sep 2010

80

GOI <):)

FTC Staff


Hello,

We are trying to get the wifi connection working at

our home, but still have yet to see a blinking white

light. We are using the Wireless, Ad Hoc, Vista

instructions.

It seems like we have to install the SamoCfg program

before the wifi will work correctly. Is that correct?

We do not have any security or data encryption

turned on, so I assume we should leave the Open

Network and Data Encryption choices disabled.

The Samostat program does see the name of our

network (which we called FTC_Test like the

instruction screen), but no white light. I am

wondering if we made all the right choices when we

saved the network configuration and loaded it into

Sam.

I am assuming that we have to get the wifi installed

properly before our students can use the controllers

to test out their design. is that correct?

Thank you,

Team 4231

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#10


12 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

« Previous Thread | Next Thread »

11-03-2010, 04:34 PM

Configuring AdHoc

Have you run samoCFG (and selecting that it is AdHoc)

and uploaded that to your computer? It is important to let

the Samantha know not only the SSID and password, but

that it's AdHoc.

It is important to also know with AdHoc that some

computers are able to get the wireless connection with

Samantha, but are unable to obtain a data connection. For

that reason, it is recommended to use one of our

supported routers.

Join Date:

Posts:

Sep 2010

80

GOI <):)

FTC Staff

Originally Posted by GOI <):)

We have had reliability issues when a default

gateway, so you should start off leaving that blank.

Keep the "View Available wireless networks" open

while trying to connect to samantha. The AdHoc

entry should say "on demand" when Samantha is off,

and switch to "Connected" when samantha is

powered in. Samantha's white light will flash steady

when it sees the AdHoc and will only turn solid white

when you "choose" it in the FCS program.

Please reply if it worked or didn't

Originally Posted by clmwebb

Team 3805 here. We're having a similar issue. When

we click "choose" the white light on the Samantha

unit never shows solid. We confirmed we have the

same network selected on the FCS and NXT

<FTC_Pit>. We've read through all the threads and

can't seem to troubleshoot our exact issue to get this

system working.

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Quick Navigation Using an Adhoc Setup with Samantha Top


13 trong 14 21/02/2012 15:32

troubleshooting my adhoc setup

Documents

usersgeneral

teredo tunneling

specific dns

media disconnected

e0 dhcp enabled

media state

autoconfiguration

ip address