Physical Setup
Having now configured your FMS, imported teams, and performed other setup tasks, its time to physically setup your Field Management System.
Field Components
Install your field radio somewhere central on the field. The field radio has a good range, but you should try to have your entire field within approximately 50' of the radio. The device itself can be mounted inconspicuously somewhere on the field itself, but should be out of the way of errant robots.
note
The radio becomes warm after operating, if using an adhesive tape to mount it, select a tape that is not released with heat or your radio will detatch itself from the mounting point.
pitfall!
When mounting the Field Radio ensure sufficient seperation between the radio and the ground. Many commercial buildings use rebar-reinforced concrete floors, which can behave as a ground plane. Exactly why this is a problem is far beyond the scope of this manual, but the critical dimension is 50cm or approximately 20" from the floor to the bottom of the Field Radio case.
On the field boxes, port 1 should be connected back to a field port on the scoring box. Ports 2-5 go to the colored field positions in the following order:
- Port 2 - Red
- Port 3 - Blue
- Port 4 - Green
- Port 5 - Yellow
The Gizmo team recommends using flat Ethernet cables to reach the driving positions from the field box. You can find these on Amazon for reasonably low cost, but feel free to use any Ethernet cables you want. The cable that connects the field box to the scoring box will need to carry some amount of power when using the PoE equipped scoring box, so avoid using any "ultra thin" cables for this purpose.
tip
To protect the tabs on your long cables, consider using a coupler to connect them to short "sacrificial" cables that can be more easily replaced if damaged.
This way if a cable becomes damaged, you can simply replace the short jumper at the end, rather than having to undo and replace the potentially much longer cable that may be routed under carpet or otherwise inaccessible.
Scoring Components
Connect your scoring box to power, and connect the field boxes to ports 3-5. The FMS workstation should be connected to port 2, and the internet/uplink network should be connected to port 1.
The scoring box will warm up as it operates which is normal. Do not cover it or otherwise restrict airflow.
If you need to connect more devices to the FMS trusted network, such as a laptop running a scoring application or addtional workstations you wish to control your event from, you may use an unmanaged/dumb switch connected to port 2 of the scoring box with the FMS workstation connected to this switch. Here is an example switch.
Labeling the Network Components
If you have access to a 3d printer labels exist on Printables that can be snapped on to your network devices to label the ports.
If you do not have access to a 3d printer and want these labels, reach out to the Gizmo team, we may be able to put you in touch with someone who has a printer and spare label plates.