Resolved by thetechguru!
First question and problem: I think the intent is to be able to connect up to 5 EZB's through ARC. However I've hit a wall trying to connect ARC to two V4 EZB's when they are in AP (Access Point) mode. Using my laptop I've followed directions and connected ARC to the first V4 after establishing a wireless connection through the "Wireless Network Connection" icon on my Win 7 Taskbar. Then when I try to connect wirelessly to the second V4 EZB I lose the wireless connection to the first. My laptop will only let me have more then one wireless connection at a time. What am I missing here?
Second question and problem: With both V4's in Client mode and the Green light blinking (the voice says she's attached to my network), I can only have one EZB powered up at a time and have a successful search of my router for a IP address. If both are powered up and attached to the network ARC cant find an address. Is this normal? I've watched the tutorial several times.
Third Problem: For two nights now after the laptop and robot are powered down the second EZB entry in ARC will not connect to the second EZB board. I have to push the network reset button on EZB and redo the IP search in client mode.
The answers you are looking for...
Like all wireless devices, having them too close will cause radio interference. The EZ-B's should not be within a foot or so from each other. It's not a distance that I can just tell you. It's a variable distance that depends lots of stuff... it even depends on humidity and temperature believe it or not, which is the source of all radio and static interference. The main reason of course is the electrical radio hardware in the EZ-B.
When you are at home, connecting multiple EZ-Bs to your network is the way to go. If you are experiencing performance issues, that is to be expected with low signal strength. If your EZ-B is inside a metal robot, the signal strength will be much less than what your laptop reports. Keep in mind that your EZ-B is a Wi-Fi device and will therefore suffer from Wi-Fi related requirements.
Keep in mind that the EZ-B uses all available bandwidth. It is bandwidth hungry! There are millions of things happening per second to make it as awesome as it is - specifically with the camera and audio. The communication/audio protocol uses 3.3 mbps and the camera video also uses an additional 3.3 mbps... Yeah, she's bandwidth hungry! But hey, it's 2014 right? We're pushing the limits of technology to make 2015 a year full of EZ-Robots
OK, Thanks for the good info. I've made some changes to filters in my router firewall. We'll see what happens tomorrow. If I cant connect to EZB #2 I'll turn the laptop into an access point and try it like that.
Woke up this morning and tried to connect both ezb's to ARC. No go. Don't really understand what is happing here. I can shut everything down and reboot within an hour and I can connect EZB #2. If things are off hours and hours it won't connect. I'll try tonight after being powered off all day but this time leave EZB #1 powered off. That way I can rule out interference between each board. They are mounted in my robot about 2 feet apart and open to the air. Maybe the next step will be removing it from the robot and well away from everything and closer to the router. I have my doubts though, the router clearly sees it. EZB says she's connected to my network, ARC finds it and lists it but won't connect to this second board after starting powered down for hours
That's really strange Dave. Are you able to find both ezb's with the scan tool when they're connected to the router?
@DJ, I can find both EZB's but not if both are turned on and connected to the network (at least the voice tells me they are connected). I have to power down one while the other uses the scan tool and then do the same with the other unit.
This afternoon I tried to leave EZB #1 powered down while starting up ARC and I can then connect to EZB #2 just fine. However then I cant connect to #1. I have to go through the whole setup and scan procedure on each EZB to get them to connect to ARC at the same time again.
I'm about out of options. I guess my next step is to move the EZB's farther away from each other to see if they will connect that way at the same time. Maybe they are interfering with each other's Wifi.They are about two feet apart now and mounted in the robot.
This is just a wild guess but it could be possible that the ez-bs have the same name and are causeing interference. If possible change the names.
Dave, I'm able to establish two EZB4s into one instance of EZ-B. The two units are sitting on a coffee table and are about 2 feet apart. I just added two ADC controls (one for each controller) The connection appears stable for both units.
Hi @Dave
I have also verified success in connecting 2 EZ-Bv4s in client mode to one instance of ARC. At first I did have a bit of trouble when the EZ-Bs were a few inches from each other but once I spread them out to a bit farther than a foot apart they worked quite well.
Once your EZ-Bs are both in client mode and are successfully connected to the same network (green LED is flashing on both) it should be smooth sailing. Using the scanning tool it should pick up both EZ-Bs in one scan if you let it go through the entire range. Each EZ-B should beep once it's IP has been scanned.
You shouldn't need to go through the network setup process again as the EZ-Bs will save your network settings. What you can do is close the scanning tool and open it back up again if you don't have success the first time. I would also try to mount the EZ-Bs further from large pieces of metal on your robot as there could be signal interference, as large chunks of metal are known to pick up radio waves (well that's why we use metal for antennas in the first place
).
Another item I would check are the IP addresses that your router is assigning for the EZ-Bs. Are they the same every time you connect them or are they hoping around every time you scan? Do you have any other devices at home that have to reconnect to your network on a regular basis?