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.
Thanks for the help. I actually have done all this and verified all the above several times. I can get both units found with scans and up and running nicely in ARC. However the only thing is after power down of laptop and both EZB's for several hours I can not connect to the second EZB if the first is powered up. If the first EZB is powered down I "can" connect to the second unit.
It seems like my problem centers around having both EZB's powered at the same time I want to connect to each. I see this problem with the scan also; I cant get a successful scan on the second unit if the other is powered up.
There is a lot of metal in my robot but both are about a foot apart and open to the air like sitting on shelf's. I don't have a pic of the V4's mounted but here are a couple shoots of the old V3 mounted. I have the V4's in the same place:
In this pic the EZB is on the very top shelf and you can see the second EZB sitting down in the leg section on the white plastic shelf:
Here's a close up of the top mounted EZB (V3):
Here the location of the bottom mounted location You can see the EZB (V3) mounted on the right:
I would suggest configuring your router to always assign the same IP addresses to each ez-b (often called static dhcp. If you can't figure it out, post the make and model of the router and I'll look it up and give you instructions). That should eliminate thank the need to search for the EZ-Bs each time you power up. Just configure the connections to each IP and connect when you start up.
Alan
Thanks @Dave for doing those checks and providing photos they were quite helpful.
What I would do next is to see whether it is a router issue or the EZ-Bs interfering with each other. I would start by removing the EZ-B from the top of your robot and power it on your bench a ways a way and do the same tests you were doing before.
Obviously, if there are still issues I would look into your router and it's settings, if not it is likely an interference issue and I would look into mounting the EZ-Bs a bit differently inside your robot.
I can't really tell by the photo but is the top EZ-B (I'm guessing that is EZ-B #1) mounted on top of a solid steel plate?
P.S. Thanks Alan for your offer to help!
I've always suspected it's a router issue. More than likely it's some kind of IP clash. If only routers were simple to configure...
As Alan suggested (and as I mentioned previously) if you can post your router make/model we can try and guide you through the process of fixing those IPs.
Thanks for hanging in there with me on this.
The top EZB (#1) is mounted on 3/8" acrylic plastic and that's setting on 1'4" aluminum plate. Each shelf is made the same way and it's all tied together by threaded rod.
I pulled the bottom EZB in the leg section out this evening and set it on a table sitting next to the robot. This placed the two units about 3' apart. I powered up and could not connect. I then move it to the next room and this time I got both EZB's to connect to ARC.
My router in on the main floor and the robot is in the basement. When I moved the EZB and got it to connect it was actually right under the router one floor above. Could It be that a better signal is what caused it to work this time? I guess I'm hoping it not interference with each other because I'm not sure how I could get around this problem if it is.
I have a Belkin N wireless router Model F5D8236-4 V3. But I did get both to connect when #2 was in the other room and closer to the router. Here's the manual:
www.belkin.com/support/dl/man_f5d8236-4_pm01122_7-08.pdf
Thanks again!
Swamped at work today, but I'll take a look tonight at giving simple directions to assign static IPs via MAC address.
Alan
Thanks! I've been looking around myself for this and couldn't find a good answer. Maybe you can dig it up.
I was able to take a quick look. Your router doesn't support "static DHCP". However, you can make the DHCP leases last forever, so once an EZ-B gets an address, it should always get the same one again.
In your router's web interface, select LAn Setup: Lan Settings.
Set the "Lease Time" to "forever"
When you click Apply Changes, your router will probably reboot.
Start both EZ-B's, and after they say "connected to network" log back into your router, and click on Lan Settings | DHCP Client List
You should see both EZ-Bs listed in the list with different host names, but they should start EZ-B. Write down the IP addresses.
In ARC, In the connection dialog, enter the IP address of one of the EZ-B's followed by :23 in slot 0. Enter the IP address of the other EZ-B followed by :23 in slot 1.
Hit connect on both slots, and both EZ-B's should be visible.
When I get my EZ-B's I'll be able to determine if there are additional troubleshooting capabilities (like will they respond to a ping...), but that is going to probably be in July.
Alan