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.
Update: 3 hours later after making the changes in the above post (things were working nicely before power down), Midnight;
I powered up the laptop and robot. Both EZB's reported "Connected to your network". Green light was blinking on both.
I started up ARC and clicked the connect button on board "0" - Connected right away.
Clicked the connect button on board "1" - Did not connect in ARC. tired
I guess I could get another "newer" router but the one I have is a "N" class and should be doing the job at 10 feet away. confused
Really not sure what my next step should be. tired
Hmmm, question for you @Dave if you now do a scan on board "1" does it appear as a different IP on the network?
Otherwise, If you reboot board "1" one more time does it connect to ARC again?
Thanks for offering you help so early on a Tuesday morning.
To answer your questions;
No the board not connection and can not be found in a scan (both units powered up but not connected to ARC).
No after a reboot (pushing the reset button and reconfiguring in Client Mode) I still cant find it with a scan.
I also tried to reboot the router with no results.
BTW, Before I rebooted the router and when I first powered up the laptop just now I could not connect to my router with the laptop. It reported that there was another computer on the network with the same IP address. This happened a couple times before also. Why would this happen?
It's getting late so I'll stop for the night and get some sleep.
Sorry @Dave I should have specified that by reboot I meant just powering the board down and applying power again.
From what you are saying it seems that your router likes to consistently re-assign IPs that it has given out already. I'm not sure why this would happen unless the settings are configured to not remember IPs for certain devices on the network. It may be time to borrow a friends router to do a few quick tests.
Have a great sleep!
The router's dhcp server has a dhcp lease time. It will try to assign the same IP for a specific amount of time. Most wireless routers (DHCP Servers) do this and usually you can tell the router to drop the lease on an IP.
I think the best option would be to get the wireless repeater (often called extenders also) and put it in the robot. I would get one with a detachable antenna and put the antenna on the outside of the robot or against the plastic skin on the inside of the robot. I would also put this on the same shelf as the ez-b's are going to be on.
This would be really cool because, as the robot moved around the house, you would have a mobile extender that would also extend the wireless signal to other devices close to the robot. This would include any table or phone that you might be using to help control the robot.
oops, I read earlier message, and realized that the router is assigning the same IP to multiple devices. I would pretty much do this.
Turn off the computers. Reboot the router. Wait for the router to come back up and then turn on the computers one at a time, waiting for each to connect to the network before turning on the next.
Here is what I did. The router for the wired network doesn't have wifi turned on. The antenna's normally aren't very good on those anyway. I then run an Engenius wifi access point off of the router. The engenius eap350 are the ones I have. They sell a lot of other ones also that are very good. I have 2 of these in a 2600 sqft house single floor house and the signal is 100% to my fence line of the property. I have also used these in schools. 1 of these is strong enough to cover a basketball court and 20 rows of bleachers without a problem at all.
For you, because of the thick metal in the robot, I would put the wireless extender in the robot.
Dave, when your EZ-B v4's are in Access Point Mode (i.e. the default AP mode after pressing the Reset button), what are the Wi-Fi names?
For example, are they EZ-B v4 3F or something...
Thanks!
@DJ, When in Access Point Mode the WiFI names are EZ-B V4 4a and EZ-B V4 04.
@d.cochran, Yours sound like good suggestions. I went ahead and ordered a engenius eap350 repeater incase this turns out to be the issue. It should arrive tomorrow. I can mount it inside the torso very easily. It's great that it runs on 12vdc as I have lots of that I can tap into in there. Here's a link to this item to look at:
www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1759086&CatId=372
I've also bought a new router and should be here Thursday. I decided to get one of the better N class routers that got good reviews on PC World's web site. It's a ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router. Here's a link to it to look at:
www.amazon.com/dp/B008ABOJKS/ref=pe_385040_30332190_TE_M3T1_ST1_dp_1
Between these two items I should have my signal and router issues covered. Heck, I'll be able to log onto my internet from a mile away from my house.
This is getting kinda experience. I may be better off just finding a way to run everything off one EZB. However I really hate the idea of running wires between levels of the robot that will be bobbing, twisting and bending. 