Unify WAP: Radio selection and basic testing plan

[mbardwell]

Summary

[update] The initial goal is to have some sort of wireless hardware for the 2022 competition, so we purchased some Ubiquiti Access Points. This issue will apply to those points and then can be later re-used to plan the purchase of long-range pod wireless equipment if need be.

We would like to purchase our radio equipment sooner than later, but before we can agree on a date to purchase any equipment, we need a few things.

1. Hardware compatability. We want to guarantee radio endpoints can communicate with each other.
   • Are they in the same band?
   • Are they using the same protocol?
   • How are we powering the pod-side radio + antenna?
   • How are we powering the base station side radio + antenna?
2. Connection diagram - pod and base station side
3. Basic software plan.
   • What applications will we need on the client? On the pod?
   • What minimum hardware is required to test the radios. Do we even need antennas if the radios are in the same room?
   • Where can we test the radios? The are Canadian air wave laws that need to be adhered too

This antenna has been purchased for the base station.

Antenna options:

• This is too big
• This may be just right, but it requires 40W so I doubt we can connect it directly to the Pi

Acceptance Criteria

• spec pod-side wireless hardware, ensuring compatibility
• connection diagram
• software applications planned out
• idea of what minimum hardware we need to test radios planned out

[mbardwell]

Alex and @OkTerrific worked on this last week. Purchased two UniFi UAP-AC-LITE Dual Band Wireless AC Access Point https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX67913, which will act as a receiver / transmitter pair.

To do:

• need to get a gigabit PoE injector that runs on DC for onboard the pod.
• plan software

[mbardwell]

Alex and @OkTerrific will be meeting this week to plan hardware setup and create a testing plan

[mbardwell]

20220613 Discussion

From here

• which computer will act as DHCP server?
• does the WAP need a controller?

[FalsettiM]

Added instructions on how to set up DHCP server and UniFi controller to the Google Doc here. Also updated the connection diagram.

Further work needs to be done for fixing the UniFi section of the instructions and procedures for testing network connections.