On the stands at an event, we have the following restrictions
- Nothing bigger than a portable charger to recharge devices
- No Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (no 2.4ghz or 5ghz)
- Unreliable access to the internet
Due to the unreliable access to the internet (due to being in a giant building, with thick walls), the server needs to be physically with us.
The power restriction leads to us having to use a Raspberry Pi 3 for the server.
Due to the power restriction, the best choice is to go with either tablets or phones.
Both would need to support usb otg, and with this adapter ($4.23) we have a type a port.
Now we either have two options, connect these cables to the server through it's usb ports, but I'm not sure if the devices would try to charge themselves through it's usb connection, which would be potentially bad.
If we wanted more than 4 devices, we would probably have to use a powered usb hub (which would solve the charging issue) but then how would we power the powered usb hub?
Another solution is to connect the ethernet port on the pi to an ethernet switch (a router might also work) (I have one that uses a barrel plug, so we might be able to power it with portable chargers) and then on each device, have a usb hub ($7) where we connect
- A usb to ethernet adapter ($10), which we then wire with an ethernet cable to the switch
- A portable charger to charge the device
The Ethernet Plan Would Cost
| Name | Price |
| Device | $50 for a Fire HD 7* if there isn't a phone available |
| usb otg adapter | $4.23 |
| usb hub | $7 |
| Cat6 24AWG UTP Ethernet Network Patch Cable, 25ft Blue | $4.57 |
| Power Bank | $19.99 |
| Per Client Total w/o Device | $35.79 |
| Per Client Total w/ Device | $85.79 |
* I've been looking to see if the Fire HD 7 would support otg networking, I'll have to test it out.
What the usb otg plan would cost (although we would need a powered usb hub on the pi)
| Name | Price |
| Device | $50 for a Fire HD 7* if there isn't a phone available |
| usb otg adapter | $4.23 |
| Per Client Total w/o Device | $4.23 |
| Per Client Total w/ Device | $54.23 |
Finally, onto the software. After speaking w/ Cutter I have identified certain needs.
- A way to generate who scouts who while still covering at least 3 matches per team.
- A way to keep record data for a team for a certain match
- A way to view the data for a team for all their matches
- (Optional) A way to calculate who would be a good alliance for a given team.
Now I have broken this up into multiple services.
- Record data for a team in a match
- View real time scouting data for a team.
- See who scored the best at ___
For each team
- Climbing ability
- Cycle time
- OPR
- RP
- Special Abilities
- See what type of robot (Gear, Defender, Highgoal & Lowgoal)
- Export to csv
- Add matches to events (as soon as we get the paper with the match schedule)
- Add teams to matches
- Add teams
- Automatically assign Scouts to matches
edit: made this public