Available Devices (Wi-Fi)

This window lists the Wi-Fi networks your PC can currently see, tells which ones belong to AiM devices, and lets you connect to one of them.

It is opened from the Wi-Fi button of the top toolbar, choosing Connect to… (or Connect <interface> to… when your PC has more than one wireless interface).

Note

AiM devices in Wi-Fi Access Point mode publish their own network: connecting to a device means joining that network, exactly as you would join an office or home network. Switching from one device to another therefore means leaving one network and joining another, which is why it is not instantaneous.

What the window shows

The window is made of three parts, from top to bottom:

  • the toolbar, with the commands described below;

  • the search field, which filters the list by network name;

  • the list of the visible networks.

The list is grouped and ordered

Networks are grouped, and within each group they are ordered, so that what you are most likely to need comes first:

  • When your PC has more than one wireless interface, a header names the interface each block of networks is seen on. With a single interface — or when the window has been opened for one specific interface — no interface header is shown.

  • Inside each interface, networks are split into two categories: AiM devices first, then Other networks (any other Wi-Fi network in range: your home or office network, a hotspot, a neighbouring team’s network).

  • Inside each category the order is: the network you are connected to, then the ones you have marked as mine, then all the others. Within each of these groups the strongest signal comes first, and networks with the same signal strength are listed alphabetically.

What each row tells you

Every row describes one network:

  • On the left, an icon of the device: for AiM devices the model is recognised from the network name (for example AiM-MYC5-001009 is a MyChron 5), so you see the actual instrument. Other networks get a generic network icon.

  • A connection icon immediately after it marks the network you are currently connected to.

  • The network name (SSID), followed, when applicable, by:

    • [password protected] if the network is secured — AiM device networks are normally open;

    • - connected if this is the network you are on;

    • - connected via <interface> if you are connected to it through a different wireless interface than the one you are looking at. Such a row is shown for information only: the same network cannot be joined twice, on two interfaces at the same time;

    • a progress message while a connection to that network is being established (see Connecting to a device).

  • On the right, three elements: the mine / not mine label, an options icon that appears when the mouse is over the row, and the signal strength (from no bars to five bars).

If the list is empty it shows No devices or networks in view. Either nothing is in range, or everything in range has been hidden by the search field or by the view mode.

Marking the devices that are yours

In a paddock, dozens of networks can be in range and only a few of them are yours. Any row can be marked as mine, and that mark is remembered across sessions:

  • click the not mine / mine label on the row to switch the mark on and off;

  • or use This is mine / Clear mark in the row menu (right-click, or the options icon).

Marked networks are listed before the others, and the View button can hide everything else.

The toolbar

Connect / Disconnect

Connects to the selected network, or disconnects from it if it is the one you are connected to. The button label follows the selection, and the same action is available by double-clicking the row or from the row menu.

Rescan

Asks Windows for a fresh scan of the airwaves, once.

RaceStudio 3 does not scan periodically: it follows the scan results Windows produces anyway, and the list is refreshed continuously from them. This is deliberate — each scan makes the wireless adapter leave the device’s channel for a moment, and while you are downloading data or updating a firmware that is exactly what you do not want. Use Rescan when a device has just been switched on and has not appeared yet.

Note

Results arrive asynchronously: after pressing Rescan the list typically updates within a few seconds.

View: all / View: only mine

Switches between showing every visible network and showing only the ones you have marked as mine. The network you are connected to is always shown, in both modes, so that you can always see it and disconnect from it. The choice is remembered across sessions.

Settings…

Opens the communication settings, where the general Wi-Fi and connection options are kept.

Help

Opens this page.

Filtering the list

Type in the search field to keep only the networks whose name matches what you typed. The match is case-insensitive and works on the network name; several words can be typed together.

The filter does not hide the network you are connected to.

Connecting to a device

Double-click a row (or select it and press Connect). If the network is password protected and the password is not already stored in the Wi-Fi settings, you are asked for it; if a stored password turns out to be wrong, you are asked once more.

The row then reports the phase the connection has reached:

  • Authenticating… — your PC is joining the network;

  • Obtaining IP address… — the network has been joined and the device is assigning your PC an address (this is the phase that can take several seconds);

  • Looking for the device… — the address is in place and the device is being contacted.

As soon as the device answers, the window closes by itself and the device is available in RaceStudio 3. Only one connection attempt runs at a time: while one is in progress, requests on other rows are ignored.

If the device does not answer within one minute, the attempt is abandoned with the message Connected to the network, but the device is not answering. Please try again. The row becomes available again, so you can retry.

Important

Being connected to the device’s network is not the same as being able to talk to the device. The window waits for the device to actually answer before declaring success — that is why it may keep working for a while after Windows already shows the network as connected.

If switching between devices is slow

Joining a device’s network normally completes in a few seconds. On some PCs it can take considerably longer — tens of seconds — and the cause is neither the instrument nor RaceStudio 3 alone, but how Windows handles leaving the previous network. This is known, understood, and being addressed on both sides of the link.

Two Knowledge Base articles cover it:

  • Wi-Fi Communication Improvements in RaceStudio 3 and AiM Device Firmware — what has been improved, and what to expect after updating RaceStudio 3 and the device firmware;

  • Resolving Slow Wi-Fi Device Switching on Windows Active Directory Domain-Joined PCs — for IT staff, when the PC belongs to a company domain and keeps a wired network connected at the same time.

The row menu

Right-clicking a row — or clicking the options icon that appears when the mouse is over it — opens a menu that gathers everything described above:

  • Connect / Disconnect on that row;

  • This is mine / Clear mark;

  • Rescan;

  • Show all / Show only mine.

If no wireless interface is available

The Wi-Fi toolbar button cannot open this window when your PC exposes no wireless interface: it answers with No WiFi network hardware instead. If the interface exists but is momentarily busy, the message is WiFi interfaces not available right now — try again in a few seconds.