HSRC'02 Description

HSRC '02

Whoo! That is all I can say! PFH came away with a 1 and 2 record, with one forfiet as well, and our actuall win was pretty cheap, but it was fun none the less. Please folow the links below for more specific information.

Friday - Day

Friday - Night

Saturday - Day

Saturday - Night

Friday - Day

First stop, hardware store. We needed some brass bearings and a weapon lock. No problem. Next stop, Post Office. 28.417 lbs. Yehaa! Just a few wires and electronics to throw in, shouldn't go over, hopefully. Then, we were off. Can anyone say, "long car trip?" 9 hours in the back seat of a minivan, with your 8/10th completed bot spread over a piece of plywood on the folded over seats in front of you is not my favorite way to travel, but, it let us get some work done. We plotted an wired the whole way. Unfortunatly, several hours into the trip, our small flat head screwdriver went missing, so, our wiring ended for the most part. But, there wasn't that much left to be done, so that was okay. Then suddenly, we were there.

Friday - Night

Friday night we stayed at Candlewood Suites. And let me tell you. If you were a builder, this was the place to be! Everybody was there. Just while we were waiting to get our room key and such, we met the Dan And Joe Provenzo with EMF and Scavenger 2.0, and Al Kindle, with Tyrant and G-Minus. Well, we got our room assignment and brought everything in, we went down to Team Wolfguards room to check in. Well, they wanted us to have our bot there, and we still needed to do a bit of work, so away we went. We marked and drilled the few remaining holes, mounted everything, and went to test. Nothing! This was a disaster. Why wasn't it working? The Vantec had been working, the radio had been working, the battery had a charge! Well, we couldn't figure it out, so we just decided to go check in and see if they knew of anything. We knew we were going to be close on weight, but, we were darn close, 29.5 lbs +! Then, we asked. They suggested we go talk to the Dude from team Technically Challenged. So, we went up. He was aparently already set to go to bed, but was more than willing to help out. A big shout out! Well, we opened her up, and *duh* we had forgotten to reverse the wires for all of our Futaba plug in parts. So, he also helped us hunt down some extenders. We got 1 from him and 2 from Team Wolfguard. More Shout Outs! So, we wired up, and it worked, Yes! We were ready for Saturday!

Saturday - Day

We awoke about 7:00 and got set, got all the parts together, and shipped out just in time to arrive at the Expo Center about 8:00. Getting in was easy enough, and Team Wolfguard was right there pointing everybody to where they needed to be. Once inside we went right to a back room where all the builders were grouping as they walked in. I got pictures of many, but there were many more I could not get. Some have names, some do not, please let me knowif I am missing your bot or have a name or correction for me, and try to get me a pic if I don't have it. They are in the gallery, here. Then, we all transfered to the pits. This was pretty nicely organized, and testing was just a little crazy. But we got tested and everything seemed to work fine. Then, the matches began. 12# matches were first, so we got to see some cool combat, and generally how things progressed. The first match was the way to start the day, with Mini Flash II versus Chrobot. MFII came out and got a few good wacks with his horizontal spinning bar, then lost the chain, but didn't lose a beat. Immediatly, he turned around and began smashing Chrobot with his back end. Chrobot got free though, and MFII went head on into the vertical blade."Slice - Smash - Clack" goes the weapon, catches on MFII's frame, and over he goes, and the match is over.

Many more matches, and most of the 30's got to take a bye the first time, the came the second time. We were up against a tough looking lifter called Rampage with 2 Ev's for drive motors. Match starts, and suddenly, Radio Problems, oh no! Rampage came over, lifted us once then set us down. We moved some. He lifted us again, and flipped us on our butt basically. It sat there, then I got it moving a little, and down it goes, back on to the wheels. Then it stops. Rampage doesn't seem to be sure what to make of our sporadic movements. He just kind of sat there, then did a little victory dance, but we moved again! So, he lifted us back onto our butts again, and then did another little victory dance, but once again I got it shaking. Well, he wasn't gonna give us the chance to land it back on the wheels again, so... He fliped us completely. That was that. Rampage wins it, 15-0

Well, we thought we had our radio problems solved, so when the next fight came up against Rocko, with whom I'd been having some friendly smack talk in the forum, I was pleased. The radio testing had gone well. The match started, and Mike, who was driving this time, started forward. Rocko started his forward spinner, but didn't seem to be going anywhere. We were on our way over (kind of a slow bot, yes) when we got stuck in the middle of the arena. Well after a second, Mike was able to shake it off, but Rocko still wasn't going anywhere. We started for him again. We were almost there, then Mike got stuck again. And, time out. Winner PFH by TKO, though we don't feel like we accomplished anything.

Fight 3 was against a mean looking bot called EMF with an EV powered forward dual saw blade. We had now solved problem 2, a bolt which would not tighten all the way on the bottom and had held us up. Well, we removed that, but control problems were still plauging us. The match started, and it immediatly became clear that niether of us were working perfectly. He seemed mighty slow, and his blade was certianly not spinning full speed. I could not get our blade to spin at all. So, we mostly circled eachother, "rammed" eachother a few times, and the match was pretty uneventfull, except he moved more. Final score, EMF wins it 11 - 4. Oh well, next time we'll have it all worked out.

What we learned that day: Have your antenna not just exposed, but outside your bot, and nowhere near the base plate. becaue even once we separated it we still had big problems. And, have a separate battery for your Weapon and drives, because when we activated the blade, the drives lost practically all their power.

Saturday - Night

This was probobly the most fun I had the entire weekend. A guy we knew had a nice resaurant called "Primavera" in Philly, so first we went there and had a meal and the grand tour. Then we came back and each kind of wanderd on our own. I went down to a room and watched and talked to and about repairs on Sunflower, Helios, and AlphaPujo. It was pretty cool. Helios and Sunflower were awsome to see close up, because they were some of the most destructive bots there. Then, the next morning, we shipped out, since we were out anyways and it was a 9 hour drive. We'll be back.

My votes:

Coolest Bot: 911, he had this thing so refined that he didn't even need to open it up to change or charge batteries. There were plugs in the side!

Most destructive bot: Tossup many ways: 911, Helios, Sunflower, Daffodil, Snowcone, and Ixion.

"Doh" award*: Charles in Charge for their really wimpy weapon mount

Loudest bot: Tossup between Helios and Das Slicers first match when the weapon started smacking the ground. "Is that a machine gun?!?"

*Doh award is an award I am starting this year, and it will be presented (hopefully) by the previous events recipient. It is a head on a spike and should be awarded for the silliest engineering mistake. Doh as in "Doh, why didn't I think of that!?!"


	HSRC '02 Whoo! That is all I can say! PFH came away with a 1 and 2 record, with one forfiet as well, and our actuall win was pretty cheap, but it was fun none the less. Please folow the links below for more specific information. Friday - Day Friday - Night Saturday - Day Saturday - Night Friday - Day First stop, hardware store. We needed some brass bearings and a weapon lock. No problem. Next stop, Post Office. 28.417 lbs. Yehaa! Just a few wires and electronics to throw in, shouldn't go over, hopefully. Then, we were off. Can anyone say, "long car trip?" 9 hours in the back seat of a minivan, with your 8/10th completed bot spread over a piece of plywood on the folded over seats in front of you is not my favorite way to travel, but, it let us get some work done. We plotted an wired the whole way. Unfortunatly, several hours into the trip, our small flat head screwdriver went missing, so, our wiring ended for the most part. But, there wasn't that much left to be done, so that was okay. Then suddenly, we were there. Friday - Night Friday night we stayed at Candlewood Suites. And let me tell you. If you were a builder, this was the place to be! Everybody was there. Just while we were waiting to get our room key and such, we met the Dan And Joe Provenzo with EMF and Scavenger 2.0, and Al Kindle, with Tyrant and G-Minus. Well, we got our room assignment and brought everything in, we went down to Team Wolfguards room to check in. Well, they wanted us to have our bot there, and we still needed to do a bit of work, so away we went. We marked and drilled the few remaining holes, mounted everything, and went to test. Nothing! This was a disaster. Why wasn't it working? The Vantec had been working, the radio had been working, the battery had a charge! Well, we couldn't figure it out, so we just decided to go check in and see if they knew of anything. We knew we were going to be close on weight, but, we were darn close, 29.5 lbs +! Then, we asked. They suggested we go talk to the Dude from team Technically Challenged. So, we went up. He was aparently already set to go to bed, but was more than willing to help out. A big shout out! Well, we opened her up, and duh we had forgotten to reverse the wires for all of our Futaba plug in parts. So, he also helped us hunt down some extenders. We got 1 from him and 2 from Team Wolfguard. More Shout Outs! So, we wired up, and it worked, Yes! We were ready for Saturday! Saturday - Day We awoke about 7:00 and got set, got all the parts together, and shipped out just in time to arrive at the Expo Center about 8:00. Getting in was easy enough, and Team Wolfguard was right there pointing everybody to where they needed to be. Once inside we went right to a back room where all the builders were grouping as they walked in. I got pictures of many, but there were many more I could not get. Some have names, some do not, please let me knowif I am missing your bot or have a name or correction for me, and try to get me a pic if I don't have it. They are in the gallery, here. Then, we all transfered to the pits. This was pretty nicely organized, and testing was just a little crazy. But we got tested and everything seemed to work fine. Then, the matches began. 12# matches were first, so we got to see some cool combat, and generally how things progressed. The first match was the way to start the day, with Mini Flash II versus Chrobot. MFII came out and got a few good wacks with his horizontal spinning bar, then lost the chain, but didn't lose a beat. Immediatly, he turned around and began smashing Chrobot with his back end. Chrobot got free though, and MFII went head on into the vertical blade."Slice - Smash - Clack" goes the weapon, catches on MFII's frame, and over he goes, and the match is over. Many more matches, and most of the 30's got to take a bye the first time, the came the second time. We were up against a tough looking lifter called Rampage with 2 Ev's for drive motors. Match starts, and suddenly, Radio Problems, oh no! Rampage came over, lifted us once then set us down. We moved some. He lifted us again, and flipped us on our butt basically. It sat there, then I got it moving a little, and down it goes, back on to the wheels. Then it stops. Rampage doesn't seem to be sure what to make of our sporadic movements. He just kind of sat there, then did a little victory dance, but we moved again! So, he lifted us back onto our butts again, and then did another little victory dance, but once again I got it shaking. Well, he wasn't gonna give us the chance to land it back on the wheels again, so... He fliped us completely. That was that. Rampage wins it, 15-0 Well, we thought we had our radio problems solved, so when the next fight came up against Rocko, with whom I'd been having some friendly smack talk in the forum, I was pleased. The radio testing had gone well. The match started, and Mike, who was driving this time, started forward. Rocko started his forward spinner, but didn't seem to be going anywhere. We were on our way over (kind of a slow bot, yes) when we got stuck in the middle of the arena. Well after a second, Mike was able to shake it off, but Rocko still wasn't going anywhere. We started for him again. We were almost there, then Mike got stuck again. And, time out. Winner PFH by TKO, though we don't feel like we accomplished anything. Fight 3 was against a mean looking bot called EMF with an EV powered forward dual saw blade. We had now solved problem 2, a bolt which would not tighten all the way on the bottom and had held us up. Well, we removed that, but control problems were still plauging us. The match started, and it immediatly became clear that niether of us were working perfectly. He seemed mighty slow, and his blade was certianly not spinning full speed. I could not get our blade to spin at all. So, we mostly circled eachother, "rammed" eachother a few times, and the match was pretty uneventfull, except he moved more. Final score, EMF wins it 11 - 4. Oh well, next time we'll have it all worked out. What we learned that day: Have your antenna not just exposed, but outside your bot, and nowhere near the base plate. becaue even once we separated it we still had big problems. And, have a separate battery for your Weapon and drives, because when we activated the blade, the drives lost practically all their power. Saturday - Night This was probobly the most fun I had the entire weekend. A guy we knew had a nice resaurant called "Primavera" in Philly, so first we went there and had a meal and the grand tour. Then we came back and each kind of wanderd on our own. I went down to a room and watched and talked to and about repairs on Sunflower, Helios, and AlphaPujo. It was pretty cool. Helios and Sunflower were awsome to see close up, because they were some of the most destructive bots there. Then, the next morning, we shipped out, since we were out anyways and it was a 9 hour drive. We'll be back. My votes: Coolest Bot: 911, he had this thing so refined that he didn't even need to open it up to change or charge batteries. There were plugs in the side! Most destructive bot: Tossup many ways: 911, Helios, Sunflower, Daffodil, Snowcone, and Ixion. "Doh" award: Charles in Charge for their really wimpy weapon mount Loudest bot: Tossup between Helios and Das Slicers first match when the weapon started smacking the ground. "Is that a machine gun?!?" Doh award is an award I am starting this year, and it will be presented (hopefully) by the previous events recipient. It is a head on a spike and should be awarded for the silliest engineering mistake. Doh as in "Doh, why didn't I think of that!?!" Home \| The Bots \| The Team \| The Ideas \| The Links \| The News \| The How To \| The Legal I Events \| Our Sponsors \| Progress Reports \|