LTRC '02

LTRC '02

This event was awsome! We never actually got It's Grrreat!!! working for this event, but we really weren't too disapointed. We got to sit around and watch some completely cool fights! Plus, there were a lot of great people there including Ed Mcarron who helped us tremendously by helping us solve our mysterious problems (to late, unfortunatly). Big shout out to Ed!

Now then, you know whyt stopped us this time. You geussed it, batteries again. Apparently our A cells couldn't quite source enough juice for two of those HF drills, and would drop voltage just enough for our Victors to respond sporadically. Oh well.

We arrived Friday Night, and stayed Saturday and through till mid-day Sunday, and had a blast all along. There is a Gallery of bot pics at the bottom.

Friday- We left the Temperance area at about 4:00 with a case of Coke and Root Beer in the back and a box of Goldfish and some Beef Jerky up front. We came down through Toledo and hit the Turnpike easily enough, and then had a most boring drive through to Exit 7 in Pennsylvania, a straight road. I had been hoping for some kind of a turn when we reached where the TP changes from I-80 to I-76, but no dice. We joked that I would MAKE it a turn. Finally, about 8 we got off the TP in Pennsylvania. However, when we left, we took Rt-30 east, as our map from Expedia told us. After going about 7 miles up and down freaky Pennsylvania hills (I much prefer Michgan's flatness), I turned into a resteraunt and found we were going the wrong way. Oh well, turn around.

Alright, now my nerves are frazzled with a long drive and now I'm looking for signs and landmarks. As such, I almost kill us about 4 times in 3 minutes with my erratic driving. But, finally, we found the Connoly Inn, where we were greeted by Team Wolfguard downstairs. They pointed us in the direction of the club, and after checking in, we took off. We found the club with little more trouble, and actually walked in at about 8:45.

I was AMAZED! The placed looked incredible! Out front, the first thing you see through the windows is some of the most famous bots. There was SOW and Mauler, as well as a couple of others I can't remember right now. Inside, I was first greeted by the rear end of the HUGE 24' main box. I look next to me, and there is a robot store and another 12' box, and Bleachers just down the wall. The other way are the table and chairs of a nice looking restaraunt, with pictures of bots, builders and fights all around, and T-shirts from many teams. We rushed around and walked into the pits, which were great. Lots of power outlets, so you didn't need a huge extension cord, a lot of tables, and chairs provided. We set down our stuff and, it being about 9:00 now, I went to check out the kitchen. I ordered a Cheesburger and Medium coke, very reasonably priced, and was delighted to find fries included. I took it and sat down at a table near the box, and watched fights from HSRC '02 on the gigantic screen on the side of the box. There I got to relive those horrid, horrid moments when we fought Rampage. I never did see the EMF fight on there. I wonder why :) The food was delicious, and there was some sort of special seasoning on the burger, it tasted almost like it had been charcoal grilled. YUM!

Anyhow, we went back into the pits and looked at some of the machines, then threw our bot in the THIRD box, a 16' saftey box. We start her up. Good PWM signal, good power, and we give her throttle. A little move, here and there, nothing controlable. Just about what I expected. I had the same thing happen at home. We take a look at it, but can't figure it out. Ed Mcarron comes over and looks at it. He asks us about power. Radio signal. Inverting cables for the Airtronics radio, wire gauge, motor binding, and finally, he looks at our batteries. A size cells, pretty nice, 1700 mAH sanyo NiCads. Those probobly can't source enough for both of your motors at once, he says. Dang it! Those cells cost me $3 a piece. Anyway, he hands us a nice looking 12V C cell pack, and, after borowing a cable with a split end and Deans at the other so we could rig it up (thanks Eric (team Nar)), we put it back in the test box with one drive side running. I hit the throttle a little, and BAM!!! It swings around and slams into the wall HARD! Hard enough to bend down a plate that was 1/4" off the ground and wedge it under the side. Ed offered to let us use the batt, but we didn't have the weight or a way to make it fit. Sigh. So, we packed it in and headed for the hotel.

Saturday- Saturday was just crazy. There were so many bots, so many people. Team VanCleve had even brought a full size semi rig that they had worked on their bots in the back in durning the trip. I don't recall any of the fights in specific, but they were all cool. I do recall certian instances, like Deadly Donkey's Dancing and Scrambler shooting right across the ant box and out the other side before I could blink. We had lunch there at the club, and this time I got another, diferent burger, with provolone and mushrooms, and it was GOOD. I spent most of the day wandering about talking to alot of builders, most particularly Dan Provenzo of team EMF, who is really cool. I loved his 12 lber Lennin's Tomb, and he had EMF there, who had beaten us at HSRC, and this time his drives were at 18V. Much faster. It was crazy in the pits, and I got a shot of that at one point.

Dan Provenzo and Ed Mcarron work furiously in the pits.

At 8, the action came to a screetching halt and we all gathered in the stands to watch BBots, where we got to see Team Diginati's "Code Breaker" take apart Minion. Team Diginati was there, so that was cool. We had dinner at McDonald's on the way out, and split back for the hotel. Mike took off for the room with Team Technically Challenged (I cant remember your name, sorry) and was out until 2 AM.

Sunday- We arrived in the morning just before things got under way again, and saw some really cool fights. The coolest was probobly when Man 'o War got up to full spin in the box. He is a wheel spinner like Blade Runner, except he has two arms, one on each side. He threw a drive chain and lost, but when he was spun up, it was sweet. You could feel the air whoosh through the lexan, I swear. At about 3:30, we packed it in and headed for home, got caught by traffic just into Toledo, and got back about 8:00 on the nose.

I got a lot of shots of the bots, which you can see here.


	LTRC '02 This event was awsome! We never actually got It's Grrreat!!! working for this event, but we really weren't too disapointed. We got to sit around and watch some completely cool fights! Plus, there were a lot of great people there including Ed Mcarron who helped us tremendously by helping us solve our mysterious problems (to late, unfortunatly). Big shout out to Ed! Now then, you know whyt stopped us this time. You geussed it, batteries again. Apparently our A cells couldn't quite source enough juice for two of those HF drills, and would drop voltage just enough for our Victors to respond sporadically. Oh well. We arrived Friday Night, and stayed Saturday and through till mid-day Sunday, and had a blast all along. There is a Gallery of bot pics at the bottom. Friday- We left the Temperance area at about 4:00 with a case of Coke and Root Beer in the back and a box of Goldfish and some Beef Jerky up front. We came down through Toledo and hit the Turnpike easily enough, and then had a most boring drive through to Exit 7 in Pennsylvania, a straight road. I had been hoping for some kind of a turn when we reached where the TP changes from I-80 to I-76, but no dice. We joked that I would MAKE it a turn. Finally, about 8 we got off the TP in Pennsylvania. However, when we left, we took Rt-30 east, as our map from Expedia told us. After going about 7 miles up and down freaky Pennsylvania hills (I much prefer Michgan's flatness), I turned into a resteraunt and found we were going the wrong way. Oh well, turn around. Alright, now my nerves are frazzled with a long drive and now I'm looking for signs and landmarks. As such, I almost kill us about 4 times in 3 minutes with my erratic driving. But, finally, we found the Connoly Inn, where we were greeted by Team Wolfguard downstairs. They pointed us in the direction of the club, and after checking in, we took off. We found the club with little more trouble, and actually walked in at about 8:45. I was AMAZED! The placed looked incredible! Out front, the first thing you see through the windows is some of the most famous bots. There was SOW and Mauler, as well as a couple of others I can't remember right now. Inside, I was first greeted by the rear end of the HUGE 24' main box. I look next to me, and there is a robot store and another 12' box, and Bleachers just down the wall. The other way are the table and chairs of a nice looking restaraunt, with pictures of bots, builders and fights all around, and T-shirts from many teams. We rushed around and walked into the pits, which were great. Lots of power outlets, so you didn't need a huge extension cord, a lot of tables, and chairs provided. We set down our stuff and, it being about 9:00 now, I went to check out the kitchen. I ordered a Cheesburger and Medium coke, very reasonably priced, and was delighted to find fries included. I took it and sat down at a table near the box, and watched fights from HSRC '02 on the gigantic screen on the side of the box. There I got to relive those horrid, horrid moments when we fought Rampage. I never did see the EMF fight on there. I wonder why :) The food was delicious, and there was some sort of special seasoning on the burger, it tasted almost like it had been charcoal grilled. YUM! Anyhow, we went back into the pits and looked at some of the machines, then threw our bot in the THIRD box, a 16' saftey box. We start her up. Good PWM signal, good power, and we give her throttle. A little move, here and there, nothing controlable. Just about what I expected. I had the same thing happen at home. We take a look at it, but can't figure it out. Ed Mcarron comes over and looks at it. He asks us about power. Radio signal. Inverting cables for the Airtronics radio, wire gauge, motor binding, and finally, he looks at our batteries. A size cells, pretty nice, 1700 mAH sanyo NiCads. Those probobly can't source enough for both of your motors at once, he says. Dang it! Those cells cost me $3 a piece. Anyway, he hands us a nice looking 12V C cell pack, and, after borowing a cable with a split end and Deans at the other so we could rig it up (thanks Eric (team Nar)), we put it back in the test box with one drive side running. I hit the throttle a little, and BAM!!! It swings around and slams into the wall HARD! Hard enough to bend down a plate that was 1/4" off the ground and wedge it under the side. Ed offered to let us use the batt, but we didn't have the weight or a way to make it fit. Sigh. So, we packed it in and headed for the hotel. Saturday- Saturday was just crazy. There were so many bots, so many people. Team VanCleve had even brought a full size semi rig that they had worked on their bots in the back in durning the trip. I don't recall any of the fights in specific, but they were all cool. I do recall certian instances, like Deadly Donkey's Dancing and Scrambler shooting right across the ant box and out the other side before I could blink. We had lunch there at the club, and this time I got another, diferent burger, with provolone and mushrooms, and it was GOOD. I spent most of the day wandering about talking to alot of builders, most particularly Dan Provenzo of team EMF, who is really cool. I loved his 12 lber Lennin's Tomb, and he had EMF there, who had beaten us at HSRC, and this time his drives were at 18V. Much faster. It was crazy in the pits, and I got a shot of that at one point. At 8, the action came to a screetching halt and we all gathered in the stands to watch BBots, where we got to see Team Diginati's "Code Breaker" take apart Minion. Team Diginati was there, so that was cool. We had dinner at McDonald's on the way out, and split back for the hotel. Mike took off for the room with Team Technically Challenged (I cant remember your name, sorry) and was out until 2 AM. Sunday- We arrived in the morning just before things got under way again, and saw some really cool fights. The coolest was probobly when Man 'o War got up to full spin in the box. He is a wheel spinner like Blade Runner, except he has two arms, one on each side. He threw a drive chain and lost, but when he was spun up, it was sweet. You could feel the air whoosh through the lexan, I swear. At about 3:30, we packed it in and headed for home, got caught by traffic just into Toledo, and got back about 8:00 on the nose. I got a lot of shots of the bots, which you can see here.