SECR Farm Fight

Match #1 Moebius vs. Village Idiot (www.robot-village.com)

Unfortunately, we didn't catch this match on video but I'll still give you a detail of what happened. The match started and VI charged Moebius before he had a chance to get up to full speed. VI had a Titanium plate on his front wedge so Moebius' titanium blades just hit it and sparked really well. Jon's idea was to keep Moebius' shell from spinning and then push him around.

Well, Moebius is prepared for just such a thing. he has pushed over 300 pounds across the pavement. But Moebius wasn't moving... I thought the radio died but the weapon motor would start and stop. After the match we did some research and found the problem. One of Moebius' batteries had an internal meltdown. Because it was one of the drive motors batteries (he uses multiple parallel/series circuits) the drive motors weren't getting any juice.
Because Moebius uses an E-Tek motor for the weapon motor it draws an insane amount of current when it is starting up. Jon kept hitting Moebius thus causing the motor to constantly draw hundreds of amps to try to get spinning again. All of Moebius' power cables are 8 guage so they could handle it but the lead plates inside the battery couldn't.

Through excellent strategy on Jon's part Village Idiot won. But, VI wasn't unscathed. Apparently Moebius rode up the wedge and smacked the right side saw blade and bent it and broke the collar that held it to the shaft.

Luckily, this was a double elimination event so Moebius was still in it but couldn't lose again.

Village Idiot

Match #2 Meobius vs. Palindrome (www.teamradicus.com)

The first time I met Tony was at Battlebots TI02. His pit table was right behind ours. I thought he had a very interesting and unique bot. We chatted a bit and seemed to be a really nice guy. Unfortunately, there is no room for niceties inside the box. But there is outside the box. We talked a bit before the match and I told him that if Moebius is winning and he wants to concede then I will stop Moebius immediately. I understand that there is a lot time, but more importantly, money in these robots.

The match started and he went backward and we chased him. First hit. Moebius is still humming so he hit him again and threw Palindrome at the photographers while ripping one of the 16" carbide tipped saw blades off. Palindrome was motionless so I let Moebius get up to full speed and hit him again. This one threw Palindrome across the rest of the arena and up against the wall. Tony smiled and and conceded and Moebius pulled away.
For this match Tony earned the less than dubious award for most "owned" bot. It just happened to be at the hands of Moebius.

The best thing is that as bad as it looked no major/expensive part was damaged. His IFI receiver was spared ($500~$600) and all of the batteries and drive motors were spared as well. That is the way I would like to win a fight; break the bot not the builder.

Palindrome Before

Moebius vs. Palindrome
3.17 .mov

Palindrome After


	Match #3 Moebius vs. Undertow (www.undertowautomation.com) We were concered about this match because Undertow is a powerful rammer bot with angle iron set at 45 degrees all around the bot. Because Moebius uses blades at different heights we thought that the angle iron would fit between the blades and render him useless. Before the match started I told Marc the same thing that I told Tony. The match started and I thought he would try to ram Moebius like Village Idiot did so Moebius went left. Undertow followed and Moebius quickly reversed and went the other way so Undertow missed. Moebius was now up to speed. Undertow came around and they met in the middle of the arena. That was all it took. Undertow was disabled immediately. Marc tried to determine whether or not he was really dead so Moebius got in another quick shot. Marc just let his controller drop to the ground and conceded just as Moebius' eyes lined up for a head on shot. Again, the only damage Undertow suffered was structural. He didn't lose his IFI receiver, or his batteries, or his expensive NPC motors. It was a good match and Undertow can be rebuilt. Moebius vs. Undertow 2.98M .mov


	Match #4 Moebius vs. Alabama Slammer (www.redneckrobots.com) Unfortunately, Alabama Slammer suffered enough damage at the hands of Little Drummer Boy that he had to forfeit the match. Alabama Slammer minus the lexan top


	Championship Match Moebius vs. Little Drummer Boy (www.dangerousdrums.com) Aw, geez! I was hoping to not have to face the #3 ranked bot in the world. After his match with Alabama Slammer LDB started smoking. Steve apparently overcharged one of his battery packs. I asked if there was anything that I could do to help him out. He also was having some drive train troubles with his left wheels. All he asked for was time so he took about two hours to work on LDB to get him running. We finally get into the box and get ready to go but LDB was not responding very well. His drum would hardly turn. So Steve asked me for a time extension and I agreed. I want to win as much as anyone but I want to do it on the field not in the operating room. LDB came back 15 minutes later and was now running on only one of his three battery packs. The match started and Steve conserved his energy by spinning up first then moving. I wanted to test the water first so I gave him a little tap head on to see if it would stop his drum. It didn't so I went to Moebius' right to try to take out that damaged drive train on that side of LDB. But Stve was able to keep the drum facing Moebius so Moebius didn't get the direct hit that we were hoping for. Instead, Moebius raked all the way across the front of LDB, leaving claws marks in the steel drum and Spectra armor. LDB turned and hit Moebius head on. This bent Moebius' shell and it started rattling. But worse than that, he stopped moving! He could still spin up but couldn't drive so LDB hit him again and I turned off the weapon motor to send all the current available to the drive motors. Still nothing. LDB hit Moebius again and again which almost flipped him over. Now, Moebius is in the corner. If his is going do he's gonna do it clawing all the way. Championship Match Moebius vs. Little Drummer Boy 8.63M .mov

Post Mortem:

Moebius suffered a broken master power switch, one of the Victor 883 ESC's broke the casing (but the circuit board was still intact), and his shell was dented pretty well. It took over an hour with a crowbar to get his shell off the next day. It took a lot of hammering with a 10 pound sledge hammer to knock some of the dents out of the titanium, a testament to the power that LDB has.

But the wierd thing is after I got the shell off. I turn him on and he drove around just fine. I am still puzzled as to why he stopped driving in that match.

Now, here's the kicker. I got an email from Steve about a week later showing me damage that Moebius did to his drum which will have to be replaced now. And, he told me that had the match gone on another 15-20 seconds his batteries would have died and Moebius would have won. Oh well, that's the way the game goes.

All in all, we had a great time and made good friends. Can't wait to see them all again at the next competition.