Robot "Barn Find"

[Tem1514 Mentor]

The robots are great keepers but if I had to decide, I take the car.

[Billfred]

I remember that 2004 311 machine from my very first Championship--I worked Archimedes that year and saw them tangling with WildStang, Rhode Warriors, Sie-H2O-Bots, Martians...and yes, Beatty.

It's always great to see old robots together, maybe even functioning. It's something worth fighting for.

[Brian C]

Originally Posted by Kevin Ray

What's really interesting is that this team competed in Zone Zeal 2002 against FIRST Team 71 and FIRST team 173 ( This is back in the day when we had two team alliances).

Kevin,

This WAS the pinnacle of East Islip's abilities. I was a mentor with them since 1999 when my son (Matt C) was a sophomore. We were #1 seed in our division, back when Einstein was still a division and chose teams 308 from Walled Lake MI and 180 SPAM. As you said this was still 2 team alliances and you HAD to swap out during eliminations so each team got to play.

We lost the first match of finals on the Einstein stage. We were able to win the second match when SPAM with their ridicously powerfull drivetrain (remember these were still only DRILL motors.) was able to speed across the field and into 71's machine just about the time the soccer ball arrived. 308was able to lift 2 of the goals, which I believe weighed around 180 lbs EACH when empty and carry them into scoring position. Chris Hibner on here was on the drive team of 308 that year. I'm sure he'll chime in with his thoughts as well.

It was the only time 71 had been beaten during all of Championships that year.

We discovered some stripped teeth in 308's gearbox after that and went into the final match with 311 and 180. Lost the rubber match and ended up World Champioship finalists.

[Brian C]

Originally Posted by JVN

What the customer DOESN'T know, is that this robot was on the alliance with 1114 for the first ever Simbotics Regional Victory...

Maybe it does belong in a museum?

I believe team 1114 was #2 seed at the Long Island Regional in 2004 right behind 311 and they were East Islip's first pick (wouldn't you?) At the time they were still a relatively new team but we could see by their organization and the quality of their machine that they had big aspirations.

It really is interesting to look back on the pre-VEX, Andymark days.

Those 'screamer' radios worked pretty darn good! IFI built, and still builds some nice stuff!!

[Brian C]

Originally Posted by dipmeinaluminum

did you want to pawn it or sell it?


can you wait, I have a friend who is an expert in this field.

That's some funny stuff!

2 quick stories I have to relate regarding the 2002 Championships:

Matt C was in his freshman year at WPI working with team 190.

1. In order to get to the championship finals team 311, his High School team ewhich I still mentored had to compete against WPI in the Championship Semi-finals as they had won their division as well. Talk about family rivalry.

2. After finishing as champion runner-ups in EPCOT team 311 attended BattleCry at WPI in May. Guess who we met in the finals there? Team 173 RAGE. This time 311 was able to pull out the win, with lots of help from the Rhode Warriors and team 190 who was on our alliance as well. That settled any leftover family issues......

[Chris Hibner]

That was a great time. I have very fond memories of that day, and I swear I remember every match.

Somewhere in my house I have an old mini-camcorder VHS tape of that entire tournament run. I remember getting up that morning and telling my wife, "you better have all of the batteries charged for the camcorder, because I have a feeling that we're going to win it all today and I want to have every match on video." I just had a really good feeling that morning. My good feeling came up just one match short.

I remember we had a match against 311 during qualifiers. They were the #1 seed going into the match, and we knew we had to make that match count. We did our usual thing of racing out, grabbing the goals, lifting them up, and then being able to drive where ever we wanted. I looked across the field during the match and you could see the frustration on 311's entire drive team. Afterward I went to the coach of 311 and said something like, "I love your machine - we could do well together," and he said something along the lines of, "yeah... I don't think we want to go against that again." After that I started feeling pretty good about our chances.

Speaking of 190 - didn't they have that great CVT that year?

Thanks for the great memories, Brian.

[Matt C]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

Speaking of 190 - didn't they have that great CVT that year?

You mean the overly complicated toroid drive continuously variable transmission that was built for the machine that was effectively designed to park in one spot the entire match?

Yes.

[Garrett.d.w]

Okay, so I know this is sort of off topic, but it is really bothering me. Is the mustang a 1965? My dad and I are arguing about it XD

[Matt C]

Originally Posted by Garrett.d.w

Okay, so I know this is sort of off topic, but it is really bothering me. Is the mustang a 1965? My dad and I are arguing about it XD

The Mustang in the picture is a 1965 coupe. It's my first car that I got for high school graduation. The body is the same between "1964.5" and 1966.

[Gary Dillard]

Wow do I remember that robot! We came so close with you guys that year, what an awesome run. I've still got the videos of the finals on my harddrive- they finally disappeared from the NASA archives online. And I'm still trying to get the video of our match against WildStang in the Newton semi's from our driver that year.

Found them on YouTube (of course)

Finals Match 1 - the legendary Beatty crawl

Finals Match 2 - SPAM knocks out Beatty

Finals Match 3 - Rage cleans up

[Animal Control]

I would like to see what becomes of it. I wish I could help out. But all I can say is cool.

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by Matt C

You mean the overly complicated toroid drive continuously variable transmission that was built for the machine that was effectively designed to park in one spot the entire match?

Yes.

Well, the pit demo was cool. And it couldn't have been that bad - they made it to the elims at Epcot.

[Matt C]

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

Well, the pit demo was cool. And it couldn't have been that bad - they made it to the elims at Epcot.

No, it was a thing of beauty, just overly complicated for the function it had. The file cards were what got us into the elims.