Any ideas?

[Neil]

I was fencing an electric foil bout the other night and had a very weird thing happen. When I beat my opponent's blade, the scoring box registered a hit for me! It happened twice in about 15 min of fencing. We couldn't reproduce it when we tested it outside bouting.

I have no idea how this can happen. Has anyone else ever seen this problem, or have any ideas on how it could happen? My foil has an Uhlman tip.

[neevel]

Your opponent probably had an momentary A-C short (could be due to damaged insulation or a loose strand of wire in either the body cord, floor cord or reel, or due to a sweat bridge between the lame and the foil). When A-C are shorted together on a modern (i.e., anti-blocking) scoring box, the weapon becomes part of the valid target. When you made your beat, your tip must've depressed on some part of the weapon.

If you see the yellow lights come on on the box, that's telling you that there's an A-C short and that the weapon on that side can have valid hits registered on it.

-Dave

[noodle]

p.s. this has also happened to me when the box was set on sabre while fencing foil.

[Neil]

Your opponent probably had an momentary A-C short (could be due to damaged insulation or a loose strand of wire in either the body cord, floor cord or reel, or due to a sweat bridge between the lame and the foil). When A-C are shorted together on a modern (i.e., anti-blocking) scoring box, the weapon becomes part of the valid target. When you made your beat, your tip must've depressed on some part of the weapon.

If you see the yellow lights come on on the box, that's telling you that there's an A-C short and that the weapon on that side can have valid hits registered on it.

-Dave

I am almost certain that my tip didn't hit anything when I beat his blade. That's the most confusing part...

[Artisan]

Did it register a white light or a colored on target light?

[Neil]

Did it register a white light or a colored on target light?

A coloured on target light.

[DHCJr]

Then Noodle's insight may be correct. If it had been a white light anything loose would have caused that and since the tip has to move only an infintesimal amount, it still could have been the tip.

With the colored light, the way to have that happen is with a reversed wire. In Sabre, C is the power instead of the normal B, thus reversing the lights.

I know, at this point, this could not be proved conclusively. But if you can try using the box again and set it for Sabre and try.

Is it a Triplett box? They have 2 different Sabre settings, one is with sensors. This is starting to sound like an older Sabre box.

[Neil]

Then Noodle's insight may be correct. If it had been a white light anything loose would have caused that and since the tip has to move only an infintesimal amount, it still could have been the tip.

With the colored light, the way to have that happen is with a reversed wire. In Sabre, C is the power instead of the normal B, thus reversing the lights.

I know, at this point, this could not be proved conclusively. But if you can try using the box again and set it for Sabre and try.

Is it a Triplett box? They have 2 different Sabre settings, one is with sensors. This is starting to sound like an older Sabre box.

I know the box wasn't switched to sabre, since we were fencing foil and all the lights were working correctly the rest of the time. However, next time I go to training I'll set the box to sabre and do some experimenting just to see what happens.

It's not a Triplette, it's a Jeff Gray box. Jeff Gray is an Australian fencing supplier (www.jgfencesport.com) who sells his own brand of gear. The box would be more than 5 years old, but I think it's recent enough to make your weapon part of the target area during an A-C short, as neevel described.

[noodle]

I know the box wasn't switched to sabre, since we were fencing foil and all the lights were working correctly the rest of the time. However, next time I go to training I'll set the box to sabre and do some experimenting just to see what happens.

when i fenced with the box on sabre, it worked just like in foil. the major difference was that there were some "WOW what a great touch" moments where it ended up being because of blade contact, but the tip was so close to target anyway we just thought it was an awesome touch (why wouldn't we?) took us like 7 points to figure out that the light was going off on a beat and then saw it was on sabre.

[Swordmaster]

...Jeff Gray is an Australian fencing supplier (www.jgfencesport.com) who sells his own brand of gear...

FYI,
That is St. George electric boxes on his site. I agree with Dave, probably an intermitant shorting between fencer X's a-c lines (we all know it is always fencer X's fault)

[Purple Fencer]

FYI,
That is St. George electric boxes on his site. I agree with Dave, probably an intermitant shorting between fencer X's a-c lines (we all know it is always fencer X's fault)

Poor fencer X....he's always getting the short end of the stick on the director's test, too...

[Neil]

Thanks for all the suggestions and info.

I've fenced the same guy since, and I think it might have just been a contact between the lame and his weapon (A-C short, neevel's guess) - he sweats a lot and I've had hits on his arm go off, presumably because the sweat makes contact with the lame. I must have been mistaken about my point not hitting anything - it must have quickly touched some part of the blade or guard.

[ShadowHuntr]

Poor fencer X....he's always getting the short end of the stick on the director's test, too...

wouldn it suck if your last name was X. you would get blaimed for everything.

[mollusk]

wouldn it suck if your last name was X. you would get blaimed for everything.

Just ask Malcolm.

[Neil]

Or the post baby-boomer generation.