reset timer problem in foil?

[sloper]

In the new timings there are two kinds of touches that are not getting lights that would under the old times. The first group I can deal with because they are predictable and they reward something and punish the lack of it - complete and constant point control. Foil remains a game of strategy, speed and distance.
However, there is another type of action that's not getting lights - the direct attack to the chest where your blade bends double. This is a bug. It has to be. It doesn't reward or punish anything. Foil becomes a crapshoot between two people too wary to attack.
At first, I wasn't sure if I could tell the differences between the two types of touches, but after some experience I definitely can. Moreover, the two types of touches are nothing alike. They only way they are alike is that they are failing to get lights.
So, here's the question, what bug in the box programming could explain the second group of failures without involving the first?
A bug involving the reset of the 15ms timer would do it. Say you attack direct to a hard target with good power. Your point hits, the circuit opens, and the timer starts counting. 1ms. However, during the second millisecond, your point rebounds, the circuit closes, the timer says no touch. But does it stop counting down 15ms? Upon the third millisecond, the circuit opens again as your point settles on the lame. Has the timer reset? Or is it still counting down the 15ms before it even looks again to see if the circuit is open? If this is true, suppose after the third millisecond your point stays on for 22 more milliseconds. The timer won't start counting again until millisecond 16. So when you take your point away 9ms later, it still won't register a touch. You're left baffled and straightening your blade. You think you must have made contact for more than 15ms. You did but it wasn't the "right" 15ms. This short (I'm using 1ms here) rebound of the point off a hard surface is invisible to the fencers, the directors and spectators(!). It should be invisible to the box. A reset timer bug could explain why it isn't.
Does anyone else's experience support or disprove this?

[Pancakes]

If you're talking about what I think you are, when you hit, the button gets depressed, but not for long enough before your blade bends and your point is no longer actually 'on target', and it's as if you'd hit flat and dragged up.

It's annoying, but I don't really care about it (then agian, I rarely fence under the new timing). Just keep better distance so your blade doesn't bend so much

[davtsung]

Even some touches with sufficient depression time are not going off.

[garyhayenga]

Originally Posted by davtsung

Even some touches with sufficient depression time are not going off.

*Some* is a *gross* understatement.

gary hayenga

[Bonehead]

At my club we have found this to happen. I'm not sure what causes it, your idea was one of the ones we had, the others was the spring grounding inside the barrel. Whatever it was, I find that by making sure you have good tape on your tip and that near the tip of the blade you give it a definate bend down (sort of like a flickers bend) then those screwed up touches semm to happen less.

[Craig]

I would say that the problem is not a bug in the box, but rather a bug in the requirements as written.

Insert favorite "law of unintended consequences" quote here.

Craig

[TooLoftheDeviL]

I hate electricity as subject matter. I'm inclined to think of it as magic. This is the impression of what's happening though I think.

You hit -> Timer starts counting for 15ms -> You bounce, but don't leave the lame -> Timer resets -> 15ms later, no light comes on, because the tip is already grounded on the lame, as if the barrel were touching it and then the tip were depressed

I really like the direction of the new timings - but this has gotta get fixed.

[MikeHarm]

I'm looking it as a technical issue with how you set the point more so than a machine flaw, I think its important to work on refining my technique anyways so its added encouragement to work harder.