VERY strange epee prob

[Purple Fencer]

Too wierd...epee tourney today.

Fencers touch blades....no tip-tip contact...foible-foible....nothing really hard either.

on contact, one fencer's target light fires! Tried to replicate it...couldn't.

Looked to see if both wires had been nicked and were in contact with the blade....perhaps the other blade completed the circuit....no nicks at all...

ideas?

[OROD]

It was a sign from God telling them to fence foil!

I wouldnt piss off God if I were them.

.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

My guess is that there is a tiny cut in the insulation tubing near the bell guard, and the hit just happened to put it in contact with another uninsulated wire piece.

I've seen it before.

[mrbiggs]

I've never heard of this happening in epee, as opposed to foil, but there could have been some conductive dust or metal shavings in the tip that temporarily connected the posts.

[yeoldearmourer]

Check the tip for metal particals in one of the tips that could have shorted out in the barrell. unhlmann had that problem the plateing of the barrel would flake and cause air touches.

[Dave]

The same thing happened to me on friday. My opponents light went of on a very light beat. We tried to replicate it, couldn't then it happened again a few minutes later. No sign of any damage, or loose components anywhere.

Thanks for the suggestion as to why it may have been happening yeoldearmourer.

[Tomas N]

What scoring machine were they using?

Tomas

[twisterfencing]

Originally Posted by Purple Fencer

Too wierd...epee tourney today.

Fencers touch blades....no tip-tip contact...foible-foible....nothing really hard either.

on contact, one fencer's target light fires! Tried to replicate it...couldn't.

Looked to see if both wires had been nicked and were in contact with the blade....perhaps the other blade completed the circuit....no nicks at all...

ideas?

Sam,

Are you saying that this epee ghost firing? Tip up in the air kind of thing and going off?

If this is the case let me know. I have only seen it twice and one of them was a button.

Gary Spruill

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by twisterfencing

Sam,

Are you saying that this epee ghost firing? Tip up in the air kind of thing and going off?

If this is the case let me know. I have only seen it twice and one of them was a button.

Gary Spruill

Nope...it was on a beat. I'd forgotton the plating issue....Thanks for reminding me, Tim!

[brtech]

Originally Posted by twisterfencing

Sam,

Are you saying that this epee ghost firing? Tip up in the air kind of thing and going off?

If this is the case let me know. I have only seen it twice and one of them was a button.

We have had a spate of "air touches" starting a year and change ago when the USFA contract got a new set of Uhlmann reels. This particular batch of reels had a manufacturing defect where a wire on the solder terminal you can see in
the "window" when you take the top cover off rubs against the hub. It can wear through. The result is a partial short, and an "air touch" is a symptom.

We now check reels for A-B and B-C shorts with an ohm meter before and after a tournament. Sometimes you can wiggle the wire from the top to get
it away from the hub, but usually you have to disassemble the reel to get at the botton of the spool and really fix it (including some nail polish or glue to
re-insulate the wire after you reroute it away from the hub).

It was only in this batch as far as I know. It still shows up (we have 75 reels
in this batch). When we get a strip call with an "air touch" symptom, which really spooks the director and the fencers, we immediately change out the reel and look for our wire on the hub problem.

This doesn't sound like an air touch; it seems to require blade contact. When in doubt, measure A-B and B-C. If it's not infinite, you have a problem.

[KD5MDK]

Thanks for the warning, brtech. It's helpful to know what kind of equipment problems are likely with the tournament equipment, which we rarely see.