Did C.V. knock out Behemoth?[]
I was rewatching C.V.'s University Challenge melee after the robot got put on eBay, and I might have found something interesting. It's always been said that Behemoth simply stopped by itself, but I think C.V. might have knocked Behemoth out itself... My thinking is that we know that the link is located on the top rear corner- Shunt got a direct hit on it in the Iron Maidens, it makes sense that it's in the same place in the University Challenge- and C.V.'s axe ends up in a very similar location just as Behemoth stops moving. It's not a clean axe blow, but the axe does get dragged along that corner, and hooking a wire on the link and pulling it loose strikes me as a fairly plausible explanation for what we were shown in the post-fight interview. Thoughts? Combatwombat555 (talk) 00:40, December 29, 2019 (UTC)
- I thought this was already established? Perhaps I recall incorrectly but yes I do think this happened. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 00:58, December 29, 2019 (UTC)
- I don't think it has- it's been established that it was Behemoth's link failing that immobilised it, but never that C.V. had any part in that. It's never been written up like that, anyway. Combatwombat555 (talk) 01:04, December 29, 2019 (UTC)
Correspondence via eBay[]
With CV recently being put up for sale on eBay, this gave me a chance to message John Barker to ask some questions.
Great to see this robot is still in one piece after so many years. I have a few questions about Cataclysmic Variabot.
1) Did you try to enter Series 7 2) Why did you shorten the name to CV? 3) According to the website, which I found on WebArchive, AMCV had interchangeable weapons. Which other weapons did it have other than the axe?
Thank you. - This was the message I sent him, his replies were'
Thank you for your interest in this robot. In answer to your questions.
1) Did you try to enter Series 7 No we did not by this point the team, a group of OU Ph.D. astronomy students had finished moved on and disbanded
2) Why did you shorten the name to CV? The staff at the events complained about the length and unpronounceable name. Hence we shortened it from Cataclysmic Variabot to CV. (Please note the original name was related to the star systems I was doing my Ph. D. on which are called Cataclysmic variables also known as CVs so we were happy with the change)
3) According to the website, which I found on WebArchive, AMCV had interchangeable weapons. Which other weapons did it have other than the axe? AMCVN was the baby brother of CV we had in the feather weight category and did not have interchangeable weapons though CV itself did. It had a flipper to go in the same bay as the axe and a circular saw attachment for the rear. Neither of these two were ever used in battle. I am currently looking to see if these are still in the garage to put in with the sale. I have now found the original RC unit and will include this with the sale.
Please note we did also have a further feather weight robot called Cygnus X3 which got run over by Mr Phsyco and just missed the lights off the arena flipper.
Cheers John
and a subsequent message
OOPS sorry we did enter series 7 this was with the feather weight robot as mentioned in my last contact Cygnus X3
Regards John
I informed him that we had assumed Cygnus was entered by the same team that entered Cygnus X-1, and this prompted him to come to the wiki and correct the team members.
He also sent me this message
Thanks to the experience I have had with trying to sell CV on ebay (and being knocked back at the last minute by the bidder who decided that they could not collect) and the discussions with yourself I am now looking to restore CV to fight readiness. I have today sorted the radio control and am in the process of making some minor repairs to the speed controller and steering.
Watch this space...
Regards John
Drop Zone mk2 (talk) 16:42, January 4, 2020 (UTC)
- Excellent stuff! Might be worth clarifying if there's any relation between Cygnus X3 and Cygnus X-1 as those names are suspiciously similar. If John has any pictures of Cygnus X3, that would be really useful. Qualifiers details always help too. TOAST 17:22, January 4, 2020 (UTC)
He sent me this reply when I asked him if there was a connection between Cygnus and Cygnus X-1
The data on the link (https://robotwars.fandom.com/wiki/Cygnus) is incorrect, though it does give a good link to our attempt to get in to orbit off the arena flipper before landing in the pit.
The name, once again, was due to the team being made up of astronomers and astrophysicists. CV got its name (Cataclysmic Variabot) from the variability of the weapons and the link to Cataclysmic Variable (my area of research at the time) these are binary star systems containing a white dwarf ( see https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/objects/cvs/cvs.html). Cygnus X3 is again a binary star system but containing a neutron star (or black hole) (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXD650E0duo). There is no link to the Cygnus team though and the name was purely a coincidence.
Regards John
Drop Zone mk2 (talk) 22:41, January 4, 2020 (UTC)