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Builder	Max Morningstar
Driver	Max Morningstar
Team	TRC
Weight Class	3lb
Body Material	TPU Chassis
Weapon	Horizontal Thwacking Spinner (AR500)
Weapon Drive	JCR-4935 from Just Cuz Robotics
Drive	Repeat Drive Max from Repeat Robotics
Power	3S Lipo
Lifetime record	3-3

Overview

Jot is a 3lb robot designed, built, and driven by Max Morningstar, first competing at the January 2024 New Bots event at NHRL. Morningstar came up with the idea to build Jot while reflecting on the 2023 Championships, in which cam lifter Supreme Ruler and corral bot Full Court made deep runs into the 3lb and 12lb brackets respectively, with the latter taking home the Golden Brett in its weight class. Morningstar wanted a design that could combat these styles of robots while still being competitive against vertical spinning robots. While in the shower, Morningstar was hit by a flash of inspiration, surmising that a bigwheel bot was the ideal counter to both types of designs, being able to bulldoze over corral bots while also being largely immune to cam lifters, which rely on the low ground clearance typical in meta 4WD vertical spinner designs.

In coming up with the Jot design, Morningstar looked to Starchild for initial inspiration. Having seen the Starchild variant Axis of Evil compete in the August 2023 event, Morningstar knew one of the biggest drawbacks to the design was the challenge of lining up hits with the robot's rear-mounted vertical spinner. To fix this, Morningstar combined the big wheels and elongated chassis of Starchild with a horizontal blade, envisioning a robot with a thwacking attack pattern that would be easier to drive and land reliable hits with. Having seen the dominant performance of the thagomizer-style robot Maximizer, Morningstar believed the design would be versatile enough to counter cam lifters and corral robots while still being competitively viable versus 4WD vertical spinners, which typically have less armor on the sides than the front.

Jot's name is an esoteric reference to a comedy sketch made by the podcasting network Headgum, in which two characters discuss ideas for viral t-shirt designs. Morningstar's robot Four Beet Salad, a 1lb plastic version of Jot, is named for another reference within the same video.

Before settling on the name Jot, the robot was originally going to be called Starmizer as an homage to Starchild and Maximizer, the two robots most impactful on the Jot design.

Fight History

NHRL January 2024

Jot debuted at the NHRL January 2024 event, having been designed over the preceding December. Before Jot, builder Max Morningstar had only designed one other combat robot, the horizontal spinner Deep Cut. Deep Cut's chassis was composed of 3D printed TPU sections sandwiched between 7075 aluminum frames. Originally, Morningstar had wanted Jot's weapon to be parallel to the ground and as low as possible for stability. However, as the competition neared and the robot remained unfinished, Morningstar was forced to compromise this design, ultimately using the same aluminum/TPU chassis style as Deep Cut for Jot's first chassis iteration. This resulted in Jot's weapon sitting at a roughly 45 degree angle from the ground. Morningstar knew this would introduce strange gyroscopic forces to Jot, but with time running out he was unable to test the robot and understand these forces until after he arrived to compete at NHRL.

Jot vs Terminus

Jot's first qualifying fight of the January event, and indeed of its career, was slated to be against Terminus, a hammersaw built by the robotics team from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The fight would have been an interesting one and potentially a devastating loss for Jot, since due to weight constraints Jot only had 1mm of TPU top and bottom armor on its main chassis. Unfortunately, Terminus had issues with belt tension on both its hammersaw arm and drivetrain, and was unable to pass safety in time to compete in the match. Under the new 2024 ruleset, Jot was awarded its first ever win, by forfeit.

Jot vs Little Melty

Jot's second fight was against another Rose-Hulman bot, Little Melty. Little Melty, as its name suggests, was a meltybrain design where the entire robot spins up to high RPMs, turning its own chassis into a primary weapon. Jot once again had a lucky break when the driver of Little Melty accidentally put the robot into the cage upside down, obscuring the directional LEDs that would have allowed them to see what direction the robot thought it was facing. Without these LEDs, the team was unable to effectively control their robot, piloting it into the walls by their starting corner, where the robot remained until the match ended. This was good news for Jot, as unbeknownst to the Little Melty team the hub holding Jot's wheel onto its drive axle was loose, and the wheel had begun to creep towards the edge of the axle as Jot approached its opponent's position. Had Jot maneuvered more aggressively, or taken a direct hit from Little Melty, Jot likely would have been quickly disabled. Luckily, Morningstar noticed the wheel start to shift and wisely kept Jot's movement to a minimum until Little Melty tapped out, granting Jot its second win and a berth in the January 2024 3lb bracket.

While anticlimactic, this was a critical fight for Jot because it exposed the glaring drive and gyroscopic issues caused by the robot's design. First, Jot's drive was incredibly sensitive. Its wheels were directly driven by Repeat Drive Max motors, which are designed for significantly smaller wheels than those boasted by Jot. Even with settings turned way down on Morningstar's controller, Jot accelerated quickly at even small inputs, making the robot very difficult to drive. This difficulty was exacerbated by the gyroscopic forces caused by Jot's weapon, which made Jot want to simultaneously not drive straight and attempt to roll over when turned. The combination of these factors would greatly inhibit Jot's ability to effectively damage opponents throughout the January 2024 event.

Jot vs TriJinx

Jot's first fight in the tournament bracket was against TriJinx, a robot modeled after the heavyweight robot HiJinx. Driven by a powerful hub motor, TriJinx wielded a large horizontal as its primary weapon. Horizonal spinners traditionally perform well against bigwheel robots. However, Jot's lucky streak continued, and upon reaching the cage TriJinx realized that its weapon was nonfunctional (later revealed to be a result of a faulty weapon ESC). This would prove pivotal during the fight. Due to the aforementioned drive issues, Jot's weapon was largely ineffective, and was intermittently seizing over the course of the match due to excess friction on the weapon shaft. Despite its lack of a working weapon, TriJinx acted as an adept control bot, successfully attempting multiple pins on Jot. However, the spring steel cleats on Jot's wheels proved to be highly effective, allowing Jot to drive up over TriJinx and escape its pins as fast as the robot could attempt them. TriJinx's nonfunctional weapon, and Jot's ability to work its way out of pins, ultimately led to a split judge's decision in favor of Jot, who advanced in the bracket.

Jot vs Sir Spinny

Jot's next opponent was a multibot consisting of a FingerTech vertical spinner and a lifting Viper minibot. In theory, this was a matchup that Jot was designed to dominate. However, given the drive sensitivity and overpowering gyroscopic weapon force, Jot was mostly at the mercy of Sir Spinny, which did its best to dismantle Jot over the three-minute match. Sir Spinny successfully removed most of the spring steel cleats on Jot's wheels, took off both self-righting spikes, and sheared off Jot's weapon shaft, causing Jot's spinner to be ejected from the robot. While Jot was able to cling to life for the full match, the resulting unanimous judge's decision in favor of Sir Spinny was no surprise. By taking this win, Sir Spinny delivered Jot the first loss of its career and eliminated it from the 3lb tournament bracket.

Chaos Rumble

After dropping out of the 3lb bracket (and repairing the extensive damage sustained at the hands of Sir Spinny), Jot entered into a freestyle rumble featuring robots The Fool, Event Horizon, Smol HEX, and several minibots. Also participating was fellow TRC robot Indubitably, which typically had a lifter arm but after sustaining damage to its main weapon servo was being driven as just a wedge. The fight was pure chaos - Jot eventually lost a wheel after a strong hit from Event Horizon, though maintained a remarkable amount of mobility despite having lost half its drive train. There was a fun interaction between Jot and the minibot for The Fool, which had been equipped with a cow catcher-esque attachment designed to restrain bigwheel robots. By the time the minibot made its way over to Jot, Jot had already lost its wheel. Undeterred, the minibot attempted a pin to hilarious effect when the cow catcher got stuck through one of Jot's spokes, entangling the two robots together to the great amusement of both drivers.

Following the rumble, Jot gifted its removed wheel to the Event Horizon team as a trophy from the rumble, and was in turn gifted the cow catcher from The Fool's minibot.

Show Match: Jot and Rewind vs Chainsaw Kitty

Jot's final fight of the competition was originally going to be another rumble once again featuring Event Horizon and Indubitably, alongside the rebuilt robot Rewind that had recently been knocked out of the 3lb tournament. Unfortunately, both Event Horizon and Indubitably ultimately withdrew from the rumble for a variety of reasons. Undeterred, the drivers for Rewind and Jot went to register for a freestyle fight when they happened to run into Kezia Skye, driver of Chainsaw Kitty, coincidentally also looking for opponents for a final freestyle fight for the day. Jot and Rewind immediately agreed to the match, not wanting to turn down a chance to be in the cage with one of the most recognizable beetleweight robots to compete at NHRL. At Kezia's suggestion, rather than being a rumble, the match was conducted as more of a freestyle fight, with Chainsaw Kitty and its minibot Knifecat facing off against the alliance of Jot and Rewind.

Despite the fact that she was facing two full beetleweight robots, Chainsaw Kitty was able to not only hold her ground but put on a dominant performance. By the end of the fight Jot was completely disabled, and would likely have been counted out had it not been for Rewind, which showcased both its excellent durability and skilled driving, lasting to the end of the match even after receiving several devastating hits from Chainsaw Kitty's weapon. Upon further inspection post-fight, it became clear that the hits from Chainsaw Kitty had loosened the gearboxes of Jot to the point where the brushless motors of the drivetrain were able to freespin in the chassis, severing their own wires and disabling the robot's drive. The damage sustained in this match, alongside the driving issues that plagued Jot throughout the day, would be the primary focus of Jot's redesign for its next competition.

NHRL June 2024

Heading into the June event, the primary design challenges facing Jot were making the drive more controllable and figuring out a way to keep the weapon parallel to the ground. To increase drivability, the chassis was redesigned so that there was a secondary axle for the wheels to ride on, connected via belts to the Repeat Drive Max motors that ran Jot's drivetrain. This added an additional reduction onto the wheels, bringing their speed into a still quick but far more controllable RPM range. This chassis redesign, along with the transition from aluminum frames to a UHMW tail, meant that Jot would look radically different from its January 2024 iteration.

Fixing the weapon of Jot took a little more design effort. The challenge was figuring out how to get power out to Jot's weapon, which was located on the end of its new UHMW tail. Keeping the weapon motor mounted near the chassis, like how Jot appeared in January 2024, would mean running an exposed belt all the way along the tail, a juicy target for any opponent to try and snipe. Mounting the motor closer to the weapon would help reduce the threat of belt loss, but similarly expose the motor wires to damage. Rather than try to devise a protective housing for either the weapon belt or weapon motor wires, builder Max Morningstar decided it was safer to direct drive the weapon and to have a dedicated battery and receiver for the weapon motor. The downside to this decision would be that the weapon motor would be directly in the path of attack for any robots with horizontal weapons. Morningstar needed a motor that was strong enough to act as a hubmotor, and durable enough to sustain any direct weapon hits. Conveniently, this seemed like a perfect application for the newly released JCR-4935 motor from Just Cuz Robotics. With a new drive and weapon setup, Jot was coming into NHRL's June 2024 event with renewed vitality.

Unfortunately, much like in January 2024 the biggest issue for Jot would ultimately be a lack of testing. Upon arriving to the June 2024 event and testing the new Jot design for the first time, several problems emerged. First, while swapping to belts on the drivetrain did make Jot more controllable, the belts were prone to slipping on the 3D printed TPU wheel hubs. Additionally, the TPU chassis for Jot, which was significantly thinner than January's chassis due to weight constraints, allowed the drive motors and wheel axles to deflect towards each other, further loosening the belts. The belts had so much slip that Jot failed its first attempt at passing safety because it could not show enough controlled movement. The addition of some flange washers and zip ties were able to stabilize the axles and tighten the drive belts enough for Jot to move, but its maneuverability was hindered for the duration of the event.

Much like how the weapon instability had worsened Jot's existing drive issues in January, Jot's weapon weight similarly exacerbated the maneuverability issues in June. The combination of the weapon weight, the weight of a 3S battery, and the enormous JCR-4935 motor, meant that in order to turn Jot had to contend with almost a third of the robot's weight inconveniently located at the very end of the tail. This not only crippled Jot's turning abilities but also prohibited Jot from making quick Thagomizer-style thwacks with its weapon, cutting the heart out of Jot's overall design philosophy. Even though it would not perform as expected or desired, Morningstar ran Jot anyway, inverting his controls so that the robot drove weapon-first instead of leading with its bigwheels as it had in January 2024. For June 2024, Jot would be less of a thwacking horizontal, and more of a traditional undercutter.

Jot vs Not Sure

Jot's first fight of the event was against Not Sure, an eggbeater vertical spinner with a wide, low frame. Early on, Jot was able to inflict solid damage onto Not Sure, disabling the robot's weapon. However, yet another design flaw on Jot cropped up, one that would not just undermine this match but ultimately torpedo Jot's entire June event. In January, Jot's bigwheels were fastened directly to the self-righting "snowman nose" cones that helped Jot avoid becoming stuck on one of its wheels if the robot was knocked over. Those cones were secured to the motor axles with set screws, meaning that the hole assembly turned in unison as the motors drove the wheels. In June, the wheels were separate from the cones, which were screwed into the end of the wheel axles. Since the cones did not rotate, it meant that when the wheels were pressed into the cones (such as during a pin from Not Sure), Jot was actively unscrewing the only fastener keeping the wheel on the drive axle. This would ultimately cause one of Jot's wheels to slip off of its hub, not quite fully off the robot but far enough that it disabled a drive side even after Jot had already shut down Not Sure's weapon. Given Jot's decreased ability to turn, the faulty axle design that disabled half of Jot's drive, and Not Sure's strong control driving, Jot lost the fight to a unanimous judge's decision.

Jot vs Singularity

After Jot's loss to Not Sure, it became clear that the most critical design flaw for Jot was how its wheels were secured to their hubs and constrained on their axles. In an attempt to rectify this issue on the fly, Morningstar reapplied threadlocker to the screws securing the cones to Jot's axles, and added additional washers to try and space out the wheels from their respective cones to avoid the same failure that occurred in Jot's previous fight. Even in a favorable matchup, the odds of a Jot victory given all these design issues would have been long. However, the next matchup was highly unfavorable: Singularity.

Designed by the team behind the ring spinner Event Horizon, Singularity was a dual-ring spinning bristlebot, that used the vibrations caused by its own spinning weapons to shuffle the robot around the arena. Bristlebots are typically sluggish, but Singularity was solidly mobile, and was hungry to stay in the competition as it too was coming off of a first round loss. While Jot had never officially fought Event Horizon, in the January 2024 NHRL event the two robots had participated in a rumble together. In the rumble, Event Horizon was able to rip one of Jot's wheels clean off, and was gifted that wheel as a trophy. In keeping with this history, Morningstar told the Singularity team that if they were able to cut through one of the UHMW spokes of Jot's wheels, he would give them a second wheel.

The fight itself was brutal, and short. There was a brief exchange in which both robots emerged slightly battered, followed by a devastating hit that caused not just one but both of Jot's wheels to fall off their hubs, instantly disabling the robot's drive. Morningstar quickly tapped out, and rewarded the victorious Singularity team one of Jot's wheels, which indeed sported a spoke cut clean through by Singularity's counter-rotating weapon rings.

Robot Combat Event @ RCE

Following a rough 0-2 showing at NHRL's June 2024 event, Jot builder and driver Max Morningstar sought to fix some of the most glaring design issues with the bot ahead of the very first Robot Combat Event @ RCE, a new beetleweight event run by veteran NHRL competitors and father-son duo Glenn Boxell and Brian Boxell. With this redesign, Morningstar sought to eliminate two of the biggest drivetrain design flaws that had faced Jot in June: the drive belt slippage due to the high traction of Jot's cleats, and general floppiness of the TPU chassis compromising drive belt tension. To solve these issues, Morningstar added aluminum plates to the side of Jot, and swapped from belts to 3D printed gears. Originally hoping to use a metal pinion gear (but unable to find one of the desired mod) the decision was made to print the wheel-side gear out of TPU (to be screwed into the wheel itself), and the motor-side gear out of PLA+ (to be secured with two setscrews onto the drive motor shaft). With limited testing showing positive results for the new drivetrain, Morningstar believed that the RCE@RCE event would be a redemption run for the Jot design.

Jot vs The Fool

Jot's first fight of the event was to be against The Fool. Morningstar was excited for this fight because the vision for Jot when it was initially designed was for it to be a hard counter to camlifter-style bots like The Fool. Unfortunately, far from a brilliant display of the Jot design, the fight was cut short due to another dissatisfying drivetrain failure on Jot. The PLA+ pinion gears deformed on the drive motor shafts, disabling Jot and ending the fight in less than a minute. Once again, Jot had been crippled by an issue easily detectable if the robot had been more thoroughly tested.

Jot vs Uhhh

A strategic use of superglue helped get Jot into fighting shape for its final fight by hard-fastening the PLA+ gears to the drive motor shafts, but despite this improvised fix Jot's final fight of the day was even less impressive than its first. Facing Uhhh, a 4WD vertical spinner, Jot was able to make its way over to its starting square but as the match began found itself unable to move, and was quickly counted out for a loss. A post-fight look at Jot's internals revealed that the issue was Jot's FingerTech power switch, the screw of which had stripped out. It would seem that the switch had been just tight enough to give Jot power enough to make it to the starting square, but then soon after came slightly loose and cut off power to the drive system of the robot, ending Jot's day and leaving the robot with another disappointing 0-2 record for the second event in a row.

NHRL October 2024

Frustrated by a lack of competitive performance, and by the design challenges posed by Jot's long thwacking tail, Morningstar decided to once again radically redesign the Jot chassis between events. Abandoning the tail (but keeping the JCR-4935 weapon motor, which had proven to be reliable in the NHRL June 2024 event) Jot was refashioned into an undercutter. As part of the redesign, and inspired by damage taken to Jot's bigwheels in grudge matches at RCE@RCE, Morningstar also came up with a new design for Jot's bigwheels, sandwiching Jot's spiky spring steel cleats between two 1/8" UHMW bigwheels instead of mounting the cleats externally to 1/4" UHMW. The hope for this new design was to keep the cleats more protected and therefore more likely to stay on the robot throughout a fight. With new wheels, a new design, and a notable lack of testing, Jot was once again packed up to compete in the final NHRL qualifying event of the year.

Jot vs Ceratops

Jot's first fight of the day was to be against Ceratops, a 2WD vertical spinner from a rookie MIT builder. Unfortunately, Ceratops had some electronics issues and was unable to pass safety, so Jot took a forfeit victory to start the event.

Jot vs Kamino

Jot's second fight of the day was against Kamino, a 4WD vertical spinner. The fight was a short one, with Jot's experimental wheels proving to be a far less durable than anticipated. After just a few hits, the thinner wheels deformed, disabling Jot's ability to drive and leading to a quick tapout loss.

Seeing the new, sandwich-style wheels as a weakness, Morningstar decided to swap Jot's wheels with a set that had been previously made for the June event to avoid similar wheel failures in future matches. Unseen, the motor bell on Jot's JCR-4935 motor had also taken some damage, damage that would not become apparent until later in the event.

Jot vs El tibio

After the loss to Kamino, Jot was to face the flame robot El tibio. This would have been the first ever time for both Jot and Morningstar to face a flame robot In preparation for this, Morningstar had purchased foil tape but, in the rush to get to the event, had accidentally left it behind while packing. Luckily the drive team for the robot Gh-Astley, who Morningstar had befriended after having his robot Deep Cut beaten by their robot Rick Roller in 2023, generously lent a roll of aluminum tape to help fireproof Jot.

Unbeknownst to Morningstar, El tibio had been mostly destroyed in its first round match against Crush, and the El tibio team had been forgoing repairs to the robot to prioritize fixing their 12lbs entry Drunken Peasant. With El tibio still in pieces, Jot was gifted its second forfeit win of the day and advanced to the 3lbs elimination bracket.

Jot vs Buffalo Wings

In a move of total serendipity, Jot ended up facing Buffalo Wings in the bracket, meaning that all the fireproofing preparation done for El tibio was not a total waste.

The match ended up being fairly even between the two robots. Damage to the motor bell on Jot's weapon led to weapon spinup being intermittent throughout the match, hamstringing Jot's ability to do any damage to Buffalo Wings. However, Buffalo Wings was unable to fully control Jot due to the robot's bigwheel design. As a result, the match went the full three minutes, with both robots emerging basically unscathed and fully operational. Ultimately, the judge's decision went to Buffalo Wings, with control and aggression both being heavily weighted against Jot, ending the robot's run for the event with a 2-2 record on the day.

Statistics

Info

Rank: #120 in 3lb.
Last 5 fights: LWLWL
Current streak: L1 (0 KOs/KO'd)
Longest winning streak: 3 (1 KOs)
Longest losing streak: 3 (1 KO'd)
Avg fight time (seconds): 125.0

Record

Year	Events	Fights	W	L	%	KOs	KO'd
2018-19
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024	3	10	5	5	0.500	1	2
All-Time	3	10	5	5	0.500	1	0

Events

Date	Fought as	Reached	Fights	W	L	KOs	KO'd
January 20, 2024	Jot	Bracket Rd. 2	4	3	1	1	0
June 22, 2024	Jot	Qualifiers Rd. 2	2	0	2	0	1
October 26, 2024	Jot	Opening Round	4	2	2	0	1

Opponents

Opponent	Fights	W	L	KOs	KO'd	Last Meeting
Ceratops	1	1	0	1	0	October 26, 2024
El tibio	1	1	0	1	0	October 26, 2024
Terminus	1	1	0	1	0	January 20, 2024
Little Melty	1	1	0	1	0	January 20, 2024
TriJinx	1	1	0	1	0	January 20, 2024
Kamino	1	0	1	0	1	October 26, 2024
Singularity	1	0	1	0	1	June 22, 2024
Buffalo Wings	1	0	1	0	0	October 26, 2024
Not Sure	1	0	1	0	0	June 22, 2024
Sir Spinny	1	0	1	0	0	January 20, 2024

Click "Expand" to see this table.

Full Fight History

Date	Opponent	Round	Result	By	Points	Fight Length (s)	Video
January 20, 2024	Terminus	Qualifiers Rd. 1	Win	Forfeit	1.00
January 20, 2024	Little Melty	Qualifiers Rd. 2	Win	Tapout	1.00	61	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C6iSvDtFB4&t=10049s
January 20, 2024	TriJinx	Bracket Rd. 1	Win	Judges Decision	1.00	180	https://nhrl-matches.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/streams/Cage-7-Overhead-High_1080p_121.mp4
January 20, 2024	Sir Spinny	Bracket Rd. 2	Loss	Judges Decision	-1.00	180	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C6iSvDtFB4&t=29597s
June 22, 2024	Not Sure	Qualifiers Rd. 1	Loss	Judges Decision	-1.10	180	https://brettzone.nhrl.io/brettZone/fightReview.php?gameID=EX-bd71577a57ad42ac&tournamentID=nhrl_jun24_3lb
June 22, 2024	Singularity	Qualifiers Rd. 2	Loss	Tapout	-1.18	47	https://brettzone.nhrl.io/brettZone/fightReview.php?gameID=EX-bed7441868774409&tournamentID=nhrl_jun24_3lb
October 26, 2024	Ceratops	Qualifiers Rd. 1	Win	Forfeit	1.08		https://brettzone.nhrl.io/brettZone/fightReview.php?gameID=EX-a6959a8b68ae4b07&tournamentID=nhrl_oct24_3lb
October 26, 2024	Kamino	Qualifiers Rd. 2	Loss	Tapout	-1.00	47	https://brettzone.nhrl.io/brettZone/fightReview.php?gameID=EX-e044f05c53334e05&tournamentID=nhrl_oct24_3lb
October 26, 2024	El tibio	Qualifiers Rd. 3	Win	Forfeit	1.04		https://brettzone.nhrl.io/brettZone/fightReview.php?gameID=EX-2cfc0922195e4faa&tournamentID=nhrl_oct24_3lb
October 26, 2024	Buffalo Wings	Opening Round	Loss	Judges Decision	-1.00	180	https://brettzone.nhrl.io/brettZone/fightReview.php?gameID=W-25&tournamentID=nhrl_oct24_3lb

* Forfeits before the 2024 season are not counted in a bot's W-L record. Forfeits from 2024 and on are counted in a bot's W-L record.

For more information on how points are calculated for rankings, click here.