11 replies to this topic

[Jebuk201]

Alright here we go, I am kind of excited about this new coaster. As you can tell by the title, I want to theme this ride after an eagle. Although I do understand there are a lot of roller coasters themed after eagles, I wanted to add something kind of cool along with the ride. Right now I am working on a roughly 2ft tall eagle animatronic that will work with the ride. I am using micro servo motors to control several movements of the eagle, like rotating the head up & down, side to side, moving the beak up & down, tilting the body, and extending the wings. The animatronic will be controlled by the raspberry pi, which also controls the roller coaster, so that both can function together. Down below are pictures of the eagle I am working on, and also construction photos of the ride. Probably in the next few days I will post another update with more photos as I continue building the ride along with more detailed information on the eagle and other aspects of the ride. That's all I got for now, thanks for looking in.

 

Layout of the coaster:

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Eagle:

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Coaster Construction:

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Edited by Jebuk201, 19 August 2019 - 09:56 AM.

[SCM]

It's not too often animatronics are involved with knex coasters, so good job on that! I see that it's a little sharp at the grey-to-green-rod transition. If it helps, what I used to do at those points was have one grey rod morph into the flexi rod territory and one flexi rod morph into the grey rod territory (see below) and then add TTS connections that would force the beginning, middle, and end of the rod transition period to make a smooth transition from grey rods to flexi rods without having to worry about there being a sharp spot. The whole column of | makes up one rod length, which in this example, means 6 X-ties per rod. The * marks the parts where you're going to want some strong TTS connections. I hope my poorly drawn example helps: 

Spoiler

 

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Edited by SCM, 10 July 2018 - 12:44 PM.

[Chaos]

This whole eagle concept is fascinating! I will be very upset if it is not finished. And if you don’t post a tutorial at some point.

[Jebuk201]

Here is a quick update.

 

It's not too often animatronics are involved with knex coasters, so good job on that! I see that it's a little sharp at the grey-to-green-rod transition. If it helps, what I used to do at those points was have one grey rod morph into the flexi rod territory and one flexi rod morph into the grey rod territory (see below) and then add TTS connections that would force the beginning, middle, and end of the rod transition period to make a smooth transition from grey rods to flexi rods without having to worry about there being a sharp spot. The whole column of | makes up one rod length, which in this example, means 6 X-ties per rod. The * marks the parts where you're going to want some strong TTS connections. I hope my poorly drawn example helps: 

Spoiler

 

|--|--|*  

|--|--|*

|--|--|*   

|--|--|*  

|--|--| 

|--|--|  

 

 

Do you think that this looks better?

 

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Also, does this turn and curved bank turn right at the bottom of the drop look ok? Sometimes I look at it and it looks ok, other times it looks a bit off. I feel like my mind is playing tricks on me. Thanks for your help. I apologize if the photos are a bit dark.

 

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[Chaos]

I’m a little concerned that you’re going to lose all your speed on that turn with the supports being so minimal (and built on what looks to be smooth tile). I’d suggest raising that turn by at least one dark blue rod, which would enable you to build a stronger structure.

Turn does look smooth, but I’ll let others with a better eye for that stuff give you a better critique.

Edited by Chaos, 12 July 2018 - 12:35 PM.

[rgarner42]

Drop looks good and I'm really looking forward to seeing the animatronic eagle in action. 

 

The turn does looks good, you can try and smooth it out a bit more by threading grey rods through the x-ties, I find this really effective. 

However, those kind of turns in k'nex often don't work, they kill speed. Even if really heavily supported you'll struggle to get the layout you have planned. You can try supporting the turn more, and from what you have now you need to add a load more supports/connections, and chaos' suggestion would help too. If that doesn't work you might have to re-plan your layout.

Sorry to put a bit of a downer on your project, but I've made mistakes with turns like that before. Good luck though

Edited by rgarner42, 12 July 2018 - 02:51 PM.

[Jebuk201]

Yea I know it's been a little while here, and I wanted to take photos of the coaster during construction and post them, but I kind of forgot about doing that and kept putting it off, again. However, the ride itself is done, as you can see from the photos shown below. I might post a test run video in the next few weeks. The thing I am working on now is the eagle, which I haven't made a whole lot of progress with since the last update because I was more concerned about finishing the coaster. I still plan to add some lighting and theming to the coaster as well. I hope to finish this project by late December/ early January, it's just that school naturally slows me down. If you guys have any concerns, comments, or questions, please feel free to share them.

 

The photos of the coaster:

 100_1640.JPG   116.36KB   0 downloads  100_1641.JPG   115.92KB   0 downloads  100_1645.JPG   103.48KB   0 downloads  100_1646.JPG   102.59KB   0 downloads  100_1647.JPG   102.45KB   0 downloads  100_1650.JPG   131.01KB   0 downloads  100_1655.JPG   117.63KB   0 downloads  100_1658.JPG   73.58KB   0 downloads  100_1659.JPG   175.3KB   0 downloads  100_1660.JPG   117.01KB   0 downloads  100_1662.JPG   121.02KB   0 downloads  100_1664.JPG   125.66KB   0 downloads  100_1665.JPG   124.22KB   0 downloads

 

Here are the photos of the eagle, which I added the right wing. I just need to replicate that to the left side, and then I can finish with adding the feathers to finish the eagle.

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[Jebuk201]

I know it took a while, but here is a link to the final video:

https://www.youtube....h?v=9YG0IFQM8Hk

 

Also the name of the coaster is Flight of Freedom.

Edited by Jebuk201, 19 August 2019 - 09:57 AM.

[commando]

Is this the first Knex animatronic? The bird looks really good and that nice compact layout! As other have said, you'd probably be able to have a bit longer of a layout with stiffer supports. All of the flexing is the train losing energy. But the shaping is nice and I like the element choice 

[Rollerfreak987]

I love this coaster. The animatronic eagle is a great feature! 

 

Very creative layout as well

[JohnnyR24]

Great job on the coaster and eagle, I'm getting some serious I305 vibes from that lift hill structure/supports which look great.

 

Also, love the Buffalo Pennants on the wall!

[RCT2123]

That Eagle looks so good.  The coaster is great too.  Shaping is there, nice compact layout.  Definitely getting the I305 vibes as well.  Overall a really cool concept that turned out awesome.