The shaping on this is fantastic. I think the entry and exit of the zero G roll are a little bit too drawn out but it still looks great.
I like your plans for the rest of the layout too.
Some more track to support connections might help to keep a little bit more speed, they're a little sparse.
Yes, you're definitely right. The entry and exits are a bit drawn out and I think it is because my first attempt was a bit bigger, but kept the same positions for entrance and exit.
I agree, my TTS isn't all that great. I wasn't really focused as much on that as I should have been. I will fix that when I get the chance. Thank you!
That 0-g roll is downright gorgeous!
Thanks
Looks very smooth, although the pullout from the diveloop to 0-G roll seems to have a straight spot. But is is hard to tell from this perspective.
Yes, the straight spot appears because of the rising turn and the combination with that photo angle. Pretty difficult to fix, but I'll continue to take a look when I can. Thanks!
That all looks stellar! The zero-g roll looks really good! I do agree with what Ghostbuster said about that straight spot. But it could just be the perspective.
^^, Thank you, I really appreciate it!
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I have a quick, little update for you all today. As I said in the previous update, I was intending to work on the automation while at school. I have been pretty busy, but I have been able to get a good chunk done.
To start out, this isn't my first attempt at software-based automation. For my roller coaster internship project a couple years ago, I was able to create an automation that worked, but was very unreliable. I used photoresistors and room lighting to detect the presence of a train. Like I said... it worked... but not very well. Immediately upon thinking about light sensors is that light isn't always there. The software I had also written wasn't very good at managing signals occuring at the same time. Now I'm here with my solution.
I wrote a simple State Machine program that would listen to each sensor (4) using multiprocessing. I could bring in that data and interpret what data was important or not. I decided upon using magnetic switches that would indicate whether a train was present or not, a much better alternative than arbitrary numbers from a photoresistor.
By now, keeping track of each train object, I can initiate the following state and activate necessary motion of a motor or servo for the block on the coaster. My logic currently works with testing, but on a larger scale, I would need to test on an actual ride to make sure my ideas work. With using a State Machine, I can ensure safety that trains will never collide.
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Here you can see my Raspberry Pi. I have 4 wires on the right-side of the pinout that act as switches. I pull them out of ground to indicate a train not there, and put them back to ground to indicate train is there. These 4 wires will get replaced by the magnetic switches in the future, but the wires are used for demonstration.
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Here's the magnetic switch. It is indeed very tiny.
Each LED represents a motion of control. On: motor is running. Off: motor stops running. I also have a motor control chip and all I have to do is transfer the electronic input from the LED to the motor controller to turn on the motor and not LED.
I will add a demonstration in a further update if requested, but I hope you all enjoyed this reading and I can't wait to implement my idea! Let me know if you have any questions
Edited by Mister Piglette, 13 January 2019 - 01:45 PM.
