Not your typical xLights/FPP use case

[ControlsEE]

So I have been roped into a very interesting project being completed in the beginning of Aug: A Roller Coaster. I have been in touch with the guys at Magitecture, creators of a backyard coaster, loosely based on the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride at Disneyland. Now they are working on a wild west themed ride and have asked me to do some work for them since I realized xLights and FPP may have a use in their themeing. The major use is an animatronic miner that they were having issues syncing the audio to the movements. Guess what software is good for that? Of course, we need to trigger the sequence when the train comes around the track, so a sensor connected to the GPIO on a Pi will start the sequence. We also plan on using the Pixels2Things DC controller board to run the servos and motors on the animatronic. That coupled with a kulp K4 to control both lighting and atmospheric effects in the mine should give a good show! To top it all off, they are having a virtual fireworks and water show for the grand opening and I have prescribed basically the same hardware to run the projector, 6 water jets, and numerous lights for that too! I wanted to share about that here, along with progress and any questions I have along the way. I'm hoping I shouldn't have too many issues, but I want to test most of it before heading to CA in July, plus I would love your feedback too!

[ControlsEE]

Here is a video of their first ride

Here is the latest construction update on the new ride

[jem5136]

This is FANTASTIC!!! I absolutely love it! I've always wanted to create a small dark ride/roller-coaster but don't have the space to do it- maybe one day. 

[ControlsEE]

I'm super excited about it! I brought it up to them since I realized last Halloween that FPP would actually work quite well to run a dark ride, especially one that has a lot of projectors. When I saw the P2T DC motor board I just knew it would be an easy way to program the animatronic. They were going to try writing the code from scratch on an arduino. Now, they just need to know how far each part of the animatronic needs to move and xLights and the motor board can do the rest!

[ControlsEE]

Just to update those interested here, last week was a huge success. The ride was great, however, the people programming the animatronic didn't really attempt to learn xlights before Wednesday, so they ended up going to an arduino for the animatronic, since I was too busy with other things. We still setup the special effects with the Kulp and programmed a water and light show with the Kulp and P2T DC boards, which turned out fantastic. In all we had a blast and everyone who visited Saturday really enjoyed it.

[ControlsEE]

Just wanted to drop this here in case anyone wants to see the completed ride: 

[jem5136]

I'm geeking out over this so hard! How did you manage a launch? Awesome work. Makes me want to build a coaster in my back yard 😂😂

[algerdes]

I've been following this for some time.  
What was the propulsion used at 2:03?  Nice! 

[ControlsEE]

Thanks you all! The launch is an air powered piston, about 20' long. Sean (the leader of this project) and his brother built the piston from steel pipe and a rubber gasket. They have a video about it on their channel!