New Knex coaster (Déjà Vu)

[frightfestkid]

My cousin and I's ne knex coaster project is to remeber Vu We are making a knex Vu. Its ganna be really hard for the first tower.
But we have an idea. Sofar my cousin is making the Structer for 1 of the towers. Im making the other, If I can find my camera ill have some pics of the tower, on thanksgiving im going to his house and where doing more. So exspect some Pics and MAYBE a POV. Please comment my cousin and I's idea, and some tips will help. Thanks.



MOD Edit: It is important to use proper grammar and spelling when posting on this site.

[cycamps]

It's going to be pretty difficult...Good luck.

[CrstlBchCcln]

K'nex never made any inverted coaster track, so your recreation is going to be extremely lame from the start . . . Why don't you just try to make a regular boomerang? At least when you're done and it doesn't work it'll look realistic with a train sitting on the track, rather than hanging upside down.

Sarcasm aside, as far as I can tell it is impossible to build a fully automatic Boomerang, Giant Inverted or not, with any kind of K'nex coaster track. The only kind of K'nex coaster that I've ever had was the original that usually fell off during the loop or stalled and valley-ed afterwards. I think there is a way to do something that might work, somewhat, but it will not be perfect.

I'm assuming that you're using the "Screaming Serpent" kind of K'nex track, not the "Vertical Vengeance" kind. If you are going to try and put motors into your track, my suggestion is to try something that is not traditional at all. If your chains are continuous, your lifts will not work, the cars will get to the top, and then they will not be able to roll back down. Because of the anti-rollbacks, if you want a motor on your second tower to work at all, you'll have to figure out something that resembles a cable lift system for the first tower. If you want the ride to send the train out of the station backwards you can not use a chain lift because gravity will not permit that.

Create a device that can clamp onto the last car in your train. If you want the clamp to be automatic, you'll need to figure out a way to make the clamp release when something comes into contact with the non-flanged side of the clamp, and have something to contact that side of the clamp at the top of your tower. Tie that device to a string, put a wheel at the top of the tower, put the string in the wheel, and thread it down to where ever you have a motor. Tie the other end of the piece of string to a connector piece, snap it onto the beam piece that is going through the motor, and when you turn the motor on it should wind up the string on to the beam and make the "cable-car" move up the tower with your train in tow.

Now, if you can get that madness to work and really want to keep this going, let's move onto the second tower. You should use a chain lift here, but the chain will have to wind upon itself, and the chain can't be complete. The system will have to be reset every time you run the coaster, and you will have to engage the second motor half way through the ride every time you run it as well. The chain will have to be connected to a motor very similarly to how the string in the first tower was. This is a length of chain, not a continuous chain like in most coasters. Snap the link at the end of your chain length onto a connector, and snap that onto the beam in the motor. Thread the chain up to the lift. Thread it through the track so that there is a train's length or more of track in front of that spot. Place the chain in the track as normal. What should happen is the train will engage the chain on the lift, you start up the motor winding the chain up, the train will move up the lift, once the train gets to the top of the lift it will stay up there until all the length of chain behind it has been wound up and out of the track, once the chain is gone the anti-roll backs won't have anything holding the train up there anymore, and it should roll backwards and through the system.

It should valley in the station if you design the track right.

This method is very flawed and requires a lot of work to set up and to reset every time you want to run your ride, but as far as I can tell, that is the only way to get a Boomerang type coaster to work with K'nex. (This is way too much thought for a problem that could very easily be solved by simply trying to recreate a full circuit coaster that works.)


I hope that helped. If you can understand that, and get it all to work . . . have a cookie, congrats.

[frightfestkid]

I got everything planned out.Yes im using SS track it works, I made a batman recreation a while back and worked perfictly. It wont valley because the 1st tower is pretty tall and the boomarang and loop will be alittle shorter. Just trust me I got an idea.

[demon boy]

^I wanna see that batman!!! got anything on youtube or something?

[rct2wizard360]

I used the rocket coaster track awhile ago and made a V2 recreation.

I started a Deja Vu one, but I ran out of supports. I had four motors though, and it required quite a bit of effort and manual operation to make it work.

Good luck!

[frightfestkid]

I got some juicy construction pics of tower 1. More to come MABIE tomorrow.

Looking up the tower.


The whole tower.


Some of the track was landed on the tower.

[Galvan]

Do you sleep in a little tike's car bed?

[frightfestkid]

Ya, its a sad story about it.
7 years ago my grandma died and that was the last thing she got for me so I still sleep in it to remeber her .

[frightfestkid]

Yay me construction pics.

The wheels for the cables.


Looking down the tower at another wheel and track.


A big and one of the main wheels for the cable.


And the finale 1 of the day. The station (start).


:Edited:
The upgraded station


And the bottom of the tower.

More tomarrow.

[demon boy]

wow, thats looking a lot better than i thought it would be. Just two things
1-EDIT:: sorry man, forgot about what you said, i was already posting
2- for the station, the queue doesnt zig zag when it gets to the actual deck of the station, it just goes straight. And you only 6 rows of gates instead of 8.

It looks good, GET IT DONE. IT'll be really nice.

[frightfestkid]

1.Stop making fun of me for that. Its the only thing I can rember my grandma by.
2. Im just ganna have it zig-zag there for looks.I only did 6 gates becuse thats how long the train is, I dont have any other cars for it.

[Deja Vu R.I.P. 2001-2007]

Are you sfgam121 cause you can't spell you must be under 13

[frightfestkid]

Deja Vu R.I.P. 2001-2007 I am 13, im not the best at spelling. Look at my spelling test from the last 7 years.
Ok just so you all know the lift idea im ganna use is a magnetic form lift. The magnite will be atached to a cable (string or twine) and its going to run on a track using a motor. The cable will be long enof for it to reach the back car when its in the station. Im ganna have a wheel block so the magnite can relese, its going to run the ciructe I might do the same idea for hill 2 I might not, if my cousin has 2 motors I will but if he dosn't have 2 motors and theres no other lift I can do ill just push it up the secound hill. Then when it goes back to the first hill im going to start the motor so when the train runs out of speed the magnet will catch the train befor it drops and bipasses the station. And when the magnet has the train the secound time ill get the car close to the wheel block but not to the wheel block and just revers the motor so it gently slides the train back to the station. If I dont do a catch car on the backwards part of tower 1 ill just pull it back to the station.
Thats my main plan.

[frightfestkid]

Here are more construction pics

The air gates of the station.


Inside the station.


The station.


The station and the tower.

[ttd rox]

Lookin great!

[DvuRulz]

Sweetness, FFK! Its great! In fact, as I was looking at the pics, I felt some emotions in me about 'ol Vu and realized what a wonderful tribute your project is!

[cycamps]

It seems like you're working pretty diligently. Good Luck!

[frightfestkid]

FINALY more pics

A construction P.O.V shoot looking down the tower.


The tower’s bottom and station.


The station, tower and beginning of the boomerang.


The boomerang start.


Ok guys and gals, I got bad news. I’m not going to have anymore updates till Christmas :’-(. The rides at my cousin’s house and I’m not going there till Christmas. Sorry guys but on Christmas ill try to have the boomerang and loop done.

[Trailblazer Tony]

Okay, it looks incredible thus far, but let me just tell ya, although that tower is crazy high and the loop isn't all that tall, the vehicle will still probably not make it over since the arc between tower and station is so steep....you might wanna make that exchange more gradual, i've done something similar to this and the speed was never an issue, it was the transition between straighaways and drops that ruined it....just some advice.....

Keep up the great work and photos!

[demon boy]

^Yes, its a little thing called Kenetic and potential energy. If the difference/trasition between the two isnt steady and smooth, your momentum (not necessarily speed) will drop drastically.

[frightfestkid]

And thats why I usaly make the tower bigger till it makes it. And im ganna grease the wheels.

[Trailblazer Tony]

^Or you could just soften that steep curve at the base of the tower...probably a lot less messy that way

[rct2wizard360]

Chances are, if you made that tower taller, the car would just stop.

Those cars aren't good with tight transitions.
It looks like from the picture, that tranistion is the BARE minimum, and from that height, I think the car would just come to halt in the transition.

[FRD714]

^Then they would have a true Dejavu, with stalling feature.