# Working Ghost-O-Coaster



## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Hi everybody, 
New to the forum as far as posting, but have been lurking around from time to time.
I've done some small front yard haunting in the past 4 or 5 years, and even did a semi-successful Axeworthy (it was cool, but I'll never get those weeks back, talk about a time suck). Besides that, I've mostly stuck to a crank ghost, and traditional deer/WW motors for basic moving props. 

This year I'm going to try to bump it up a notch by trying to build a working Ghost0Coaster. I've got the wheel system mostly figured out, but I was wondering if anyone here on the forum ever attempted to do this. If I can figure out how to post a pic here, I'll post a pic of my wheel system. I based it on some of the backyard rollercoaster designs I've seen on youtube. 

My main goal is to have a short pvc track and some type of lift system that can lift it high enough so that it can get enough speed to make it around the track and up to some type of lift system. My plan is to have a little arduino triggering scenario with an mp3 soundtrack and some lights etc. If anyone has ever tried this, let me know! Here is a link to a pic of my wheels, not sure if this will work since I'm still a newb.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Welcome to the forum! I’ve moved this thread to the Tech Terror subforum where you’re more likely to get help with your question.

You may wish to consider using a different photo hosting site. It’s likely that the link you were trying to use was causing this thread not to appear (other than to moderators) because the site name has triggered virus warnings from anti-malware in the past (or so says a Google search:jol)).


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Thanks Roxy! I realized I posted in the wrong place right after I did it. Sorry about that. I guess there is no way to upload a file to the forum directly? I thought I posted thepic via my photo hosting scenario and shared the pic (Amazon/Google I forgot which one) Sorry bout that. 2 fouls in my first post! New to this forum biz. Thanks again, and looking forward to getting to know everyone.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Nope, unlike Facebook, you can’t upload directly a photo directly here.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Cool, good to know, thanks!


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## Batbuddy (Sep 3, 2014)

I did something kind of like you described. It is a major undertaking! LOL Ours was more like a dark ride at an amusement park. We called it the Doom Buggy and it was a coffin that you sat in. Here is a link to the thread. https://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=46402. My youtube channel has some how too about this ride as well.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Hey Batbuddy, 
My original inspiration was the dark ride concept. Your ride came up in my research. I actually went down the dark ride rabbithole for a week or so. I grew up in New Orleans, and at Ponchatrain Beach, they had a dark ride, and I was always facinated on how it worked, and was much more interested in how the mechanics of it worked than the actual ride itself. I realized early on, that I wouldn't have the way to do a dark ride (don't have a garage), and the price of admission seemed high, time and money wise.
The coaster idea seemed a little more basic, since, in theory, gravity would propel the ride. I just did my proof of concept, and I'll try to post a video in a while. Still a long way to go! I was very impressed with your ride and your attention to detail. Great job. Thanks for the comment!


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

A little update. Proof of concept phase one. 
I strung some of the $5 1/2 inch garden watering tubing from my fence to a ladder for testing, and it worked. The tubing wasn't very rigid, so I'll probably move to the more rigid landscape tubing or pex and work with that for some of the turns, and pvc for the straight pieces. The good thing is that I thought I was going to have to have thicker 3/4 inch pvc, which is more expensive. I'll work on another test this week.


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## Batbuddy (Sep 3, 2014)

Looks cool I like the proof of concept. I just wonder about the strength of Pex or poly pipe being safe enough for a person to travel on. I know that the backyard coasters are usually made with two rails of 2" UV resistant PVC which is much stronger. Youtube has tons of videos which I am sure you have watched. My favorite one is the engineer who did stress analysis and made it clear that the PVC was strong enough to handle 300 lbs.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Oh, I forgot to mention, this will be only for a prop/skeleton. No human riders! Sorry, should have clarified!


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Good to see some of the trial runs coming together. Seems like there would definitely be some trade-off... you could use thin track, but if you have to support it every few feet, it might be easier / cheaper to use thicker track with fewer supports. There is also something to be said for throwing in some extra margin for things like a windy night adding extra side force, rainy night soaking props and adding extra weight, etc. 

Plus it's always nice to have a 'solid' prop that just works, not one that needs tinkering / adjustment every few minutes. 20+ years and I'm still working to master that!


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## Batbuddy (Sep 3, 2014)

Ghost-0-Coaster said:


> Oh, I forgot to mention, this will be only for a prop/skeleton. No human riders! Sorry, should have clarified!


in that case, I think the poly pipe idea is great!


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Ok, I'm back to finagling. I play bass in a rock band, and we had a show this Saturday, so I had to prepare for that. Now that that's done, it's Halloween time!
Got some updates from my running blog here:

Batbuddy and Corey and crew, thanks for your comments, I need all the support I can get at this point. The Ghost O Coaster is making my Axe-worthy ghost experiences a few years back look like a cakewalk, and that experience was a very time consuming (but eventually rewarding) one!

So have made a little more progress on the wheel assembly. Went a little bit back to the drawing board and made my assembly out of metal instead of pvc. Actually took way less time, the metal L pieces have holes, and make for a pretty easy manipulation. I went back and looked at the design of the backyard roller coaster experts, and realized I had made an error in my design.

The front wheels need to be able to tilt front to back and side to side (yaw) in order to move along a curved track, and I didn't have that in my initial design (reinventing the wheel again!). The Coaster gurus that I used for inspiration, Paul Gregg and Will Pemble have some really detailed videos on design and implementation, so a big shout out to them!
Also the bar that connects the two front wheels needed to be solid so there is no movement between the two front wheels.

Also the 1/2 inch pvc looks like it will work, but I either have to drill holes to recess the screws so the wheels don't hit them, or move them out of the way of the wheel. Otherwise, it works pretty good on at least the finagled together straight test track. Will definitely have to solidify the track with ties every few feet, but I believe this will work with the 1/2 inch track. Unfortunately the landscape tubing is smaller than the pvc by a little bit, and I'm not sure if they will both work together. I might try to see if I can still incorporate that into the build, but we'll have to see if that will work.

The plus and minus of the 1/2 inch is that it bends easier for the curve, but that I'll have to support it with bracing at shorter intervals. I think this will be a trade off I can live with, because bending the thicker tubing looks like it will be a pain. Coaster test 2 I've attached a video to show the new design. I'll have a little more time this week to mess around with it.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Hey everone, updating my blog of my head against the wall experience of this GhostoCoaster thing. It's a labor of love to be sure!





Ok, so took the track to the front yard and had some luck with getting the track up and running with at least one set of wheels. I found the key is to pre bend the pvc overnight by bending it and holding it in place using my fence, it made it a lot easier to manipulate. We had great weather yesterday, so it was a perfect day to be outside and get aggravated with this project. After a bunch of trial and error, I got it to work. I ended up using the black landscape tubing directly underneath the pvc to hold the ties in place. I'll try to add some still pics later to show it. As of right now, I have a hodge podge of items like trash cans, boxes etc to hold it up, but I got some free wood from my buddy who just got finished building an outdoor theater/bar, total score. I've also deciced to use L-brackets from the inside of the track screwed to small sheets of wood to hold the track in place on the curves, and where the pvc pipes come together. I found some pvc connectors online that fit pretty tight, but still tend to want to come apart when bended. I didn't want to glue them together because I want to be able to take them apart and store them after Halloween.

I'm still trying to figure a lift system, conveyor belt with pieces of wood to pull it up, maybe a screw type mechanism that spins that could somehow bring it up? I'm open to any suggestions. I'm thinking the simpler the better. Gonna try to finish the track today, I put a big brick in place to hold down where the lift will go so the pvc will keep the shape. I have a heat gun I can use to try to bend the pvc if I want, but I saw from the backyard coaster guys that it tends to warp the pvc, and my pvc is a lot smaller than theirs at 1/2 inches.

A lot of neighbors seemed to be excited about it coming together and got a lot of great feedback. As a plus, my son has a project that he needs to do about physics, and this fits the bill.

Super sore today from having to manipulate the pvc and drilling, but the end result is worth it.

This video is actually from an early test, and as you can see it gets hung up on the top curve. I've since made that curve area a little tighter with strapping so it can more easily turn without binding.


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## Batbuddy (Sep 3, 2014)

Coming right along! looks good. So For the lift conveyor I drew up a little concept for you. I am thinking a rope with a knot would be sufficient. It was hard to draw a knot so I drew a peg but this drawing should give you the idea.http://batbuddy.org/resources/Halloweenstuff/Coasterlift.pdf Anyway, I also saved a DWF file if you have a 3d model viewer. just change the .pdf to .dwf in the above address and you should be able to download it.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Thanks Batbuddy!

I think that will work. I actually have some left over bow rollers from my flying ghost setup a few years back that would work perfectly for a rope scenario. All the other ideas I have seem to be a little more complicated, and the mechanism will need to work continually, so keep it simple stupid seems to be the way to go. I think we might have a winner on that idea.

Got the track complete, and man, this project makes my Axeworthy flying ghost look like a walk in the park! Tons of tweaking involved. As you move one part of the track, the other part goes out of wack. I had to finagle the skate wheels so that they are staggered, since as the track turns, it gets shorter or wider at different points.

Not sure if anyone has used pvc as a track for a prop, but when it's completely straight, it makes a very smooth motion. The curved wheels I got worked great. I can imagine a rushing ghost on motorized wheels etc. A lot of potential ideas.

I now need to support the track at key spots to bear the weight of the car, which I still haven't had a huge amount of success with yet. The track is not very forgiving, and it tends to bind up easily still. I might need to bite the bullet and custom cut plywood for the parts of the track in the air that go from the top to the straightaway. The track really needs to be exactly the same the whole way down, otherwise the wheels bind. We'll see. 
Here is what I have so far. A little janky, but functional. Once the track is painted and decorated, it will look a lot better. Still need to work on my arduino program. Lot's of great interest by the neighbors and tons of cars slowing down to check out my Frankenstein project. I've set the bar high, hopefully I can bring this idea to fruition. Super sore from all the drilling, haven't used some of these muscles maybe ever? Not a spring chicken anymore, but going to muddle through as best I can. Thanks again for the help!

Here's a video of what I have so far, sorry for the crappy camera work.


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

That looks pretty cool. So, any more thoughts on the prop for the rider? Having something that includes strips of cloth to billow as the ride drops down would make a neat effect.


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## Batbuddy (Sep 3, 2014)

That is really coming together! I am glad you liked my suggestion for a tow rope. In watching the video I can see what you are talking about with the cart trying to bind up in spots. I am wondering if it would run better with a little more space between the front and back wheels, it would make it less prone to side rattle as it goes down the track but it would have a harder time on tight radius turns. I just love this kind of stuff, Physics is what I am good at, Math and programming I have to really work at. LOL


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Batbuddy,
Thanks for all the great suggestions! I was able to get it to go all the way around the track with 2 sets of wheel front and back, and have been through at least 5 versions of wheel assemblies, but I'm still not 100% super happy with the wheels binding on the track, but I might give that a shot if I have time (see video below). This is the first success I've had at all up to this point, but I'm always striving for perfection! At this point I've got so much more to do to get this to where it needs to be, but really excited to get to the point I'm at now, and after the lift system, I can start all the fun stuff.

I'm in the process of working on the lift system. I have some rubber U wheels that I'm trying to use to create a pulley system, but the rope seems to be binding up with the knot. I was thinking of trying plastic pulleys instead of the rubber u wheels, since the rubber might be impeding the rope, or I got some Neoprene Solid Rubber Stripping that I might try as well. I might actually need 2 lift assist scenarios, since the cart doesn't always make it to the bottom of the lift. Also metal cable might be an option and attaching something to that. We'll see, but I'm going with the rope for now, it seems like the simplest option. I'll post what I have when I can.

This platform as it is is pretty heavy. Might have to bring the weight down and use aluminum tubing instead of plywood and steel l brackets. I still have to add the prop and any thing else I'll need to animate it. Once the prop is in there, a whole other Pandora's box of physics will be opened I'm sure. Haven't even started to get the load equations started on that! Heck, I might even be forced to get a n electric winch with enough torque to pull this cart up. Right now, I have a car seat motor that I was planning on using, but not sure if it has enough umpfh to pull up the car. Thanks!

Greg, great question. I like your idea of strips of cloth or maybe white plastic bags cut up to flow in the wind! Didn't think of that. When I had my flying ghost a few years ago, I used strips of a plastic shopping bag and painted them with florescent paint and it had a very cool flowing effect. I'm going to add that to the final design. 
Right now, my plan was to have a skeleton with his mouth open, (or maybe motorized if I can figure out the arduino situation), and if I can, motorized arms that raise hands to the air, and maybe loosely set him in the car so he sways as the car goes forward. I found some great rollercoaster sound FX, and was able to drop some of the audio screams down an octave with a pitch shifter, and it sounds super creepy. If I can sync some of the audio with the skeletons' mouth, that would be cool, but I think that's a whole other project! I was thinking of for the car, doing a skull and crossbones with led eyes and maybe some up lighting. My son had a great idea of making a fake broken track right as it makes it's first turn and use florescent paint on to make it look as it's coming at the people on the sidewalk. We could paint the other parts black so all people see is the track leading to the sidewalk. I also plan on putting some lights on the track, maybe strings of Xmas lights that I can blink in succession to give it that rotating rollercoaster vibe. 
Of course, I have a bunch of grandiose plans, hopefully I'll be able to make them all happen. Unfortunately that Hurricane in the Gulf is heading our way, so hopefully I won't have to disassemble this monstrosity!

I've spent the last 3 days pretty much setting up the track and making sure the front wheel assembly glides freely along the track and bracing all of the track with found wood. It's been a lot of work, had to take a break after a little work yesterday.

I tweaked the design on the cart so the front of the coaster moves freely. I used a bolt in the center in my mockup so the front wheels can pivot. The back wheels for now are static.

This is the first step towards success, now on to the coaster design and lift system and decorating, the fun stuff!
More to come!


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Here is a more detailed look at the trolley.


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

Yeah, a skeleton with its mouth open as its coming down would look great, with some strips hanging off it to mimic tattered clothes. After watching your video again, the whole thing is going to be absolutely amazing! Everyone will be saying "You've got to go see the GhostOCoaster"


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Thanks Greg!

A little more work with the lift system, and I think I'll be able to start decorating. I got the victim, a medium sized skeleton with red led eyes, might even have 2 people riding side by side. Did a little mock up (been doing a lot of those lately!) with a storage bin and a few items added for weight, and it had no problem making it around the track. The old lift hill was just a placeholder, and was a little too steep, I added a longer slope, and it is way easier to pull up. I also got some metal strapping and used that with plywood cut to the exact distance of the track, and it works a LOT better, and is also a lot easier to do. Might redo some of the rough spots where the car hits the black tubing. I can now ditch the black tubing if I want, but not sure if I have the energy, been working non stop the past 4 days. I'm beat!

So far, it has been working flawlessly for over about 60 or so runs. I decided to try to use Batbuddy's idea with a rope or maybe I'll use some wire that I have left over from my flying ghost. I did a trial run with just a knot run through a V test prototype made out of wood, and it worked great (see video). Just need to see if it will work with a continuous moving rope or wire. 
Going to have to add some pulleys or something at the top of the lift to make it work smoothly, and need to figure out what will power it. I have the 12 car seat motor that has a lot of torque, but not sure of the longevity. I was also thinking of using a drill, but those are pretty loud. Any ideas? 
Thanks for the suggestion Batbuddy!

Looking forward to the decorating part. It looks like it might rain tomorrow, so I'm going to work on the car and arduino scenario.


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## Batbuddy (Sep 3, 2014)

Sweet! Love seeing the progress!


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Updating this epic undertaking. This blog will be 60 pages by the time I'm finished! 

Been working away at the coaster the last week. It's coming along nicely. It took me awhile to get my arduino up and running and program it. Had some issues figuring out which pins do what in the octobanger scenario. I didn't realize that it told you which pins do what when it connects. Also spent way to much time to figure out the Pir sensor was wired BACKWARDS. I wish I could have that day of my life back. Anyway, I had to order a 12v 20amp power supply for my seat motor, it kept stopping, and I realized I was only using a 5amp rinky dink supply. I'm pretty sure it's going to do the job. I also ordered some shaft collars so I can connect it to either a bike wheel, or a bow roller. I was checking some diy rope ski lifts, and that mechanism looks promising.

In the meantime, I've put some cardboard on the lift section of the coaster, and I'm going to try to simulate a dilapidated wooden coaster matrix. I ran the 3 strings of xmas lights one after the other, and it looks great at night. I even got the lights to blink in time with the voice: Welcome to the Ghost0coaster, please keep your bones inside the death trap...I mean vehicle at all times...Enjoy your ride Ha Ha Ha!

Been working on the skeleton and trying to get him to raise both his arms. I'm working with one of those circular turntable motors that reverses when it hits something. Trying to figure out how to do that has me stumped. If anyone has any ideas?
I first tried using 2 separate motors inside his chest, but they didn't sync up. I'm thinking of putting a rod through both shoulder holes, and try to maybe do a pulley system? Not sure. My brain is fried at this point. Feels good to be getting to the decorating part though. Should have the car done by this weekend. I didn't get a chance to do any videos of merit, but I'll post some when I get the car done.


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

Not sure if I can explain my idea without a sketch but here goes. You use a rod that ties both arms together through the shoulders, at the mid point of the rod have a "post" on an upward angle. Your motor would be connected to that "post" with another rod that would pull that down which would turn the rod and twist the arms up. Hope that makes sense? I can draw a quick sketch if that helps but won't be able to post it until tomorrow.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

IMU said:


> Not sure if I can explain my idea without a sketch but here goes. You use a rod that ties both arms together through the shoulders, at the mid point of the rod have a "post" on an upward angle. Your motor would be connected to that "post" with another rod that would pull that down which would turn the rod and twist the arms up. Hope that makes sense? I can draw a quick sketch if that helps but won't be able to post it until tomorrow.


 That is exactly what I needed, thanks! I normally would be able to finagle that, but right now can't seem to see the forest for the trees. Sometimes when you get too close to something, it's hard to zoom out and see the big picture.

I think I know what you mean. Attach a screw or something like that to the rod so that the rod is like a top of a T? The motor would have an arm spinning round that would turn the rod up and down. 
Do you have an idea of how to attach the post to the rod? This apparatus is going to bounce around a lot, and the arms aren't that heavy, but there is a decent amount of torque needed to raise both arms.

That is exactly what I needed, thanks! I normally would be able to finagle that, but right now can't seem to see the forest for the trees. Sometimes when you get too close to something, it's hard to zoom out and see the big picture. Thanks!


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

Depending on what material your rod is, there are a few options. Using your T analogy, PVC would work. Use a T fitting, some sections of conduit and maybe a piece of aluminum bar for your connection to the motor and T. Using a true rod idea, maybe some all-thead, a piece of aluminum with some screws, lock washers and nuts to attach it to the mid point of the rod. Then same idea for attaching it to the motor.

Love the whole ghost coaster...very cool.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

IMU, thanks for the idea, it took me a little doing working inside the skeleton, but I got it going, a little janky, but it works! Thanks a lot for you input. Painted the track and lift section Saturday and am now getting to the fun stuff. Working on the car and finishing up the skeleton and putting up lights. Poked some holes in the cardboard along the track so I can insert the rotating lights. The effect is really cool, especially being able to program some intermittent weird pulses with the Octobanger software. My gosh that software is amazing.

Here is a video of the mechanism, a little rough, but it works!: 




Totally behind this year, and I hope it will be worth it, man this has been a loooot of work.

Thanks again! I plan on getting the basic coaster done in the next 2 days, set up a static display with the car at the top of the coaster for now, and then I'll figure out the lift system and have a fully operational coaster by the end of the week. At least with a static display for now, I can get the rest of my yard going. I wasn't going to let this thing run by itself anyway, so it's all good. The door lock mechanism seems to work really good to trigger the coaster to go, but I either need to put a spring or something else to keep it in the "unlocked" position until it's ready to trigger. Not sure if I can keep 12v going to it for a length of time. Has anyone had any experience with these? I'm sure they are pretty robust since they need to be able to open and close reliably for years and years, but I'm not sure if they are designed to take the abuse of 12v for an extended period. If anyone knows, let me know!
Onward!


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

Glad you got the skeleton arm mechanism figured out. I'm guessing with it sitting in the coaster you wouldn't notice the movement being "jerky" during its trip around.

I haven't worked with those actuators but I was told they won't last long with a constant 12v to keep it engaged. Your spring idea should work.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Epic Coaster Blog update 39847:

Been working all week to get the coaster rocking and rolling. I've got it mostly decorated and have the basic car done, and reworked the arms up mechanism. The old one kept binding up. I used a circular motor with a bit more torque from American Scientific. I also used a door actuator to move it's mouth, and the built in red leds for my Octobanger sequence. I'm having a little issue with the sequence restarting and the audio skipping when I have the door actuator running, even though I have it on a separate power supply. The 4 banger relay is being powered by the arduino 5 volt, and I'm guessing from a little bit of research that my relay board just needs it's own 5 v power supply and just doesn't have enough power. I unplugged the actuators power supply and it seems to run fine. Otherwise, it's looking good!

My plan is to have a 110 power source in the car that will power the lights and everything in the car. I was racking my brain to figure out a way to trigger the car from my main sequence on the track, and I think I figured it out. I'll have a rotating piece of wood or something on the side of where the car will be, and when the main sequence starts, the rotation will trigger the sensor on the car and start the car sequence. The "rider" will then speak and the lights on the main track will do their thing and the coaster will then release and go around the track, rinse and repeat. Still have some work to do, but it's looking like a coaster! It makes it around the track fine each time, so it looks like it it's a go.

Wish I could have gotten some round bulbs instead of the normal Xmas lights, but at this point, just trying to get er done! Was going to try to animate a few of the wooden coaster pieces to make it appear like it's collapsing, but might not have time to do a lot of the smaller ideas I had. One other thing I was trying to do, the octobanger lets you have single relays stay on after the sequence is done, but I wanted to try to make the lights rotate. Anyone have any ideas? I was thinking of maybe having one channel on the octobanger somehow trigger another arduino/octobanger with a simple rotation sequence.

Maybe I'm overthinking it, but that's how I roll. Not sure if I can tap into the outlets I'm already using to run my lights during the sequence since they won't be going at the same time and using the same 110 power source. Not sure if that will work. If not, I'll just have to keep it static. That's all for now. I'm beat! Here are a few short videos to show some progress.


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

On the old 4 banger controller you were able to trigger a second controller without using a relay. I don't recall what the pin configuration was off the top of my head (I can search the forum later). I'm not sure if that code was added to the octobanger controller or not.

EDIT - The Fourbanger could be used to trigger another Fourbanger (via daisy-chaining) using pin 12 to pin 11 on the second controller. You'd have to have a second sketch loaded on the second controller to run whatever you want controlled separately. I have not tried this on the Octobanger so I do not know if this still applies.


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## Batbuddy (Sep 3, 2014)

Ghost-0-Coaster said:


> Epic Coaster Blog update 39847:
> 
> ...I'm having a little issue with the sequence restarting and the audio skipping when I have the door actuator running, even though I have it on a separate power supply. The 4 banger relay is being powered by the arduino 5 volt, and I'm guessing from a little bit of research that my relay board just needs it's own 5 v power supply and just doesn't have enough power. ...


 This issue might just be due to power surging because of a missing flyback diode(AKA snubber, clamp, or suppressor diode) on the door actuator. If you don't know what that is I can explain later. I have always powered the relay boards from the 5 VDC off of the Arduino with no problem, been doing that for years, so I don't think you need a separate supply. as long as there is no uncontrolled(missing diode) inductive loads on the arduino power, it should be very stable.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Batbuddy said:


> This issue might just be due to power surging because of a missing flyback diode(AKA snubber, clamp, or suppressor diode) on the door actuator. If you don't know what that is I can explain later. I have always powered the relay boards from the 5 VDC off of the Arduino with no problem, been doing that for years, so I don't think you need a separate supply. as long as there is no uncontrolled(missing diode) inductive loads on the arduino power, it should be very stable.


Hey Batbuddy, that is probably the issue. I ordered a bunch of resistors in my order for all my arduino supplies, but no diodes. If you could point me in the right direction, that would be helpful.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

IMU said:


> On the old 4 banger controller you were able to trigger a second controller without using a relay. I don't recall what the pin configuration was off the top of my head (I can search the forum later). I'm not sure if that code was added to the octobanger controller or not.
> 
> EDIT - The Fourbanger could be used to trigger another Fourbanger (via daisy-chaining) using pin 12 to pin 11 on the second controller. You'd have to have a second sketch loaded on the second controller to run whatever you want controlled separately. I have not tried this on the Octobanger so I do not know if this still applies.


Thanks IMU, I'll give that a shot!


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

Ghost-0-Coaster, here is how to select a flyback diode. 
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/110574/how-to-choose-a-flyback-diode-for-a-relay
Generally the 1N4001 diode handles most applications.

What are you using for your controller to relay circuitry?


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Greg G said:


> Ghost-0-Coaster, here is how to select a flyback diode.
> https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/110574/how-to-choose-a-flyback-diode-for-a-relay
> Generally the 1N4001 diode handles most applications.
> 
> What are you using for your controller to relay circuitry?


I'm using an Arduino uno to a 4 channel 5v relay. I also have a bunch of the SSR-25 modules that I could use if need be. Thanks for your help.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Here is the current progress. It's gotten a lot heavier than I thought it would, but still makes it around. Gonna finish decorating it tomorrow and complete my Arduino routine (hopefully) This thing has turned into an epic undertaking, but it works!


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## stick (Jan 21, 2009)

Looks wonderful.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Love it! Having worked summers at an amusement park when I was in high school and college, I can vouch for the arms up thing being absolutely authentic:jol:


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

Love this. Awesome work!


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Looks great! i can only imagine the amount of tweaking, tuning and building and rebuilding going into it!


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

Excellent!


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Getting down to the wire, but I'm at 85%. Lift system and a little bit of decorating of the car, then it will be complete. The release mechanism works like a charm (even though I encountered some issues, which I believe will be solved by a flyback diode), and even though I had to shore up the track some more due to the heavier car after adding the electronics, it rolls great (and fast!) around the track with no problems.

I was successfully able to use the Harbor Freight $20 screw boat crank and attached my seat motor to it. It works! The great thing about the screw mechanism is that it is self braking and silent. As long as the motor is silent, the mechanism mostly is pretty quiet.

In the attached video, the motor is using a 5 v power supply just to test, but when I hooked up the 20 amp 12 supply, the motor was rolling a lot faster. Was making headway then the rain came.

Unfortunately, hurricane Zeta is heading right for my just finished coaster with only 2 days left till Halloween. It seems right on the cusp of figuring out the lift system design, I'll need to dismantle part of it. Hopefully it won't be too much work. It looks like the fact that there is not much surface area on the track portion, that wind doesn't seem to affect it. There was a near miss of a hurricane a few weeks ago, and the track never even moved in the wind. That was before I added the cardboard. I'll need to cut out the cardboard and probably the "roller coaster supports". This sucks!


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## Headless (Sep 4, 2011)

Labour of love but what an awesome prop!


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Hey everyone, I hope everyone's Halloween went great. I was able to get the coaster up and running for Halloween. Just barely got everything up and running in time for Trick or Treaters at 6. Thanks to my son's help, we made it happen. I put him on fog and cleanup duty, and the end result looked great.
Here is the final chapter in my epic Ghostocoaster undertaking. Enjoy!

I never was able to get the lift system working, and spent way to much time on trying to work it out at the last minute, but I can't say I didn't try! I wish I would have spent a little more time perfecting my arduino program. See the post mortem video below for the daytime walk through. I have a detailed explanation below of how I did everything, but if you just want to skip to the actual videos, just scroll past all of the mumbo jumbo. Thanks again to everyone who helped with ideas and with moral support, it was a LOT of work, but in the end, worth it.

So the coaster car had it's own arduino routine. I put a sensor on the left side of the car and when that was activated, the rider would start talking. "Welcome to the ghostocoaster, please keep your bones inside the death trap....I mean vehicle at all times. Enjoy your ride! Ha Ha Ha". I had a door lock actuator on a rod that was attached to the skeleton's jaw that made him "speak", and his led eyes that I left on the "try me" circuit hooked up to the arduino.

The red led strips that lit him up and the circular motor that lifted his arms were on 2 separate 110 outlets. The flashing light on the front of the car was a fairy light strand from harbor freight that I didn't have time to hook up to the arduino, but it actually worked out as a backup just in case the arduino would have went down (which it didn't).

The car arduino was using the octobanger software that had 2 mp3's that I put together on my Tracktion software. I did a running loop of various rollercoaster sounds, and my voice as the announcer lowered down about 4 steps to make it sound more demonic. When triggered, it played the welcome to the ghost0coaster mp3. I'll see if I can post a sample of it somehow in this thread.

I picked up a set of stereo computer speakers from big lots that were usb powered and lit up and attached them to the back of the coaster. Along with the speakers, I also got an mini FM transmitter that transmitted the car routine to an fm radio that I had hooked up to my Xair wireless mixer. This way, I could control the pan and volume of the audio as the night went along. I also added another background mp3 track that played panned to one side, and the other mp3 tracks from the car panned to the other side. It had a really cool stereo effect, especially since I also had my powered pa speaker hooked up underneath the coaster track, as well as I had a small speaker in the tree on the other side of the sidewalk, this along with the speakers on the car really worked out great. I also added a microphone to the Xair which had reverb, echo, and also a backwards reverb that sounded like the effect in Poltergeist when the girl got sucked into the TV. I had my sister's boyfriend on the mike, and he would ad lib a lot as it came down. He even sang Rollercoaster by the Ohio players, it added to the spontaneity.

I ended up having 3 separate arduinos total. 1 for the car (which was necessary because the car couldn't be wired, since it had to go around the track) , one for the track lights, and one for the release mechanism, which I ended up upgrading to a better linear actuator instead of the car lock actuator i originally had used. It was a lot more robust. That was a good call.

The main track arduino routine had a little motor that would spin at a specific time that had a piece of plastic yard sign that would activate the other 2 routines. This proved to be problematic, only because the actuator routine had a 60 second delay and the car had no delay, so they were out of sync. Lesson learned.
I was a little apprehensive to change my track routine, since I was having some issues uploading from the Octobanger software the last few days before the 31st, but I should have added the actuator to that arduino in retrospect.

The whole car was powered by a flashfish battery inverter thingie that lasted all night.
The crowd really dug it, and had a lot of great positive feedback. I had a bunch of neighbors that came by after the storm to make sure it survived, and a few of them took time to come by and check on it when the eye of Zeta passed by during the break in the storm!

Overall, it was rewarding, but man, it was a lot of work. If anyone wants to try to attempt this (don't know why you would!), feel free to contact me and I can go into more detail about some of the pitfalls encountered. This project made my Axworthy attempts a few years ago seem like a walk in the park, but no pain, no gain!

Till next year....

Oh, I'll probably do a Xmas display with this setup and make it a sleigh and santa. I'll do an update here if I do!











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https://soundcloud.com/ofhumbon%2Fghostocoaster-new-background-mp3-stereo-export-1


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https://soundcloud.com/ofhumbon%2Fride-mp3-final1


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

Wow, that really turned out amazing. Rollo coaster sound effects were perfect and great coaster trestle and track lighting. So I take it you had someone manually push the coaster back up the ramp? Thanks for the detailed explanation of what all control circuitry you had. Yeah, for Xmas you'll need to attach little reindeer to the front of the cart


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Great to have the final follow-up and hear how it all turned out. Love the way the little arms go flying up before the ride! That wiring, though!! WOW!  Though come to think of it, that is about the only way my stuff works too. When I try to pack it away all nice and neat, something invariably breaks or short out!.


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

Looks like a ton of work but soooooo much fun! Great job.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Greg G said:


> Wow, that really turned out amazing. Rollo coaster sound effects were perfect and great coaster trestle and track lighting. So I take it you had someone manually push the coaster back up the ramp? Thanks for the detailed explanation of what all control circuitry you had. Yeah, for Xmas you'll need to attach little reindeer to the front of the cart


Thanks! Yes, that someone who had to push the coaster back up the ramp was me! Got quite the workout. The release mechanism worked out great once I pushed it up each time. I'm going to steal your reindeer idea, maybe do a Rudolph? Also, I'm figuring out the programmable led lights, and they are going to be a lot more flexible programming wise as far as colors and the rotating factor. 
I'll post some updates here when I get things rolling.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

corey872 said:


> Great to have the final follow-up and hear how it all turned out. Love the way the little arms go flying up before the ride! That wiring, though!! WOW!  Though come to think of it, that is about the only way my stuff works too. When I try to pack it away all nice and neat, something invariably breaks or short out!.


Thanks a lot, those arms took some doing, but finally figured it out. Getting the skelly to talk was also a plus. Yeah, I had planned on heat shrinking all the wires etc, but ran out of time! My plan for next time is to spend more time on decorating and programming, as well as making things a little more tidy, but I just barely got this thing off the ground as it was! Super glad it didn't fail on HW night.


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

IMU said:


> Looks like a ton of work but soooooo much fun! Great job.


Yes! Mucho work. If I could bill for those hours, I'd be rich!


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Ghost-0-Coaster said:


> I'm using an Arduino uno to a 4 channel 5v relay. I also have a bunch of the SSR-25 modules that I could use if need be. Thanks for your help.


 Since I was down to the wire, I never got to post that the 1N4001 diode worked like a charm. Thanks!


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## Ghost-0-Coaster (Sep 13, 2020)

Greg G said:


> Ghost-0-Coaster, here is how to select a flyback diode.
> https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/110574/how-to-choose-a-flyback-diode-for-a-relay
> Generally the 1N4001 diode handles most applications.
> 
> What are you using for your controller to relay circuitry?


Worked like a charm, Thanks Greg!


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

Ghost-0-Coaster said:


> Worked like a charm, Thanks Greg!


Glad it worked out.


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## DeathTouch (Sep 6, 2005)

OMG!!! that was cool!!! Nice work!!!!


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