River Rapids Boat Orientation

I was just hanging out at SFMW today and watching the river rapids ride (White Water Safari) load and unload. Im' pretty sure it's an Intamin. As the boat exits the lift hill and enters the turntable section of the station, there's a section of the outside conveyor belt that stops and starts to orient the boat so that one of the stairwells is directly facing the turntable. My question is: How does it know? Where are the sensors and what are the sensor sensing on the boats?

It's controlled by photo eyes. While slightly diffrent, If you look at this picture, you'll see a reflector on the side of the train (bottom & back of each car) which basically tell a computer where the train is. It's the same principle as with water rides.

On Millennium, the reflectors are used for the onride photo. Basically, it tells the computer what frame to save (since the onride photos are just high speed video cameras.) It's the same principle with rapids rides. When the photo eye connects with the reflector, it tells a computer to stop rotating the raft.

Hope that helps.

Ahh. Makes sense. I noticed those on all the rides at SFMW (though they're not on similar rides at GAdv.) and were wondering what they were for.

Specifically, regarding Medusa E vs. Medusa W, do the different parks operate their onride photos differently? Are those used for actual ride control?

....and I thought you were going to ask about their sexual preferences...;)

I thought he was talking of training to run the river rapids, so it's all good rollergator. :)

I can't say of SFMW's actual unit, but I know that some (if not all) Intamin rapids are actually oriented by hand. At Sea World Texas, the operator would stand next to your boat and spin his finger in the air untill the person in the booth had pressed the stop button long enough for the entrance to be positioned correctly. This could also be done without the person telling them when to stop.

Hrm. It may have been that, because there was definitely an op up on the bridge overlooking things, and the orientation wasn't as precise as one would expect from an automated system.

The op on the platform was not signaling.

Yes, so my real orientation question: If an Intamin ride has a GID, is the G for Giovanola?

*** Edited 6/28/2004 5:20:39 AM UTC by ApolloAndy*** *** Edited 6/28/2004 5:20:52 AM UTC by ApolloAndy***