X Gear

4th Dimension coasters can only rotate so far until they have to rotate back to the starting position. This puts a few restrictions on what the ride can do, maybe not a lot, but a few. I assume this is because the gear used to turn the seats is a finite and straight. Would it be possible for that gear to be made into a continuous circle so that there are no limitations on the seat rotations?

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I thought it could rotate 360 degrees both forwards and backwards. Guess I'm worng.....what else is new.

I do not believe it would be possible. The gear is a half moon shape but the and the other gear is a long bar with teeth that is running on the X rail. The gear on the X rail is what limits this, not the Half Moon gear.

All this plus the fact that there is not enough room between the rails to move the X rails far enough to do this.

Just my thoughts.

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I could envision a ratcheting gear that rotates 360 degrees and goes inside the X-rails (which of course would also need gears). This would probably be cost-prohibitive, and a nightmare engineering-wise (anyone?), but I do *think* it would be *possible*.......

Gator: We can't get the ORIGINAL to work consistently, let's not bullocks it up further, LOL!

couldn't Arrow use something similiar to what drives trains? the gear pushes out whichs forces the wheel in one direction, then the gear pulls back and keeps the wheel going in that same direction. could this be possible for a 4D with the seats being the wheels in this analogy?

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-Bob (formerly Coaster Jedi)
Do any of you know how to build a sundial out of a pen and a donut?
uh oh, sounds like someone has a case of the mondays.

When X first came out and I did not know how it operated, I thought that a motor on the train operated the seats. If the train had motors to rotate the seats, they could rotate as much as they wanted and parks could easily change or fine tune the rotation.

This would be easy to do. The track would have power rails to supply power to the train. The train would need a small computer to control seat rotation. Sensors already on coaster tracks would tell the computer when to rotate the seats. I think that this would have been easier to do than having an X rail.

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The worst day at Cedar Point is better than the best day at work.

Anybody have a link to info about Xrail? I don't know how X functions and this sounds interesting. Thanks

The train in its current form already is quite heavy. Having some type of motor on board would definitely weigh it down, putting more stress on the track and the train itself.

In addition, an onboard motor would be susceptible to power surges/outages. With the current X Rail setup, unless the gear teeth break, it's pretty much foolproof through the course of the ride.

kcgreg: The X Rail is the 3rd and 4th rails on the 4D coaster. (go here for a pic). It controls the forward and backword rotation of the seats. This is accomplished by a gear rack. A set of wheels attached to the rack lies on the X rail(s). Spacial variances between the X rail(s) to the running rails trigger the seats to spin.

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Tommy Penner - Variable X
Cedar Point FanBoy since 2001. || Cruiser Boy since 2002.
"Pessimists are the world's happiest people. They're either right or pleasantly surprised."

*** This post was edited by MiLLeNNiUMRiDeR on 10/16/2002. ***

I agree the 'X' rail is a pretty clever idea. I think they should just leave the system the way it is since the ride doesn't need anymore problems than its already had.

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What happens when there is a computer or hardware failure and the seats are not rotated? What happens when the electric motor burns out? Engineers cannot accurately predict when a motor is going to burn out and they definately cannot predict when there will be a failure of the computer all together. Furthermore, there are no clues or things to check for potential failures...in a purely mechanical force system, there are bolts to check, parts to X-ray, etc. that indicate potential future problems. By going with a purely mechanical system, Arrow has reduced the number of variables in regards to things that go wrong, and if they do go wrong, it's catastrophic. I realize they could be ultra redundant and such, but those measure tend to be cost prohibitive.

Summary:

You can engineer gears and levers to withstand repetitive stress and loadings. It is very difficult to engineer a faultless electric motor and extremely difficult to write a crash-proof computer program.

-Seth

Not to mention the amout of electrical power it'd take to get the motor to run. That'd be more than it takes for a LIM. This way you don't hafta pay anything extra and with the economy looking for the cheapest way out on things, this is the best.

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*** This post was edited by PkI FaNaTiC on 10/16/2002. ***

Heres one thought I had,

The X rails can only turn the seat so much, and in order to make the rotations deeper, there ate two options.

1. Is to have the X rails go up and down greater distances. This idea really wouldn't work, and would require the X rails to be way lower than the bottom of the ties on the track.

2. The X rails push and pull a straight gear up and down, which spind another gear attached to the seat. The gear on the seat, can rotate more or less depending on the size of it. if it were large, less rotation would take place. A smaller one could be turned a lot easier, and therefore do many new manuvers.

In general though, the 4D prototype tecnology is fine the way it is, and probably wouldn't need to preform any extra rotation.

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--Dingo 65--
http://rct.ogresnet.com

With the 'X' rails, the seats are capable of rotating up to 600 degrees forward and backward.

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-Chris "SFMM Insider"
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