IOE

^Bring it on! We would love to take a shot at fixing up Wildcat.

Typically the decision is left to the controls company, but there have been a few times the park requested otherwise. Air was an example where they wanted us to use the smaller 22mm pushbuttons instead of the standard 30mm you usually see. Right now as far as controls equipment, Allen Bradley has the US market cornered while everyone in Europe uses Siemens. Asia is still up for grabs by both companies. We prefer AB over Siemens but will work with either provider depending on park requests. And yes, we are proud to be a Michigan company. We try to order as much equipment as possible locally and we use a panel shop located in Plymouth, Michigan. -Brian

Just to let you know, we are hard at work to meet the opening date for Lightning Run. I stopped by our panel shop today to check on progress of the control system cabinets and everything is coming along nicely. Here are a few shots as the panel guys are laying out the hardware for the control cabinets according to our specifications. We will keep updating our facebook page as ride construction progresses! Main disconnect panel Cabinets waiting for equipment to be installed Motor control panel PLC panel -Brian

Here is the beginning of Lightning Run's control panel and remote panels: Main operator panel Remote panels I'll post more to here and our facebook page as the build progresses this month. -Brian

Maintenance Bypass does a couple of things, the first is it allows maintenance personnel to dispatch a train using only the dispatch enable buttons at the main panel(This feature is not used when guest are on the ride and is only used for testing or parking trains). Another thing it does is allows the transfer track to be used, the ride will not allow the transfer track to move unless the main panel is in Maintenance Bypass. The last thing that this mode does is allow the switch from Manual Mode and Auto mode(Manual Mode on most roller coasters is only used by maintenance, during normal operation the ride is running in auto mode). The invert panel from Six Flags New Orleans is almost exactly like the main panel of Batman at SFSTL. The only difference is Batman has two switches at the top of the green side of the panel, the theme audio and a microphone switch. TNT, you were right about the single person dispatch but actually maintenance bypass generally only has one other function. That is it allows the lift also to be started by only one person. Transfer and manual modes can be used without maintenance bypass, but not all maintenance people believe me on that. For some reason (probably because we put maintenance on the key) it's often believed that key switch does a lot more. I've had the hardest time in training convincing maintenance they don't need to use that key . We may have used that key for another function or two but off the top of my head I can't think of any. -Brian

You totally left out Coaster Programmer...those that love how a ride is controlled. Of course I'm massively biased on that, but when its what you do for a living, you find you can't stop. I'm constantly analyzing how rides work electrically. Or maybe I'm just a nerd -Brian

Here's a few more I found: Carowinds Touchscreen CGA Gold Striker transfer panel DP Talon Six Flags New Orleans inverted 1 of 2 Six Flags New Orleans inverted 2 of 2 Valleyfair Renegade touchscreen

Yes we had a panel shop when I worked at Consign. I am also using one for panel fabrication too, as they are far better at than I am . We produce all of the drawings and equipment list while they do the actual fabrication as per our specifications. And it leaves me free to concentrate on the engineering side. -Brian

So I was looking through some of my pictures and found this: SFGA Superman operator panel This is what the inside tends to look like. -Brian

^Yes, I worked for Consign for over 13 years before forming Irvine Ondrey Engineering about a year and 1/2 ago. We did the controls this past year for Gold Striker and White Lightning and are currently working on Lightning Run at Kentucky Kingdom. You can check us out on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/IrvineOndreyEngineering) as we try to post information and pictures from our own unique perspective. And yes, we'll definitely post more panel shots both there and here if you want them. I forgot about that Air panel. That was one of my projects so if you are curious I should be able to dig up what everything on the panel does.

I'm trying to remember specifically when we started adding the mushroom pushbuttons to the B&Ms but I believe it was before the flyers. Air is a bit different as they had requested we use the smaller size of pushbuttons as that's what they are used to. I SHOULD have a lot more of these to add but the few pics of the booths I took, people have already posted (the CGA Gold Striker one made my day to see). I do have this one however: Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood As for the B&Ms and GCIs, I can answer pretty much any questions on how those work, so feel free to ask!

Glad you enjoyed what we posted. It's one of our goals to be able to give everyone a different perspective on the amusement industry. The experience being there was totally surreal. On one side, everything is overgrown with weeds, but yet there's still so much left to the park, it looks like it could open up tomorrow (with a LOT of cleaning that is). I worked with a few great maintenance guys who are helping with the general upkeep of the rides and the park. The rides themselves are still being kept clear enough and I was happy I was able to get RPM up and running. -Brian

Have you encountered any unique challenges so far during the Lightning Run design process? Luckily not so far. The process has been going well and the cabinet designs which house all of the control equipment have been completed and sent to Chance for review. Once they approve everything, it'll be time to build the cabinets and start writing the ride program. Our biggest challenges have been getting the design nailed down as this is a new ride design. -Brian

It's hard to compare airtime on a ride not even built yet . As for the information, yes unfortunately I have said all I can right now, but I do have a request in to see if I can say more soon. I know you guys are really excited about this ride, and I'll share information as soon as I am able to. As for posting photos, duh. How did I miss that. Serves me right for trying to quick post from my cell phone.

What I can tell you now is there's definitely negative Gs and the height is 100 ft. Hopefully I can say more soon.

Unfortunately I am not the person to elaborate on the forces but I will see if I can get you guys more stats. Thanks for the info on posting pictures. We are planning on documenting the construction as much as they permit us, which I'll be glad to share.

I apologize as I'm not sure how to share pictures on here yet, but we have a close up of the Chance car seat on our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/IrvineOndreyEngineering and plan on sharing more from the show this week. Someone feel free to msg me on how to share photos and I'll be glad to!

I am thrilled to announce that Irvine Ondrey Engineering will be doing the controls for Lightning Run. This is really exciting for us and we are looking forward to sharing construction updates on both our facebook page and here. This one was a hard secret to keep because we think this ride will be a huge hit! It's truly awesome to be part of the rebirth of Kentucky Kingdom and we wish the park all the success in the world. Any questions you have on the control system for the new ride feel free to ask!

Our goal is to make it as straight forward as possible so I would say it's not overly complicated. Then again, that's from someone who has been doing this for many years. We use a safety processor so there's only one set of code that needs written. There's also only 3 motors total, 7 air brakes, and 3 moveable magnetic brakes. Compare that to a B&M that can have 40-50 motors and 20-30 brakes, and I'd say for a roller-coaster it's not too bad. -Brian Ondrey

The most I can say about test runs is soon -Brian Ondrey

I'm glad you like our pictures! We are planning on posting more as construction and testing continues, but we also look forward to any questions you might have. Specifically what Irvine Ondrey Engineering does is designs and builds the control systems for the rides, so although we can't take credit for providing the magnetic brakes, it's our job to make sure they operate properly. I am the ride programmer and electrical system designer and I'm a big geek about it, so I'll answer whatever I can! -Brian Ondrey

I've always wondered, how would everyone feel if the first drops on SheiKra and Griffon happened on a random time scale instead of the current set amount of time? -Brian

Wow, great pictures. That really helps to see how far they are along! -Brian

I'd have to put anything by Golden Horse into the screwed up coaster category. They are just not quite right, which I learned after an unfortunate trip on a few of their creations. -Brian

Raptor all the way back in 1995. It was love at first ride between me and the inverteds. -Brian