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Secret Weapon 7 Discussion

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Not at the moment, with the park being closed its hard to get any photos. Im hoping to nip up soon to have a look around the car parks at track but dont think we will see much of the ride inside the park until Feb half term and opening.
 
Gerstlauer have just posted this on their Facebook page.

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"... we work hard on the new systems ..."

SW7, anyone?
 
I saw this earlier, got my interest going. I can only assume those cabinets are going to be housing some sort of electronics/computing equipment?

That's assuming it actually is for SW7 :p
 
Surely that can't all be for the same ride? A year's worth of coasters maybe. Eurofighters could probably be opped from a mobile app these days.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Surely that can't all be for the same ride? A year's worth of coasters maybe. Eurofighters could probably be opped from a mobile app these days.
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This is true. Can you imagine if it was though...all that tech in one ride :eek: :eek:

Either the most technologically advanced ride built so far or one with the most downtime.
 
You'd probably be surprised how many might go onto one ride actually. Anubis only really has the launch to sort out that's any different from other ride's, and that uses about 5 of those cabinets! If we see a trick track I wouldn't be surprised if like 6-7 we're just for SW7 :p

It always amazes me how much tech goes into the ride's. Nemmy for example. All we assume it need to do is control the chain, and monitor the brakes and restraints in the station, yet there's a lot of stuff to do that. Some ride's are very intelligent to say the least!
 
Ah, but Nemy uses 20 year old computers. They will take up much more space than you'd think.
I bet you that a modern phone has more computing power than Nemesis and Oblivion combined.

I'd have thought the bulk of physical space will be taken up by wiring junctions and relays etc, while the "thinking" is probably done by little more than a couple of desktops in a fancy box.
 
Roller coasters use PLC systems which I don't think have miniaturised as much as other computer tech
 
As Dave has said, there doesn't seem to have been much miniturisation in ride systems, presumably owing to the fact that there's never been much need to shrink them. There are a few photos of Nemmy's computer cabs floating around online, and they don't look too dissimilar to what's pictured above :)
 
It's more that PLC's have lots of input and output wiring as well has the computer hardware. This means there's quite a lot of hardware bulk within the cabinets. Also PLC systems are made to be vibration and temperature proof as well as resistant to any external electro magnetic interference.

Also PLC system often duplicate input processes so that all inputs are essentially double or triple checked before they are acted upon to improve safety.

That's my understanding anyway.
 
I'd imagine there's a high possibility that tech is for SW7. Wouldn't be surprised, if we have trick track then I'd expect 10+ cabinets.

Considering we also have 2 lifts/launches, and the station will no doubt have dual loading at least.
 
You guys really need to see the computer workings of some of the coasters out there. They are huge beasts! There does seem to be a little too much there for one ride, but if there is going to be a trick track or ride element, then it wouldn't surprise me if that is just for one ride.
 
I think the reality is that while the cabinates are huge, the majority of it is cabling. Have you ever seen a Duel vehicle with the back panel off? It looks like one of the old telephone exchanges! Those little boxes next to traffic lights are the same too!

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Every car has one of those in the back!

The Flume is quite a good one. Apparently the whole ride is managed by Logic Gates and lights connected to them, such is the age of the system :p

I think part of the thing is when we say a ride is ran by "computers" most of us instantly think of a desktop PC. Most rides aren't like that :p They use purpose built hardware and circuitry, which is designed to do that one job!

Anubis has a few big cabs:

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Considering how large SW7 is I reckon it'll have a few cabs like that. If it uses trick track perhaps even more!
 
Also a tiny motherboard can process data efficiently, but cannot really handle the high voltage power needed to run some parts of the rides. Most ride cabinets have fairly large switches capable of transferring large amounts of electricity to various motors or other computer devices.
 
Oh, of course, there's a lot of complicated electronics involved. There will be a lot of sensors and relays and whatnot, and all those cables need to meet up somewhere. But the actual "thinking" power of older rides will be tiny.

Isn't Rita managed by a Win XP PC? I bet Nemesis' computer has lower "specs" than most phones these days. :p
 
The PC on Rita doesn't control the ride as far as i know, its a monitoring system to record data and access the PLC system. But i could be completely wrong.
 
Yeah, its been posted and in all honesty, I cannot see Alton Towers adding that. Its not really a worlds first or anything even overly interesting. They can hardly market it as being the world first washing machine coaster. The current ground works don't seem to support that idea either. Of course I could be wrong!

We will have to wait and see, but until then, Im guessing someone on TT is pulling our legs.
 
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