Vertical Roller Coaster

Hello everyone! For my team's final engineering project we decided to take part in the "make it move" challenge and design/ build a roller coaster! We designed and built this project because of we wanted to develop something that we would be proud to represent! This build was inspired by our love for CAD and 3D printing as well as the thrive to develop something huge!

Throughout the development process we have made multiple iterations and tested our product. With every failure came a new iteration that caused evolution throughout our coaster, it may seem simple and easy but it has a lot of heart within.

For this project, the team utilized one servo motor to control the launch of the cart. If we were given more time we would have built a roller coaster that ran in an infinite loop. We recommend testing the design more and adding your own changes to make the ride smoother.

Now to explore the Vertical Coaster!

Hardware :

1. 1 Half-Size Solder-less Breadboard
2. 1 Tiny Solder-less Breadboard
3. Plywood Planks (Multiple)
4. PLA Filament [One Spool should be enough]
5. Wire Nails (Multiple)

Electrical Components :

1. Arduino Nano
2. Two pinned LED Anode Cathode (x3)
3. Male to Male Jumper Wires (x11)
4. Male to Female Jumper Wires (x3)
5. Normal Wires (x5)
6. Push Buttons (x2)
7. Continuous Servo Motor (x1)
8. Resistors 220Ω/ 330Ω (x5)

Tools :

1. 3D Printer
2. Vertical Band Saw [Anything to cut wood] [Optional]
3. Horizontal Sander [Any Sander will work] [Optional]

Below are the basic track pieces, print out the multiple tracks and glue them together. These are the straight tracks that we super glued together to construct the tracks all together. The second file is curve in order for the roller coaster to switch from an angle to the horizontal tracks.

Too make these pieces fit better you can use a sander to make the rails smoother since 3D printing may be a little ruff.

If you are trying to metal cast these track pieces or recreate them without 3D printing the drawings are linked below. Change them measurements based on how large or small you want them to be made.

Below is the STL file and drawing for the obstacle loop. If you want to make a loop yourself within a 3D printing software there may be another way to make it, but for our group since we used Onshape we had to use a helix and the sweep tool to make the track. We used the track models from the straight tracks step above for the sweep tool.

Too make these pieces fit better you can use a sander to make the rails smoother since 3D printing may be a little ruff.

Once again, if you are trying to metal cast these track pieces or recreate them without 3D printing the drawings are linked below. Change them measurements based on how large or small you want them to be made.

We created the cart on Onshape. All of the pieces are linked below to 3-D print. There are wheels on the top and bottom sides of the cart so that the cart can go through the loop without falling off by holding around the rails. This was the hardest part of the 3-d printing process. When printing make sure to print with support material and be careful when removing the support. Add the wheels using your axels of choice and hot glue it together.  

Too make these pieces fit better you can use a sander to make the rails smoother since 3D printing may be a little ruff.

The Axels that we used in this project were wire nails.

We also recommend making the "Tighter Design Assembly" thicker in size and metal casting them so that they move a little less. These are the parts that have the most flaws. If we had more time we would have made them better, but because of time we couldn't fix them.

To build the support for the roller coaster the found scrap plywood in the shop and made a base corresponding with the length of our track. Not only did we shape the base up, we also made small and large support pieces depending on the section of the rollercoaster. For example, the top part of the roller coaster is being supported by more large pieces that keep the rollercoaster standing. As the coaster goes steeper, we have smaller pieces to hold the rollercoaster.

To do this you would get plywood and cut it into rectangles with a very long width, if you have it too short for your roller coaster you can glue more plywood to your base. After you have the base you would cut lots of vertically long pieces and glue it in the optimal positions in order to get the good support for your roller coaster. In order to know the best spots you should look at the points that need the most support for your coaster, then place your coaster and mark the sports with a pen. Glue your vertical sticks on the pen marks and your set!

For supports you don't need to use plywood and can design your own, either way enjoy the process!

Document for Code: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sD64n_zYM2aZsGXxPGREWx-n8s8h_yrY9kCRE78RB54/edit?usp=sharing

Explanation of the Code :

The code basically has two variables that control the servo and lights, it allows the servo to run once with the click of a button and the second button resets the everything so that the code can run again. Run is the variable that shows how many times the thing has run since the Arudino runs everything in a loop. With this variable we are able to make the servo and lights run only once and with the variable "i" we are able to reset the runs to run the servo and lights again. This code is for the start of the coaster to release it down the hill.

Use the supplies needed to breadboard up above. Follow the image above to recreate this and add the code onto the Arduino nano. This it the breadboard for the launch gate.

The breadboard has 3 LEDs are connected with resistors that is connected to ground and power with a jumper wire connecting to the Arduino as an output. The buttons are connected to the breadboard/ Arduino with a resistor and wires connected to ground and power as an input. The servo is connected to the Arduino for power and ground and with the code moves. The Arduino gets power from the battery and the breadboard gets power and ground from the Arudino.

For our project we decided to use a green, yellow, and red LED in order to indicate a countdown till the gate would open. You can change this up however you like, just remember to change the code as well.

Put the roller coaster together using super glue/ hot glue and there you go, a completed roller coaster! This was a final project for an engineering class, so due to time constraints we were not able to develop an optimized and fully functional roller coaster. With more experience in engineering hopefully in the future we can develop a better roller coaster!

Thank you for viewing this intractable!

If you want to leave any feedback please email us!

Email : ahmed.qureshi1132@gmail.com