Wooden Psyclone is a remake of my Mindstorms NXT ride, Psyclone. It (again) was made for a school project final, and involved designing a theme park ride. Lucky me had experience with ride building before, as seen with previous creations like Kaos, SkyRocket, Psyclone, and Maniac. My science class was just in a structure and building unit, which is why I have had wooden creations lately.

Wooden Psyclone was designed close to the original ride, but still doesn't have a lifting body to raise the ride up at the beginning of the ride like most swing rides do (Lack of pneumatics/hydraulics). The majority of the ride is built out of jinx wood, it is light and easy to cut and work with, so it was used as the primary medium of building in the projects. The most made parts were small triangle pieces that acted as braces; they were glued at almost every corner, and ended up making Wooden Psyclone very durable.

The program begins with a 3 second delay to allow for the 'Employees Only' door to be closed, and for the operator to back away. Then the spinning begins. There are two programs, one is at a slow speed, and one is at a fast speed. The programs have their own modules, due to the motor power, it was required to have two modules in order for multiple speeds to work. One module includes a 3 gear-gear train, and slows down the speed, and the other one has no gearing at all. That is the fast module. These are made out of Lego, and fit in nicely with the wooden body (covered with cardboard to make it look nicer). The top of the Lego modules include an axle, and fit in with a Lego disc like object, that was designed to interlock with the top of the ride. It allows for the wood and Lego to connect, and the top can be taken off for repairs as well, since the top and Lego aren't connected with an adhesive.

The seats are made out of jinx wood as well, and are attached to the top with some string. It isn't perfectly even, but ended up doing its job well. It sometimes gets caught in the middle, but that is only if someone puts their hand or an object in the way of the swings , which causes them to bounce off and crash into the center.

Wooden Psyclone was a lot of fun to make, and allowed for a new challenge, by working with a new medium, and incorporating it with Lego Mindstorms RIS. Be sure to watch the video, as it includes the ride in action, as well as some behind the scenes.