Kp-300 installation/best practices – Gilderfluke&Co KP-300 Smart Brick Control Panel User Manual

Page 73

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Kp-300 Installation/Best Practices

The Kp-300 is an operator panel, and with the addition of the Br-Brain4 and card

cage on its back, it can be the entire control system for a motion base or other attrac-
tion. For motion bases, the Kp-300 is often mounted on a pedestal adjacent to the en-
trance to the attraction. Pre-made pedestals are available from several 19” rack manu-
facturers. You usually want to place the pedestal in a location where the operator can
see the doors and guest as they enter and exit the attraction. For museum shows and
other types of animated shows, the Kp-300 can be mounted on the operatorʼs console,
or in a 19” rack somewhere in a back room.

Because of the cable to the LCD on the front of the Kp-300 to the Br-Brain4, the Br-

Brain4 is almost always mounted as close as possible to the Kp-300. This is usually in
the card cage mounted on the back of the Kp-300.

The cards that provide the analog outputs (usually a Br-ANA or DAC-Quad) and digi-

tal outputs (usually a br-ZBR Z-Brick, Pb-DMX/nn, Br-miniBrick8, or other card) for the
motion base can also be mounted right on the back of the Kp-300, but depending on
your installation, this may not be the most advantageous place to mount these other
cards.

Whether the other cards are mounted right on the back of the Kp-300 or a mile away,

they are all networked together via a single DMX-512 cable (a small shielded, twisted
pair of wires, connected point-to-point between all the devices on the network). This
means that these other cards can just as easily be mounted close to whatever they are
controlling. An example of this would be in a 3-DOF motion base. A small box under the
base near to the rams could hold a DAC-Quad and EFB-Quad to control the baseʼs
rams. For controlling the video playback in the capsule, the dimmers for the lights, Pb-
DMX/32 for the 4D effects and video players can be located right in the capsule. Instead
a dozens of cables running into the capsule, all that is need is a DMX-512 cable and the
cable for power.

The two main connectors on the Kp-300 for the safety inputs, HPU control and block-

ing valves are through two standard DB-25 connectors (

and

). Typically you will

use a pair of off-the-shelf DB-25 male/female cables pugged into the back of the Kp-
300, with standard DB-25 to screw terminals adapters (one male for

, one female for

) under the base for breaking out the wires and connecting to the

blocking valves

(typically through a solid state relay),

HPU power

circuitry (again, through a solid state

relay) and

HPU running

and

HPU stopped outputs

and any door, seatbelt and other

safety switches. Unused inputs must be jumpered so that they donʼt cause error condi-
tions.