A New Rack for the Gravesend Inn Animatronic Control System

Summer is the time when I put all the new technology into the Gravesend Inn, so that we can test it and debug it all before the craziness starts (earlier I wrote about our new queue line displays) Last year we rolled out our new animatronic character; this summer, before reprogramming it, we moved, upgraded and consolidated the character’s control rack and wiring. I’ve had this in the works for several years, and this year a student Phoenix Neil took on some of the work for his senior culmination project.

The old system was just housed in a standard 19” rack; this lived out in the audience area in the old set up and was hidden onstage in the new setup.

To mount on the wall, we bought a Middle Atlantic swing frame rack. Our new location over the entry door meant that we had to extend the character control lines and this made for a lot of rewiring. This was a good thing because we were able to clean up a lot of the documentation and also the wiring itself.

It came out great and of course we hope you don’t notice it when you go through the Gravesend Inn!