THE DEMON
Paramount's Great America
Santa Clara, CA
Reprinted from Birket Engineering News, May/June 1993

Birket Engineering is pleased to report a successful installation of the new ride control system for the Demon roller coaster in Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara. The two-week installation ended when the new system was readied for the park's Saturday March 20 season Opening.

The Demon roller coaster has two teardrop loops and a double helix. Three 24-passenger trains run simultaneously, thrilling thousands of guest per hour. The roller coaster originally opened during our country's bicentennial. The March system upgrade saw the original relay logic system replaced with Dual Allen-Bradley 5/11 Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). The new system provides for continuous ride sensor monitoring, a maintenance mode, system diagnostics, and many safety checks previously unavailable.

The dual nature of the new system allows for one PLC to carry out all of the detail control required for the ride system while the second PLC runs the same software but acts as a watchdog for the first.