PT-1 Pedal Set - Discussion

now I'm excited

 

Hey guys,

Martin Enzmann has been our beta tester for the past few months. He's not only given us some fantastic feedback, he has helped make our pedals what they are today. Martin decided to make a video about the PT-1 pedal set.

We hope that this will give you a better idea of what we have coming in the near future. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: These are just his thoughts and opinions. These pedals are still a work-in-progress, and the design has changed since he received them back in June of this year.

 

Hey guys,

I wanted to give you guys an update on our progress with the new clutch mechanism. This is the first time we've actually shown this new mechanism in public. We've been testing it's operation, and I have to say.... man does it feel good

When you press on the clutch in a real car, what you're pressing on is the pressure plate. You can feel this pressure plate in the clutch pedal. In most cars, this is felt as resistance in the pedal when you first press it in. After you've disengaged the pressure plate, the pedal becomes smooth again.

What we have done is try and recreate this feeling with two additional springs, two side tracks, and two bearing rollers. As you can see below, the side tracks have been designed so that when you press on the clutch, you'll get a small amount of travel before encountering the "bumps" in the track. After you've pressed far enough, the rollers will pass over the bumps, and onto a nice flat, smooth surface. This gives you the feeling that you have disengaged the pressure plate.

The beauty of this system is that it's completely adjustable. If you like less travel in your clutch, you can adjust it accordingly. If you like more travel, you can adjust it accordingly. If you want the pedal arm at a different angle, you can actually move the two side tracks (they are attached to each other for even placement) so that you get the same exact feeling in the clutch no matter what angle you use.

We are still testing this setup, and we have already made a few changes to it. What you are looking at is the latest iteration of the design. We may go through a couple more before we call if final, but we think this version of the mechanism will give you a feeling that is so much closer to what you'd feel in the real car.

We have a lot more to show you, so stay tuned!




And a bonus picture. Enjoy!!

(This pedal face will not be included in the pedal set - it will be an option at a later date)

 

What an ingenious idea, really curious how it feels I'll pm you my address to receive the testing unit.

(kidding)

 

UPDATE: 10/20/2014

Hey guys,

We're getting really close now. We'll be starting production as soon as materials arrive. We've put all the materials on order (some have shown up already), and we're waiting for them to arrive. Once they arrive, production will officially begin.

I wanted to go ahead and make the announcement that I've been hinting at for the past week or so. We have decided to sell these pedals for $379 (3 pedal set) and $319 (2 pedal set) worldwide. We decided that selling them for USD and Euros was just too confusing, and really didn't make much sense. What this means is that these pedals will be even less expensive than we had expected (when we were thinking of selling them at a Euro price). Now, it's one currency, one price...period.

Those of you living overseas will still need to pay VAT's/customs, and shipping and handling. This was always going to be the case. There really isn't much we can do about these things without a distributor in Europe and other places. At some point we may decide that a distributor may work to our advantage, but right now we just don't have the capability to produce the volume needed for real distribution. If things go well, who knows

Our new website is currently being constructed. We still don't have any estimates on when this new site will go live, but we're in the final stages of development, so it shouldn't be too much longer. This website will be the place where you'll find all the information regarding our pedals and other future products. We'll have images, video, technical info, FAQ's, instructions on how to adjust and calibrate your new pedals, as well as an order page where you can purchase them.

When purchasing these pedals, the site will be fully functional. However, we will be using PayPal as the source for all payments. Therefore, if you do not have a PayPal account, you will need to create one, or have a valid credit card available. The process will be as smooth as any other website that uses PayPal as a source for payment.

The new clutch mechanism has worked out better than we had anticipated, and the reaction we got from all of you was just what we were hoping for. We can't wait to get these pedals into the hands of our customers, and we think you're going to love this new clutch design. We'll have a video up very soon that shows this new mechanism in action. I'll explain briefly how it works, but I'll save the details for a future video.

Just to give you guys a couple of reminders...

We'll be letting everyone know when the new website goes live, and we'll also be making an announcement once the pedals are set for release. As I've said before, we will make sure that we give you at least a two week notice before the pedals are put up for sale on the new website.

And finally...

I want to thank Shawn Purdy for all of the hard work he's put into this new site, and for putting up with all of my requests for changes. I know I haven't been easy to deal with, so thank you, Shawn!

I also want to thank Martin Enzmann for all the great feedback he's giving us over the past few months. Without him, you wouldn't be seeing this new clutch mechanism. He convinced me that it needed to be changed (by asking all the right questions), and I'm thankful for that.

Keep checking back, guys. We have a lot more to show you!

Here's just a taste...

 

Hey guys, this is a video demonstration of our new clutch mechanism. We hope you enjoy it!

 

I'd almost be looking for excuses to use the clutch more, seeing it in action

 

We have launched our brand new website!

You can access this site by going to:

http://www.protosimtech.com

Let us know what you think!


This new website has two products listed (3 pedal set and 2 pedal set). These products are currently marked as "Out Of Stock" for now. Once we announce a release date, there will be a two week period for all of you to prepare for the official release. Once the two week period has ended, we'll be flipping the switch and allowing immediate orders for all 20 pedal sets from this first limited batch.

This new site also has instructions on how to calibrate these pedals. We will also be adding another page where you can go to view detailed instructions on how to make adjustments to out pedals. This page hasn't been completed yet, as we are waiting until we are closer to the release date.

Production has officially started, and we are working long hours every day in order to get these pedals out to you as soon as we can. Keep in mind that this is our very first sim racing product, and as such, we have run into a few problems here and there. This is completely normal for a new company just starting out, so we ask that you bare with us as we continue to prepare for the official release.

We hope you enjoy this new website, and if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us on our "Contact Us" page.

 

Congratulations!

Skimming through the calibration guide quickly, does this also mean you don't have to ' autocalibrate' (fully depress all of them once) the pedals in the sim anymore?
When I drove with a loadcell brake for a bit this was a pain in the ass because I was never sure to have reached a full press on that one.

Also, be ready to have questions coming in when they go for sale, about pedal plates to mount them on. Most people will be able to DIY them, but to have those
as an option won't hurt.

 

You will still have to calibrate the pedals in the sims, but this is normal. The calibration process is so that you can get 4096 steps of resolution from each pedal, no matter how much travel they currently have.

For example, the pedals will ship with a certain amount of travel. Some people might want more travel, and some people may want less. Once you adjust the pedals so that they have the amount of travel you prefer, you need to calibrate them using the utility. This utility will program the board so that each pedal (except for the brake) utilizes 4096 steps of resolution, no matter how much actual travel it has.

Again, you'll still have to calibrate them in the sim, but you have to do this with all sims. It's fairly normal.

Hope that helps! Thanks for the compliments!

 

Yep, makes sense. I know we have to do this in all the same, and I dislike it in all the sims I hope in the future we can just have them calibrated once by typing in the values directly in a settings file or something, much like with direct drive wheels, they don't have to calibrate either ^^

 

TRY THIS FOR CALIBRATION WORKS VERY WELL AND EASY.. http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/21439-DIView-software-for-calibrating

 

Hey guys,


I mentioned a couple of times that we've had a few setbacks lately. Here's a video that explains what we've been going through the past couple of weeks. I'd like to emphasize that we're still working hard every single day to make sure these pedals are finally in the hands of our customers.

 

Hey guys,

Here's another small update for all of you.

As many of you already know, we are making some much needed changes to our CNC machine to improve rigidity and accuracy. Our original plan was to install an upgrade to the Y axis (the axis that was giving us the most trouble). Upon further inspection, we have decided that we should really upgrade all axes to ensure there are zero issues from this point on.

We realize that this is taking much longer than anticipated, and we would likely be finished with production by now if we hadn't run into these issues. This really is no excuse, and we understand that. It is a failure on our part, and it's definitely something we are working very hard to rectify.

As mentioned earlier, our current release estimate is Q1 2015. The decision to fully upgrade our machine should not have any affect on this release estimate. We are in the home stretch now, and once these upgrades are installed, we'll be back to production full force. As an added bonus, all future batches will take less time, given the fact that we won't have to worry about whether or not the CNC machine is cutting straight parts.

At some point this coming Monday (Jan 12th), a lot of our parts should arrive, with more parts arriving the following two weeks. We're going to install the Y axis upgrades this coming week, followed by the X and A axes installations when those parts arrive.

We're going to be taking video of the installation, but here is a breakdown of the upgrades we've purchased so far:

1) Linear motion rails and bearings for each axis
2) Thicker Gantry risers
3) Gantry support system

These upgrades will significantly increase the machine's rigidity and accuracy. In the video, we are also going to discuss the old slide rails, and how they have affected our work so far. We'll be showing you examples of what can happen with the old rail system, why it was a poor choice, and how it could have been avoided.

We may break the video down into multiple parts, as it may end up quite lengthy.

Well guys, that's all I have for today. We really appreciate your patience, and we will continue to keep you updated as things progress.

 

Hey guys,

This is the first video in a series of videos that highlight the changes we're making to the CNC machine. In this video, we explain the differences between the old rail system, and the new rail system that we're currently retrofitting to our machine.

 

Thank you!

It's been a great learning experience for me, that's for sure. I'm only disappointed that it has taken so long to get these issues resolved. However, I'm thankful that we decided to take the extra time to make these improvements. If we didn't, it would have caused more headaches down the road. If we didn't do this now, we would not have the time after full production started. We would be too busy trying to keep up with demand. Doing it now will delay the official release, but as I said, we just wouldn't have the time to make these changes once the next production batch started (which will be immediately after the first batch is out the door).

 

We're making some great progress with our retrofit.

These are some images that I took this afternoon. You can see the new rail system, and you can also see the new gantry risers that we developed ourselves. These new gantry risers are made from 1/2" thick aluminum plate, which is stronger than the previous gantry risers we were using. We're also going to be using two structural braces that attach from one riser to the other. This ensures maximum rigidity.

 

Man you guys have met with some bumps in the road, props for your tenacity on this journey!

What are you doing with the parts which didn't make the cut? (pardon the pun )

 

The effort they are doing is awesome, try to follow their work closely, I love the pedal since I saw the first news. Another thing is if someday I can have one, but do not lose hope just like you. Animos from Galicia (Spain). A fan from across the Atlantic.

 

The extra parts will just be stored someplace for now. We really have no use for them. However, if we need to make some smaller parts for a project, or we come up with some way to use the material, we'll do so.

I just want you guys to know that we're very close to finishing the first batch. These minor hiccups aside, 99% of the parts have already been made. All we need to do now is start powder coating, and then go through the assembly/testing processes, and we're ready for our official release.

We really appreciate your patience