PT-1 Pedal Set - Discussion

great idea john and recycle everything else you can, as a lot of recycle'rs will pick up for free.

 

Yes, we can actually sell the aluminum that we don't use. In fact, we have a lot of material that is just too thin to use properly, so we'll have to sell it. We store that in a special place in the shop. We'll sell it once we have enough of it.

 

Hey guys, this is the final part in the "CNC machine upgrades" series of videos. This just gives you a nice preview of what we did and how accurate it is. We really should have switched over to these rails when we purchased the machine, but hindsight is always 20/20, right?

I hope you enjoyed watching this series of videos, and we'll be back soon with more videos that specifically feature the pedals themselves. After all, that's why we're here ;-)

 

That's exactly what we're doing now ;-)

We're taking some small clips of video of different portions of the production process. We'll have a video or two for you soon.

 

Hey guys, this is a collection of random production stuff. Someone asked me to make a video of the production process, but doing the entire process would be rather time consuming and probably a little boring. So, I decided to take a few shots from just a few portions of the process on a couple pieces.

 

Great quality and attention to detail I must say.

 

Thank you! Don't worry about any tiny marks on the material you see in the videos. Everything will be powder coated, so it'll have a nice even finish once it's been coated.

 

We'll be making an announcement soon regarding the 2nd batch (and all future batches) of pedals. There will be a fairly significant change between the first batch and all future batches. We'll have more details very soon!

 

Thank you very much for sharing all the manufacturing process, nosottros in the distance we send all possible support. Good job.

~ISR~ Corti

 

Hey guys, I mentioned that we're making a cosmetic change to our pedals, and below you can read some of the details as to why we're making this change. The pedals you see in the video and on our website are considered "Final".

When we first "officially" announced our pedals back in June of 2014, we initially wanted to powder coat them. We came up with a few estimates, but we really didn't have a broader understanding of what it would ultimately cost until we started the first batch. Once we started powder coating the first batch, we quickly realized our mistake.

The amount of powder, labor, and electricity involved far exceeded our initial estimates. We just don't have the proper facilities to make powder coating an efficient, viable process. We even tried contacting local powder coating businesses in the local area, but even that turned out to be a pointless effort.

So, here's the bottom line. We had to make one of two choices...

Number 1: we continue powder coating, but we add between $75-$100 on top of the cost of the pedals, as well as add between 2-3 weeks of lead times...

Or, Number 2: We use a completely different process called Sand Blasting.

Back when we first started this project in 2012, we initially wanted to have these pedals sand blasted. I had seen several images of sand blasted aluminum parts with varying results. We even tried a few parts ourselves, and were pleased with how they turned out.

So, here's what we're going to do...

The first batch has already been powder coated. So, rather than go through the lengthy and expensive process of removing the powder coat from over 1000 parts, we're going to release the first batch as it is.

The second batch, and all future batches will be sand blasted.

One important thing to note is that the powder coated and sand blasted pedals are identical. The only difference is purely cosmetic.

Our website has already been updated to reflect these changes. There are several galleries full of images that show the powder coated version, and the sand blasted version. Check out our "Media" page for details. These versions are considered "official". These are the pedals you'll be getting once we officially release them.

Don't forget to head over to our website and check out the high res images, and be sure to register on the site. Once our pedals go on sale, it will speed up the checkout process.

We really hope you like the "final" version of these pedals, including the sand blasting

In the next few videos, we'll be talking about some of the minor changes that we've made to these pedals to make them even better, including a change to the brake pedal, and the addition of small nylon bushings for the tension adjustments.

 

Bead blasting just gives the aluminum the texture you see in the video. Other than that, it doesn't provide anything in terms of durability or resistance to wear and tear. Trust me, this wasn't an easy decision to make.

Perhaps at some point in the future we'll be able to use a different process, such as anodizing. However, this would require chemicals, prep work, time for the anodizing process itself, electricity, and possibly a few other things. Is all that worth the effort? We just don't know yet. It's something we're going to investigate further.

Just as a reference, I believe the club sport pedals are anodized, and even those pedals can obtain wear and tear over time.

We feel that as long as you take care of them, our pedals should last as long as you own them.

 

Thanks for the updates once again, I'm now very much sure that when I do update my pedal set, this set will be very much one I'll be seriously considering, the amount of tenacity, work and thought you put into this project says something about the product I think

 

Hopefully the coated batch would be sold out fast, because i like the sand blasted version much more

Would it possible, after you made the finale release, to order the sand blasted version, while the other (coated) are still in stock?

//Edit: could we expect an european distribution in the near future?

 

Hey guys,

I thought I would give you a sneak preview of our mounting plate prototype.







The plate will be black in color, and will have the same exact features. We're just trying to get some feedback from all of you in order to get a sense of how popular something like this might be.

Here are a couple of features:

• Material is ~12"x12" - 3/4" thick UHMW, making it very rigid.

• Each pedal is separated equally and will have 2 inches of forward/backward overall travel (no side to side).

• The outer mounting holes match the Club Sport pedals exactly for easy mounting to most popular rigs (other modifications may be necessary).

• Will come with all the necessary hardware for mounting the pedals, and extra hardware to hard mount to a sim rig.

• All holes/slots are countersunk so hardware does not interfere with pedals.

Having the ability to mount the pedals to this plate, and then mount the plate to most of the popular sim rigs out there (with perhaps some slight modifications) will make life a whole lot easier for those of you that don't get into the "DIY" of things as much as some of us do. This is purely a convenience and not necessary for the pedals to function correctly.

Estimated cost is between $89-$99. If things go well, and enough people seem to like it, we'll try to make it available for purchase when the pedals go on sale.

UHMW stands for "Ultra High Molecular Weight" Polyethylene.

Based on feedback from the iRacing community, we'll be adding a heal rest plate as an option to this mounting plate, and will probably be priced around $25-$35

Let us know what you think!

A few things to note about the first image...

1) The pedal faces seen in the image are made from solid aluminum. This will not be the case when we start selling our version of the Tilton style pedal faces. We'll be making them out of either ABS plastic, or UHMW or HDPE. We haven't decided yet. We do know that they'll be black, which should make them look very cool

2) This mounting plate is only ~12" wide. The mounting plate that you'll receive will likely be 13" wide, which will add a bit more space between the pedals.

 

Uhmmmm, personaly for me, the side to side travel function would be interesting, because fw/bw i can move the pedals with the pedal holder from my rig.

I guess, more of the DIY Simracing Rig`s out there, are constructed with Aluminium Profiles. I can`t imagine to myself, how a black "plastic" plate fits together with those Rig`s... but this comes from my personal flavour.

Nice Addon, but i guess, Aluminium would be better.

 

Aluminum plate that thick would cost around $100 for us to purchase. Then we'd have to machine it (which would take 3-4 times as long as machining plastic), tacking on labor costs. Then, we'd have to charge extra to make a profit. Then, it would weigh much, MUCH more, increasing shipping charges. If we were to do an aluminum mounting plate, we'd probably have to charge somewhere in the neighborhood of $200-$250 just for the plate itself. Then add on the shipping costs... Yeah, it can get expensive quickly.

UHMW is very strong, lightweight, and inexpensive. Machining time is also greatly decreased, being plastic. UHMW is the way to go. That said, we understand that not everyone will like it.

Thanks for the feedback!

Side to side motion might be an option. We'll see about that. Perhaps we can offer two different versions.

 

It does look quite neat, a very compact set, I'm also happy to see you are taking user feedback seriously

However, some remarks about the design

- Ask yourself, what does this offer more to a customer who got a piece of wood and bolted the pedals on there in a similar configuration? In my opinion, only
some front to back adjustability, which, when made of wood, can be easily altered per pedal, or by moving the entire assembly forwards/backwards. Observing this,
are the expenses on your side worth the profit for this base, and how much do you know for sure customers who purchased the 2 or 3 pedalset are also going to
purchase the base?

- What if I want to heal/toe one evening, and the next only need left foot braking and no clutch operation? I'd want to move things around, right now, you'd have as much (lateral)
movement as the generic toy pedal sets. When I'd purchase an additional product for my proper pedals, it better get me all the customization I need. At this point, I would not
purchase the plate because it limits the use of your pedal set. In all honesty it should complement it instead of limiting it.

- Additional heal plate sounds great

- As per Juergens' feedback, it might be nice to have some holes for bolts to connect to 80/20 profile, I'm not sure what the maximum material thickness should be for
those.

- Have you tested the strength of the material/threads under prolonged heavy braking with your pedal adjusted to its stiffest setting?

- How are customers going to mount these to their rigs? What kind of rigs do you support? Do they have to modify this part for it to fit on their rigs?

- Have you thought about mounting the DSD controller board to this plate as well?

- What if you add 2 pieces of 80/20 yourself, and cut the base up into three parts/panels? Now you can still move longitudinally per pedal while creating lateral movement
over a straight edge, easily adjustable with quick knobs or an allan wrench. Also, this way you can design only 1 panel which is compatible with all three pedals and their
mounting points, and customers can simply purchase an individual panel, a set of 2 or a set of 3 and you just package it up
Made a quick sketch:

 

This was what i meant with "Aluminium", my fault, sorry. I never wanted to suggest to you, to offer a solid Aluminium Plate

Good Idea! Maybe 3 x 80/20 horizontal are enough, mounted directly on the existing profile? Vertical it could be moved on the rig itself.

 

I was watching another one of Barry's great reviews, and found he did something similar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5hCBhE0NB20#t=711

If you want feedback, I'd send him a set

 

All very valid points. We'll take it into consideration ;-)