PT-1 Pedals Discussion

[ProtoSimTech]

PT-1 Pedal set Features:

● Aluminum and Stainless Steel Construction
● 50KG Load Cell – Brake Pedal
● Industrial Quality Potentiometers (rated for millions of turns) – Throttle and Clutch Pedals
● Multiple Pedal Face Positions
● Adjustable Pedal Height
● Adjustable Spring Tension
● Adjustable Pedal Travel
● Adjustable Potentiometer Travel
● Adjustable Clutch “Feel”
● Can Be Inverted or Placed Right Side Up (with each pedal separately)
● Many More...

We are very proud of what we've accomplished over the past 3 years. Even though we've had multiple setbacks, and things haven't gone as smoothly as we would have liked, we took that extra time to improve upon things that we felt warranted improvement. We've said this multiple times, but it's always better to take the time to get things right. We've only got one shot at making a good impression with the public, and even though our pedals aren't 100% perfect (nothing in this world is), we now feel that they're ready to finally find their new homes.

This is our very first product. We don't have a wealth of experience in the areas of business or manufacturing. With that said, we've tried to do our best to give you a product that is reliable, durable, and adjustable in many different ways. We hope that our customers will enjoy our products for as long as they own them.

Along with this announcement, we've finally released the "Adjustment" series of videos. We've developed a separate page on our website called "PT-1 Adjustments", which can be found by mousing over the "PST" menu item at the top of our homepage and choosing "PT-1 Adjustments" from the drop-down menu. On this page you will find three separate videos, each discussing a different pedal. We have also provided time-stamps that should allow you to find the section you are most interested in.

We created these videos for the sole purpose of helping the public make adjustments to their pedals. We have tried to be as detailed as possible, but that doesn't mean that we haven't left something out. If you find that there is something you do not understand, or you'd like for us to make a notation at some point in the video, please let us know. We want to be sure that you have as much information as possible.

On a more personal note, I would like to thank a few people:

First and foremost, I'd like to thank my father for sticking with me throughout some of the most difficult times these past three years. He has not only been responsible for most of the financial support, but has supported any and all ideas surrounding this project. Without him, none of this would have been possible. Thanks, dad.

I also want to throw out a special thanks to Martin Enzmann ( aka - "The Details Man"), our beta tester. We really struck gold with Martin. When I first contacted Martin last spring, I had no idea how valuable he would ultimately turn out to be. His feedback regarding the design and functionality of our prototype pedals, has helped us to make improvements on certain mechanical portions of our PT-1 pedal set. We never expected the level of detailed feedback that Martin would eventually give us. On top of that, he has become a good friend. Thank you, Martin.

And last, I'd like to thank the community for all of the kind words of encouragement. We started our YouTube channel back in November of 2013. After posting the very first video in the iRacing forums, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. I'm very grateful to be a part of this community, and no matter what the public thinks of our pedal set, I'm certain I always will be.

A few others I'd like to say "Thank you" to:

Slaven Corluka (my old modding buddy)
All my fellow members of Virtua_LM (thanks for giving my 3D skills a shot!)
Shaun Cole (thanks for the article last summer!)
Shawn Purdy (one hellavu web developer ;-) )
DSD (for the circuit boards)


Chris Smith - Co-Founder - ProtoSimTech
http://www.protosimtech.com

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Hey guys, we posted a new video online today! In the absence of any real development, we wanted to at least show you guys something. We've been waiting on a drill chuck to show up so that we can get started on a new jig for the side plates.

Enjoy!

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Hey guys, we just posted a new video online this evening. This is the second "Interim" video we've done because we are still waiting on some tools to arrive. We actually received one of the tools that were on order, but we have to send it back because it has some very bad run-out, as you'll see in the video.

We know this isn't much in the way of development, but that's coming. We have a lot more coming in the way of actual progression, so please bare with us as we go through this "teething" period. We're still learning a lot and we are taking our time to make sure we do this thing right. Those of you that intend to buy our pedals will thank us in the end =)

 

[eKretz]

That sort of runout isn't very unusual for a 3-jaw chuck from China. Your best solution is probably to mount a tool post grinder or good die grinder to your tool post and grind your jaws in place with a CBN grinding pin. If you do so you'll need a washer of the proper size to tension/lock the jaws while you grind. Something about 3"-4" in inside diameter, so you can grip it on the I.D. using the outside of the jaws whilst you are grinding.

 

[ProtoSimTech]

That sort of runout isn't very unusual for a 3-jaw chuck from China. Your best solution is probably to mount a tool post grinder or good die grinder to your tool post and grind your jaws in place with a CBN grinding pin. If you do so you'll need a washer of the proper size to tension/lock the jaws while you grind. Something about 3"-4" in inside diameter, so you can grip it on the I.D. using the outside of the jaws whilst you are grinding.

That's a great suggestion, thanks!

Unfortunately, we already sent back that particular chuck. The replacement should be here this week. The amount of run-out that they say is normal is .003. That's .003 less than what we had. These things are apparently made of cast iron, so they are a little difficult to cut. However, I like your suggestion.

There might be some other solutions, but we'll see how it works out when the new one arrives.

 

[eKretz]

Nah, they're not that bad to cut. I've cut and/or ground plenty of them. The worst ones have hardened steel jaws. If you had a more rigid machine I would suggest cutting the jaws using a boring bar and a CBN insert, but with lighter machines you're better off with grinding, so you get as true and round a surface as possible on your jaws.

There are also available chucks that utilize a 4-setscrews aligning method to "zero" the runout, I believe the trademark name for them is Set-Tru or something similar.

 

[MozzMann]

I have a question, was the run out lateral, cyclic or longitudinal, if the run out is lateral did you try all three positions to see if one was better that the other ?

Now this can be rectified by a simple trick most machinists would be aware of.

1 Make a holder for and run a good quality die grinder with the appropriate double cut cutter to give you a clean surface.
2 Back the chuck jaws out against a solid ring so the jaws are locked and then grind the inside thus removing the run out
3 do the same to the outside steps of the jaws after locking against a true mandrel
You chuck should now be true.
Just make sure you index it so that it is placed back in the same place if removed.
Must be why I don't like cheap tooling as it invariably ends up costing you in the long run.

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Appreciate the responses.

MozzMann, I believe I responded to you on YouTube and I think we both agreed about the run-out being excessive. We even received the new one today and the run-out was exactly the same. I even went so far as to remove the 4" 3-jaw and install the 3" 3-jaw to make sure something strange wasn't going on and the 3" has less than .001 run-out, so I know it's not the test bar or my lathe. I guess these particular 4" chucks just have some issues. Or perhaps there was a bad batch sent out. Who knows

We managed to fix the run-out on the new one using a dremel grinding wheel. I know that sounds a bit crazy, but it was actually very easy to do.

First, we set the drill chuck in the tail stock with the dremel grinding wheel in it. Then, we offset the tail stock just enough to get it to one side so that it only grinds on one jaw at a time. We opened the jaws and had them tightened against a large inner diameter of a metal can (that was cut off). Once the jaws were tightened down against the can, we spun the lathe up to speed enough to where centrifugal force would force the jaws outward. Then, we just used the tail stock to insert the grinding wheel into the opening and let the grinding wheel do it's job. It took awhile to do, but once it was done, we tested it with a test bar and we now have between .0005 and .001 run-out. Across a 4 inch bar the run-out is less than .002. I'd say that we fixed it. This is acceptable to me and it should work for what we're doing.

I'd like to thank you guys for responding and giving us some suggestions. It helps to have people like you that know their stuff and are willing to pass on the knowledge.

Thanks!

 

[eKretz]

Sure, now just don't forget to match mark it like Mozz suggested - on these light duty (I'm hesitant to say Chinese, but there you have it) machines it is very important. As you have seen, they are often not very picky about precision, necessitating you to be so.

 

[MozzMann]

Oh another thing occured to me too, many of these lower quality chucks have a fair bit of slop in the grooved jaw tightening gear ring that moves the laws make sure you nip up or tighten each key point to eliminate this as being an additional cause for run out.

 

[eKretz]

Another tip along those lines, sometimes you can tighten the same specific adjuster every time and that will help maintain consistency in runout.

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Oh another thing occured to me too, many of these lower quality chucks have a fair bit of slop in the grooved jaw tightening gear ring that moves the laws make sure you nip up or tighten each key point to eliminate this as being an additional cause for run out.

Another tip along those lines, sometimes you can tighten the same specific adjuster every time and that will help maintain consistency in runout.

Both of these are great tips, thanks!

 

[mrbasher]

I have this same lathe, it should serve you well enough as long as it's used for prototyping or one offs. Anything more will be eating up a lot of your time unless you hire someone to run it for you.

This site has great info on the lathe: http://www.mini-lathe.com/
And this is an absolute necessity if you plan to do any metric threading, or just threading in general on it: http://littlemachineshop.com/Reference/change_gears.php

Good choice getting the QTP for it, you'll be glad you did. One word of advice... Keep the ends of the lead screw well greased if you plan on running with the lead screw much. If you don't, it will lock up on you and shear the inside of one or some of the gears. Trust me.

As for the chuck, these two know what they are talking about. 3 Jaw chucks are made for speed, not precision or repeatability. You'll need a 4 jaw for that. However, a 3 jaw will be fine in most cases.

Good luck on your venture! It will be fun, surely.

 

[ProtoSimTech]

I have this same lathe, it should serve you well enough as long as it's used for prototyping or one offs. Anything more will be eating up a lot of your time unless you hire someone to run it for you.

This site has great info on the lathe: http://www.mini-lathe.com/
And this is an absolute necessity if you plan to do any metric threading, or just threading in general on it: http://littlemachineshop.com/Reference/change_gears.php

Good choice getting the QTP for it, you'll be glad you did. One word of advice... Keep the ends of the lead screw well greased if you plan on running with the lead screw much. If you don't, it will lock up on you and shear the inside of one or some of the gears. Trust me.

As for the chuck, these two know what they are talking about. 3 Jaw chucks are made for speed, not precision or repeatability. You'll need a 4 jaw for that. However, a 3 jaw will be fine in most cases.

Good luck on your venture! It will be fun, surely.

We actually have a four jaw chuck. It's sitting below the lathe right now, but we do use it when we need more precision.

The only thing we are using this lathe for at the moment is for making a few bushings. These bushings are fairly easy to make and each set of pedals will only need 2 of them. If we were to need more than that for each set of pedals, we'd be looking at other options.

We're glad that so many of you have chimed in with so much useful info. We hope that you keep following us. We may have a surprise for all of you on or about the 25th, so stay tuned!

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Hey guys,

We just posted a brand new video this evening. This time around, we're showing you how we are making our side plate jig. This is a crucial step in the process of building our pedals. This is going to be a two part video, as we haven't finished the jig just yet. You can watch the first part here:



If you haven't yet, you can follow us on Twitter so that you can be notified when a new video goes online. You can follow us at @ProtoSimTech. Or you can visit our Twitter page here: https://twitter.com/ProtoSimTech

 

[left888]

I have this same lathe, it should serve you well enough as long as it's used for prototyping or one offs. Anything more will be eating up a lot of your time unless you hire someone to run it for you.

This site has great info on the lathe: http://www.mini-lathe.com/
And this is an absolute necessity if you plan to do any metric threading, or just threading in general on it: http://littlemachineshop.com/Reference/change_gears.php

Good choice getting the QTP for it, you'll be glad you did. One word of advice... Keep the ends of the lead screw well greased if you plan on running with the lead screw much. If you don't, it will lock up on you and shear the inside of one or some of the gears. Trust me.

As for the chuck, these two know what they are talking about. 3 Jaw chucks are made for speed, not precision or repeatability. You'll need a 4 jaw for that. However, a 3 jaw will be fine in most cases.

Good luck on your venture! It will be fun, surely.

I would love to own one of those mini lathes. The things I have wanted to build over the years.

 

[left888]

Hey guys,

We just posted a brand new video this evening.

Hi Chris, I have watched a few of your videos now and thoroughly enjoy them. I have a well stocked woodworking shop, with most of the big machines except a bandsaw. I have access to one and it's really just a matter of funding until I get one. I have a welder and chop saw and grinders but to have milling equipment would be awesome.

I see some of the same problems I face in my wood shop appear with metal as well in your shop. I realize a C & C machine cost a fortune, can you see your shop getting one in the future? Anyways I like your videos, good luck and thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Hi Chris, I have watched a few of your videos now and thoroughly enjoy them. I have a well stocked woodworking shop, with most of the big machines except a bandsaw. I have access to one and it's really just a matter of funding until I get one. I have a welder and chop saw and grinders but to have milling equipment would be awesome.

I see some of the same problems I face in my wood shop appear with metal as well in your shop. I realize a C & C machine cost a fortune, can you see your shop getting one in the future? Anyways I like your videos, good luck and thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

Thank you! Yes, a CNC conversion is something we do want to acquire in the future. I do like the manual operation and the digital read-out, which seems to work quite well for what we're doing. Still, I'm sure that converting to CNC might help us in most situations.

Would love to see some pictures of your wood shop. It's always cool to see other shops and how they operate.

 

[left888]

Ya, I love working in shops. I worked construction most of my life and whether it was plowing phone lines or building swimming pools, we had a shop. Some big, some small. The one thing I am missing in my shop is a furnace. When we get to cold I avoid it until spring. BTW, I ran 220 to my shop from my house. It's nice running my table saw with 220.

I still want to pick up a some more tools, like the band saw I talked about. I have all the hand tools I need, well most of them. Aside from drills, palm sanders, I have specialty tools like biscuit joiners, mortise and tenon jigs, finger joint jig, dove tail jigs. I could go on for a while if I stop and think about it.

My shop has been rearranged somewhat since these photos were taken, more efficient layout. My air compressor is where the chop saw was and vise versa.

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Very cool! Nice to see another shop. I used to be a technician for Honda and have accumulated a lifetime of tools. I'm not much into wood working, but I do like to dabble in it once in awhile. Thanks for posting the pictures =)

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Hey guys,

We just posted the second part (finale) of our side plate jig series. As stated before, this is a crucial step in the development process. This jig will be responsible for holding the side plates in place while we drill all the holes for construction of our pedals.

You can view the video here:



Enjoy!

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Hey guys,

We just posted a brand new video this evening. We're so excited to show you this major step in the development process. You'll get to see what the side plate looks like after it's been measured, cut and drilled to specifications. We hope you enjoy the video!

Please keep in mind that everything you see is a W.I.P. and subject to change.

 

[Nick Moxley]

Awesome possum, look forward to the next one.

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Awesome possum, look forward to the next one.

Thanks, Nick!

We're just getting started and things may change over the course of development. As stated in the video, this is just a WIP and the final design may or may not be slightly different. You'll start to see new parts being made in future videos, and we have a lot of cool things coming in the months ahead.

 

[Nick Moxley]

Good stuff, The Last vid really gave the idea on How the pedals will somewhat look which was cool. I Was wondering how that Jig was going to work as you were doing it. A Machinist buddy of mine liked the video of the Lathe centering tool thingy, Said it would come in handy for a few things. He said to say thanks for that.

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Good stuff, The Last vid really gave the idea on How the pedals will somewhat look which was cool. I Was wondering how that Jig was going to work as you were doing it. A Machinist buddy of mine liked the video of the Lathe centering tool thingy, Said it would come in handy for a few things. He said to say thanks for that.

That lathe tool is something that can save you a lot of time. It's not my idea and has been around for quite awhile, but I figured I would make a short video explaining how to make one if you don't already have one. You can actually buy them, but it would probably cost you more than if you made one yourself. I'm glad I was able to help!

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Hey guys,

We ordered some more tools needed to complete the band saw jig that we're currently working on. So, in the meantime we wanted to give you some info on what we are working on and a little info on how this band saw jig will work.

 

[posimosh]

Ya, I love working in shops. I worked construction most of my life and whether it was plowing phone lines or building swimming pools, we had a shop. Some big, some small. The one thing I am missing in my shop is a furnace. When we get to cold I avoid it until spring. BTW, I ran 220 to my shop from my house. It's nice running my table saw with 220.

I still want to pick up a some more tools, like the band saw I talked about. I have all the hand tools I need, well most of them. Aside from drills, palm sanders, I have specialty tools like biscuit joiners, mortise and tenon jigs, finger joint jig, dove tail jigs. I could go on for a while if I stop and think about it.

My shop has been rearranged somewhat since these photos were taken, more efficient layout. My air compressor is where the chop saw was and vise versa.

Please tell me you spent a couple hours with a shop-vac in your woodworking garage before taking these photos... Looks nice, and a hell of a lot cleaner and more organized than mine! Lololol.

 

[ProtoSimTech]

Hey guys,

Decided to make a spindle lock for our milling machine. This was an interesting little side project while we waited for tools to arrive. Enjoy!

 

[left888]

Please tell me you spent a couple hours with a shop-vac in your woodworking garage before taking these photos... Looks nice, and a hell of a lot cleaner and more organized than mine! Lololol.

It's a necessary evil, each Fall I give the shop a good cleanup. Without heat I don't spend to much time out there, especially when the weather dips to -40. Then in the Spring I have a clean shop to go into, aside from that, having sawdust laying around is an explosion waiting to happen. Ten years ago one of my neighbor lost his shop to spontaneous combustion, it really happens.