PT-1 Pedal Set - Discussion

[GTFREAK]

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 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

 

[John]

Are you able to sell the scraps to a scrap metal merchant? That is what we do here in Australia to earn a little back. You would have a large amount of aluminium shavings so scooping them into bins for transport to a merchant would be worthwhile as they pay by weight (well here they do).

 

[coops]

Are you able to sell the scraps to a scrap metal merchant? That is what we do here in Australia to earn a little back. You would have a large amount of aluminium shavings so scooping them into bins for transport to a merchant would be worthwhile as they pay by weight (well here they do).

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

 

[GTFREAK]

Are you able to sell the scraps to a scrap metal merchant? That is what we do here in Australia to earn a little back. You would have a large amount of aluminium shavings so scooping them into bins for transport to a merchant would be worthwhile as they pay by weight (well here they do).

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.

 

[GTFREAK]

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 ;-)

 

[John]

Hopefully you will do a montage video that shows a snippet from each step of the process, starting with the raw plate and finishing with a completed pedal set. I'm sure I'm not the only one that is fascinated with how things are made. We've come this far with you, please take us all the way.

 

[GTFREAK]

Hopefully you will do a montage video that shows a snippet from each step of the process, starting with the raw plate and finishing with a completed pedal set. I'm sure I'm not the only one that is fascinated with how things are made. We've come this far with you, please take us all the way.

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.

 

[GTFREAK]

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.

 

[Prodigy]

Great quality and attention to detail I must say.

 

[John]

Nice. Thats the stuff.

 

[GTFREAK]

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.

 

[GTFREAK]

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!

 

[Corti]

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

~ISR~ Corti

 

[GTFREAK]

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.

 

[John]

Apart from removing the "machined" finish, what specifically does the bead blasting process do to the aluminium? I know powder coating gives it a very durable surface that is quite resistant to wear and tear. Curiosity killed the cat.

 

[GTFREAK]

Apart from removing the "machined" finish, what specifically does the bead blasting process do to the aluminium? I know powder coating gives it a very durable surface that is quite resistant to wear and tear. Curiosity killed the cat.

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.

 

[wgeuze]

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

 

[Juergen-BY]

Hey guys, I mentioned that we're making a cosmetic change to our pedals...

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?

 

[GTFREAK]

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.

 

[Juergen-BY]

Snip...
... and will have 2 inches of forward/backward overall travel (no side to side)

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.

Having the ability to mount the pedals to this plate, and then mount the plate to most of the popular sim rigs out there

UHMW stands for "Ultra High Molecular Weight" Polyethylene.

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.

Let us know what you think!

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

 

[GTFREAK]

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.

 

[wgeuze]

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:

 

[Juergen-BY]

- What if you add 2 pieces of 80/20 yourself, and cut the base up into three parts/panels?

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

Made a quick sketch:

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.

 

[wgeuze]

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

 

[GTFREAK]

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:

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

 

[GTFREAK]

Here's a question for you guys,

How wide should the mounting plate be? Trying to get a feel for what the "average" is.

I'd like to hear some exact numbers, if possible. Inches would be better than millimeters.

Thanks!

 

[Juergen-BY]

I guess, take the width of the G27 Pedals, use the same mounting holes and you`re safe

 

[GTFREAK]

I guess, take the width of the G27 Pedals, use the same mounting holes and you`re safe

So far, we've seen numbers that are basically the same as what we were going to do anyway ;-)

Our mounting holes will match the CSP's. Most rigs these days have mounting holes for G27, Thrustmaster, and CSP. As long as we have mounting holes for at least one of those, we should be good.

We've had a lot of suggestions for different designs, including the above design by wgeuze. The only problem with that sort of design is that not everyone would be able to use it. The bottom line is, everyone
is different, which means we all have different needs and desires. For example, the design by wgeuze was perfect for him. It might not work for someone else.

What we tried to come up with was a single unit that could be placed by itself onto any surface, including any surface that has mounting holes for the CSP's.

We aren't finished with our design, and therefore it may not be available right away. We'll continue to do some research and think about it some more before moving forward. The last
thing we want to do is rush into it. We'd like to take our time, make sure the material is suitable for certain forces, check wear and tear after months of use, and just get a general
feel for how it functions. We did this with our pedals, and our pedals today look nothing like our original designs.

On a side note:

The "Tilton" style pedal faces will be available on Day 1 ;-)

 

[wgeuze]

I think it's smart not to push something you're not entirely sure of. It might also be worth your while to see when the PT-1
launches, what type of mounting solutions your customers will find out for themselves and to what types of rigs they are bolting
these to

 

[Juergen-BY]

So far, we've seen numbers that are basically the same as what we were going to do anyway ;-)

Our mounting holes will match the CSP's. Most rigs these days have mounting holes for G27, Thrustmaster, and CSP. As long as we have mounting holes for at least one of those, we should be good...

Hmmmm, wich Pedals are expected, to be an object of replacement first? The CSP`s may not, or only, if they`re broken. The Thrustmaster Pedals could be the same. When you read around the simracing forums, the most trouble people have with the Pots of the G27 Pedals. Anyway, it couldn`t be a big problem, to make the mounting holes for all three models? Just from the point of sales

 

[wgeuze]

You might also wonder, who doesn't have a customized rig already when ordering these pedals? Some console racer with a playseat isn't going to be among your customers I reckon. Might be useful to do a survey among the pre-order people, who knows how it can help you in your decision making

 

[GTFREAK]

You might also wonder, who doesn't have a customized rig already when ordering these pedals? Some console racer with a playseat isn't going to be among your customers I reckon. Might be useful to do a survey among the pre-order people, who knows how it can help you in your decision making

You're absolutely correct. There are going to be people that won't be able to use the mounting plate. Again, we go back to not being able to satisfy everyone.

As far as making holes for the G27, we haven't decided yet. It really depends on how they interfere with existing holes/slots. If the holes are in the same place as the slots for adjustment, the slots win that argument ;-)

We're going to send out a mass email asking people what rig they use, if any.

 

[GTFREAK]

Hey guys,

We have now completed the assembly and wiring for each pedal set. We are now moving on to the testing phase. Each set of pedals will be tested with their circuit board.

Once testing has completed, we'll be announcing a release date.

At this time, we do not have any estimates on how long the testing phase will take. There are a number of tests that we have lined up in order to ensure the pedals work properly . Testing each pedal set will certainly take some time, but we don't think it will take as long as the assembly phase. During assembly, we ran into multiple issues, and that really set us back. That didn't help us much, but during assembly we did perform individual tests on each pedal. This will help speed up the testing process.

I just wanted to give you guys an update.

 

[wgeuze]

Didn't you promise assembly videos a while back?

 

[GTFREAK]

Didn't you promise assembly videos a while back?

We're going to be doing them shortly. We wanted to wait until the assembly process had been completed. That's now completed, and we're going to be working on those videos next.

As to when those videos might be out, we don't know yet. I would say that one day you're just going to see a new post with a video or two. We'll probably take it one at a time. For instance, we'll do the throttle video first, release it, then work on the brake... and so on.

 

[GTFREAK]

Just wanted to give you guys a tiny update here.

We're currently working on the "Adjustments" series of videos. Right now, we're working on the throttle pedal. After that's completed, we'll be moving on to the brake pedal, and then finally the clutch.

Right now, I'm currently editing some footage that we shot this morning and this afternoon. In order to be as detailed as possible, there needs to be some "text" edits. This takes a bit of extra work, but nothing out of the ordinary for me ;-)

We're getting close, guys. Just bare with us a little while longer.

And no, I don't have a release date in mind yet. Sorry


On a side note, we are going to sell the curved pedal faces when the pedals go live. These curved pedal faces are made from black ABS plastic. They are extremely tough, durable, and feel awesome! We've decided on a price of $39 (+S&H) , and they will come as a set of 3. We hope you'll like them! We should have a picture up on the website within a few days.

 

[GTFREAK]

Hey guys,

We wanted to reach out to the community regarding an issue related to certain email addresses. We recently discovered this issue, and we wanted to give you a heads up.

If you registered on our website using a "Hotmail" email address, you may not receive emails sent directly from our website. This isn't an issue with our website, but rather an issue with Hotmail itself. We've had certain cases where emails were sent successfully according to our logs, but were never received.

If you did register on our website using a Hotmail email address, we suggest switching to another service, or you may not receive any emails containing important information, including release dates. This does mean that you will have to change the email address that you registered with. Doing so is pretty simple.

Just follow these easy steps:

1) Log into your account at http://www.protosimtech.com
2) Once you've logged in, navigate to your profile page
3) Navigate to the email box, type in your new email address
4) Hit the "submit" button at the bottom
5) You're done!

If you want to verify that the new email address works, log out of your account, then log back in using the new email address. If the process was successful, you should now be logged in.

If you're using any other email service, such as gmail, or your ISP assigned email address, there's no need to go through this process.

If you have any technical questions regarding this issue, I'm sure Shawn Purdy (Our web developer) would be happy to answer them.

Thanks!

 

[GTFREAK]

Hey guys,

ProtoSimTech has just launched it's very own Facebook page. This will give us the opportunity to reach a much wider audience. When we have something to announce, we'll make sure to post it on our FB page, as well as the usual places, including Twitter and all of the various sim racing related forums around the net. We might even use FB to post little tidbits of info from time to time.

Head over and check out our FB page, and let us know what you think!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Protosimtech/1113659788651573

 

[GTFREAK]

Hey guys, this is the announcement that you've all been waiting for.

The PT-1 Pedal set will be released on June 1st 2015 at 12 noon EDT. Once that date arrives, we will be throwing the switch on our website, and these pedals will be available for immediate purchase.

A few reminders:

1) Make sure that you register on our website in order to make the checkout process a lot smoother (you need to register in order to purchase our products)
2) The curved pedal faces will also be available once the pedals are released. You will be able to purchase them at the same time.
3) Make sure that you read the Terms of Service and warranty carefully. You will have to agree to these when you check out.
4) The PT-1 pedal set will be limited to 1 set per customer. No exceptions.

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)
Darin Gangi (For allowing us to promote ourselves in the ISR forums)
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

 

[wgeuze]

congratulations and good luck!