Daybreak Pedal Box 2024-2025

For this year, we will be redesigning the pedal box to address issues we had with the daybreak pedal box from the 2023-2024 season.

What was the issue?

1. The brake pedal has very poor travel and is very stiff

   1. Failed to account for mechanical advantage in the brake pedal (the leverage we use to apply more pressure to the master cylinder)

   2. Little testing done to make sure master cylinder had enough travel (pedal was completed a week before competition)

2. Poor travel can mean that there was not enough pressure being sent to the calipers (the brakes for the rotors) 

   1. Because it is hard to apply pressure to the brakes, there is a good chance that we aren't getting enough pressure in the brake line to activate the calipers. Less pressure means worse brake performance

3. The brake light switch is not very reliable

   1. The pressure-sensing brake light switch doesn't actuate until the pedal is pushed down all the way (another reason why I am concerned that the brake lines don't have enough pressure)

How will we fix this the following 24-25 season?

1. Completely redesign the pedal box that accounts for mechanical advantage

2. Potentially use an angular potentiometer which is more reliable than using pressure to sense when the brake lights turn on.

3. More testing to make sure we can implement the brake light plan

Preliminary Pedal Box Design Documentation

Assignee: Trevor Ng

Design Review: 02 Nov 2024

We’ll be designing the pedal box around these specifications: