For anybody interested, I am proud to present some images of the worlds-first T3PA (non-Pro) pedal set with a functional load cell -- the BLC-T3PA Load Cell Mod from
Bodin Solutions:
Testing has gone very well, and I'm quite pleased with the end result -- the BLC-T3PA Load Cell Mod performs much like the BLC-T500 Load Cell Mod, which was my goal.
The main difference I noticed is that I use my T500 pedals in the "inverted" ("GT" or "hanging") position, but since you have to use the T3PA pedals in "F1" (or bottom-hinged) mode, that makes for a slight difference in how my feet hit the pedals in my rig. Not a huge thing, but it accounts for some variation. I also noticed that the spring on the clutch pedal on the T3PA pedals seems slightly stiffer than the clutch pedal spring on my T500 pedals. Again, not a big thing, but just something I noticed.
Doing laps in the Solstice at Lime Rock Park in iRacing I was able to get within about 5 tenths of my personal best there, which was great. The pedals obviously felt VERY much like my BLC-T500-equipped T500 pedals, but the brake felt especially familiar, which was good since the load cell there was the critical element I was concerned about.
I have done some time in the Skip Barber Forumula 2000 in iRacing on the Daytona Moto (Bike) Road Course layout -- I had been testing there last night just to see how suitable this layout would be for a car like the Skip using my T500 pedals, so this was a good comparison.
Here again, I was able to get within about 5 tenths of a second of my previous personal best, which is pretty decent for me. I also had iSpeed running, so I thought I'd toss up a screen shot of that -- if you look at the graphs at the bottom of the screen, you can see the brake inputs: The BLC-T500 trace is the light blue, and the BLC-T3PA trace is the darker blue. That should give you some idea of how responsive the T3PA load cell input is going to be:
All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with how things work, and I am going to go ahead and produce a couple more production prototypes for beta testers (and one for Darin Gangi at
Inside Sim Racing).
Retail price for the BLC-T3PA will be $99.99, plus shipping, and I hope to have some available for sale within the next month or so, pending feedback from Darin and my other beta testers. The BLC-T3PA
will be fully compatible with the T3PA (non-Pro) pedals when used with the T500, TX, T300, and T150 wheel bases, and it will offer full PC and console compatibility depending on each wheel base's console compatibility.
For those of you with T500 or T3PA-Pro pedals, I just received a new shipment of 35kg load cells for the BLC-T500 Load Cell Mod, so I should have more of those available very soon (check the Bodin Solution website for availability).
