Alien Simracing pedals User manual

Alien simracing pedals
User manual
© 2022 Sim-Alien All rights reserved

Contents
Introduction 3
Setting up your pedals 4
Mounting your pedals to a rig 4
Fix your base plate to a rig 4
Mount your pedals to the base plate 4
Attach the heel rest 5
Connecting your pedals to a PC 6
Plugging in 6
Calibration 7
DIView software 7
Dead zones, special curves 11
Adjusting your pedals 12
Common adjustments 12
Pedal height 12
Initial tilt of pedals 14
Brake adjustments 16
Spring preload 16
Stiffness configuration 17
Throttle adjustments 19
Spring preload 19
Pedal travel 20
Throttle stiffness (leverage adjustment) 21
Throttle stiffness (swapping a spring) 22
Adding a side support 23
Changing to a longer pedal face 25
Clutch adjustments 27
Spring preload 27
Pedal travel 27
Clutch stiffness (leverage adjustment) 27
Clutch stiffness (swapping a spring) 27
Maintaining your pedals 28
FAQ 29
Legal information 30
2

Introduction
Thank you for purchasing Alien Simracing pedals! We hope you’ll have a great time using
our set of professional simracing pedals. To get started, please read this user’s manual to
set up your pedals and adjust them to your needs. Not really into reading? You can watch
our video guide, which has some hands-on wrenching action: Video guide
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Setting up your pedals
So you’ve just unboxed your new set of pedals, right? Let’s help you set them up, so you can
get racing as soon as possible.
Mounting your pedals to a rig
Notice: it’s better to adjust your pedals before you attach them to your rig. Some parts are
better accessible in that case.
If you’re using our base plate and heel rest combo, follow this part of the manual, where we’ll
show you how to put everything together. If you plan to attach our pedals to your rig without
our base plate, that’s fine, but you’ll have to figure it out on your own.
Fix your base plate to a rig
Notice: If you’re mounting the base plate against a flat surface, you’ll want to use some
washers to lift up the base plate, so there is room for bolts that hold the pedals themselves.
The first step is to fix the base plate to your rig. There are 10 countersunk holes on the base
plate, all of which can be used to screw the base plate down to your rig’s aluminum profiles
using the included countersunk M8 bolts.
Mount your pedals to the base plate
After fixing the base plate, you are ready to mount your pedals. Line up your pedals with the
grooves and attach the pedal with four pairs of a hex head M6 bolt and an acorn nut, as
seen in the figures below. Position the pedal to your liking before you tighten everything.
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Repeat this process with remaining pedals and you should have yourself a fully occupied
base plate with pedals.
Attach the heel rest
The last part of assembly is attaching the heel rest. That’s pretty simple – just take the four
included M6 hex key bolts and screw the heel rest onto the base plate. You can adjust the
position of the base plate to match your pedals before tightening the bolts.
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Connecting your pedals to a PC
Now that your pedals are all sorted hardware-wise, it’s time to plug them in and calibrate.
Plugging in
Notice: do not connect or disconnect the throttle or clutch pedals (3,5 mm jack cables) while
the brake pedal is connected via USB.
Before plugging your pedals to the computer, you first need to connect the throttle and clutch
pedals to the main pedal (brake) using the included jack-jack cables. See figure below for
reference to plug each pedal to the correct hole.
Now you can connect the pedals to your computer with a USB cable.
6

Calibration
DIView software
Alien pedals use Leo Bodnar electronics. That means you need to use Leo Bodnar software
to calibrate them. The software is named DIView and you can download it here:
Utilities & Configuration Software : Leo Bodnar, Simulator Electronics
(http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=12)
DIView is not the most friendly software on the market, but we can do it together. Follow this
manual to set things up and calibrate your pedals.
First, start the DIView program. There might be a lot of windows. 2 or 3 of them belong to
your connected pedals.
You can limit the number of windows just for your pedals. Go to Edit/settings.
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Now select your pedals (Load cell Interface LC-USB)
Now only 2 or 3 windows should remain.
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Good. It is time to celebrate and calibrate. Choose one of the windows. By the way, if you
push pedals, you should see a triangle move across the line. Go to Axis/View Raw Data.
Red numbers and a red triangle will appear.
Our goal is to set where the starting point and end point of pedal travel (measured by
pressure). Note the red initial number and then the red number at the end of pedal travel.
The number is not steady, as there is a tiny bit of movement, but that is ok. For example, if
the initial point is oscillating around 3650, note down 3700. And if the end point is oscillating
around 18 950, note down 18 900.
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Now go to Axis/Calibration
And now you have to do the math. You have to write down the starting point (for example
3700), Max point (for example 18900) and then you have to calculate the center point, which
is the average. In this example: 18900 + 3700 = 22600. Divide this number by 2 to get the
result, which should be 11300
S - starting raw value
E - Ending raw value
C - center value
(E + S)/2 = C
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Use this method on each of the pedals. On the brake pedal you have to choose the ending
raw value by feeling. Do not use too much force as you need to brake many times during the
race and you need to stay consistent and not exhausted.
Dead zones, special curves
Most of today's sim games have their own options for advanced settings. You can set dead
zones or different curves according to your personal taste.
For example, you lay down your foot on the pedal and it is pushed by 3 %, just by the weight
of your foot. Set the deadzone 3-4 % to avoid applying any throttle when you don’t intend to.
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Adjusting your pedals
We offer plenty of adjustments on our pedals. Let’s take a look at them one by one and see
how to adjust them to your specific needs.
Common adjustments
First up are adjustments that are common across all of the pedals, so the same procedure
will apply regardless of the pedal shown.
Pedal height
Everyone’s feet are a different size. Some people even have one foot bigger than the other.
To ensure maximum comfort and efficiency, you need to set your pedals to a correct height.
There’s a 20 mm range of continuous adjustment, which should be plenty for most people.
Let’s start by loosening the countersunk M6 bolts on the pedal face itself. One or two
loosening turns using a 4 mm hex key should do the job.
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Then, the four dome head M6 bolts on the side of the pedal can be loosened. Again, just a
turn or two should be enough. Now you should be able to move the pedal face up and down,
as indicated in the figure below.
Slide the pedal face to your desired height and then tighten the dome head bolts again.
Finally, finish this procedure by tightening the countersunk screws on the pedal face itself.
This adjustment is going to work on all pedals and all styles. However, a longer throttle pedal
face (available for bedroom and racing styles) is a set height and can not be adjusted. To
swap in the longer pedal face, look further in the Changing to a longer pedal face chapter.
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Initial tilt of pedals
Our pedals can be mounted in several ways. The basic configuration is as shown
everywhere in our materials, with the base plate mounted on the rig’s floor and the pedals
standing up. However, some people prefer their pedals mounted upside down, because
that’s how it’s usually done in a car, sometimes with the exception of the throttle pedal. You
can mount our pedals however you like, and in this chapter, we will show you how to set the
tilt of the pedal. By tilt of the pedal, we mean this:
There’s an 18° adjustment range with 3,6° increments on the brake and continuous on
throttle and clutch pedal. We’ve machined pockets for the head of the bolt on the brake in
these increments in order to secure the pedal from unwanted movement under very heavy
braking loads.
Setting the tilt is very simple. Using two hex keys, loosen the two M6 bolts (one on each
side) as shown in the figure below. If you are adjusting the brake, do a couple more
loosening turns to get the bolt outside of its pocket, just like this:
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If the bolt spins freely and doesn’t seem to loosen more than the initial snap, you might need
to grab the standoff inside of the pedal. That might be harder to do when the pedals are
mounted on the base plate.
When the bolts are properly loosened, the pedal should be free to move up and down. If
that’s not the case, you might need to loosen this main joint bolt and its locknut:
Now that the pedals are free to move up and down, set your desired tilt and tighten
everything back together. Do keep in mind that the rear bolts have to sit in the machined
pockets on the brake pedal.
15

Brake adjustments
Brake is the single most important pedal. In comparison to throttle and clutch pedals, this
pedal’s effect is not determined by its position, but rather by the force applied. To adjust the
feeling of the brake, we must change the stiffness and preload of the deformation elements,
meaning the spring and the individual polyurethane blocks. To be exactly clear, here’s a
picture with all of the parts named:
Spring preload
The easiest adjustment of them all is the preload of the spring. You can adjust that using the
knurled nut, which is secured by a low-profile M10 nut. To adjust the preload, you first have
to loosen the low-profile nut sitting against the knurled nut. After that, simply turn the knurled
nut to your desired position (see figure below for reference) and then secure it by tightening
the low-profile nut against it. This has to be done so the nuts do not move on their own over
time when racing.
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Stiffness configuration
Sometimes, the initial feeling just isn’t enough of an adjustment and you might find yourself
needing to change the character of force progression, which is called stiffness. To imagine
what stiffness really means, here’s a nice diagram:
As you can see, the higher the stiffness, the more force you need to push the pedal in. There
are multiple stiffnesses to configure on your brake pedal. The spring, which determines the
initial feeling, and the individual polyurethane blocks. To change these up, you need to take
some things apart. Let’s do this.
First of all, we need to kill all of the existing tension in the pedal. To do that, just loosen the
securing low-profile M10 nut and together with the knurled nut, screw those two all the way
towards the joint, just like this:
17

After that, the rod and all of the elements should feel very loose, if not free to wiggle. Next
step is to remove the bumpstop, so we’ll be able to take the entire assembly out. To remove
the bumpstop, you’ll need to unscrew the lock nut and take out the bumpstop bolt. You’ll
need a 5 mm hex key and a 10 mm wrench. See figure below for reference.
You can now slide the supporting plate out of its nest and access all of the elements on the
rod, as seen in the figure below. Now comes your individual responsibility to select your
prefered polyurethane blocks and spring – you can find alternatives in the box. The
bumpstop itself should now rest freely in its pocket, whilst you’re working on your
configuration. If it somehow falls out, just put it back in its position when assembling the
pedal back together.
After selecting your desired combination of polyurethane blocks and spring, put everything
on the rod in the correct order, as seen in all of the figures above. After that, you just
assemble everything back together, following common sense and experience from the
disassembly. Slide the supporting plate in its place, put in the bumpstop bolt, secure it with
the lock nut (do not overtighten! just make sure the nut sits nicely against the metal) and set
your preferred preload as described in the previous chapter.
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Throttle adjustments
Our throttle can be configured and set up in many ways. From just slightly feathering the
throttle over a long distance to a very tough, force demanding, short throw pedal. There is
also an option to add a longer pedal face for better heel and toe downshifting.
Spring preload
Preload is probably the easiest way to alter your throttle feeling. To show what preload really
means for the feeling of the pedal, we’ve made a diagram for you again:
As you can see, if you have a lot of preload, the force that you feel does not change all that
much through the travel of the pedal. There is a fine balance between preload, stiffness and
travel, so experiment and find your perfect combination.
To adjust the preload, you first have to loosen the low-profile nut sitting against the knurled
nut. After that, simply turn the knurled nut to your desired position (see figure below for
reference) and then secure it by tightening the low-profile nut against it. This has to be done
so the nuts do not move on their own over time when racing.
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Pedal travel
There are 3 options of pedal travel to choose from: short (35 mm), medium (58 mm) and
long (75 mm). It is easy and fast to change. There is an M6 bolt and a lock nut through a
bumpstop. Just undo the locknut, take out the bolt, move the bumpstop to a different hole,
reinsert the bolt and secure it with the locknut. Do not overtighten, just make sure the nut sits
nicely against the metal.
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