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electric parking brake

23K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  farna 
#1 ·
Hi has anybody done one?

I have heard of the ebrake system but I cannot find details of cost or supplier?

many thanks for any help :)
 
#2 ·
Anything but a mechanical may be illegal in your state. Even Total Performance offered a hydraulic version - which they finally made into a mechanical after it was proven to be illegal in most states.

The electric parking brake was actually hydraulic, actuated by holding the regular brake down fairly hard, the flipping a switch for an inline electric solenoid. The last one I personally saw was in the late '50s- early '60s
 
#6 ·
I installed an electric parking brake actuator in a car a while back. I'm not sure what the brand name of the system was, but I got it from a local company that rigs vans for handicapped drivers. It worked great, but it was about $800, and when I opened it up to see how it worked, it was just a modified GM window regulator.

Hope this helps..... :thumbup:
 
#10 ·
Check out this one.

The Push Button E-Brake
This company won product of the year at the NSRA nationals. It comes with everything in a compact design (important for small chassis). It's msrp is $449 only about $80 more than some of the foot pedal systems. Plus it's all regulated by a micro computer so it won't keep pulling and rip up your brake system. Worth checking out.
 
#11 ·
The surplus actuator looks good! That's what the E-stop company is using, or something similar. They just have a limiting circuit. The "microcomputer" is probably a BASIC Stamp or Arduino board with some type of strain gauge -- probably measures current draw of the actuator. Simple -- motor starts to strain and draw more amps, computer cuts it off. Not sure if that's how they do it, but has to be something like that. They might have a more complicated and costly way to do it.

With a 4" stroke actuator you would need something to prevent pulling too hard and frying the actuator or wiring to it, or pulling something loose. A simple limit switch would work, but would need adjusting on occasion. I know the brake cable needs some travel, but 4" sounds excessive. I don't think the cable actually pulls but maybe an inch. The pedal or pull handle travels more, but they are made to have more leverage so they don't require a lot of effort to set the brake. There are several 1.5"-2.25" actuators on the surplus site (Surplus Center) that would work and are pretty cheap. A few are electric seat motors. No pull rating, but they move my *** and seat along just fine, I'm sure they would pull a park brake cable hard enough! I like the 1.5" 250 lb rated actuator for this application, if a 1.5" pull is enough.
 
#12 ·
i'm looking into an electric e-brake for my truk
the commercial units are way over priced in my opinion at $450 and up
looking at some of the designs, they look easy to make, 2 basic designs linear actuator or window motor type.
many new cars have electric parking brakes that use the computer in the car to load sense and switch the current

the mechanics of it look easy enough, but how would you wire it in?
power window switch would work, it will reverse the power to the motors, but it's a little bulky in the dash
can anyone explain how to use a single push button switch that would light up when engaged?

here's one made from a linear actuator



this one looks like a power window regulator

 
#13 ·
Instead of a power window switch use a toggle switch with momentary one in up and down positions, auto centers in off. If you need something to handle a lot of power use the toggle to trigger relays, which can be mounted anywhere. I'd use relays anyway. They will burn out instead of the wiring harness and switch if there is a big problem. With the momentary switch you may have to time how long to hold it to set and release the park brake the first time. Would be nice if you could rig a limit switch similar to a garage door opener.
 
#14 ·
a toggle switch will only switch one wire, there for a pw switch would be needed
pw switch switches both wires to reverse the motor and is made to handle the power w/o relays
a toggle switch would need 4 relays

i'd like to figure out a single lit switch, push to lock the brake and lite the switch
push again to release the brake and turn off the switch
 
#15 ·
You can get a two position toggle switch that is OFF in the center (spring loaded to automatically center) and ON in the up and down position. It is momentary in the up/down position, runs as you hold it. Just look around for different switches. You can use Bosch five pin relays and only need two. One set of contacts is open, one closed when the relay is de-energized. When you energize it the contacts flip (what was open is closed, what was closed is open). All five pin relays work that way.

As for the light, a simple momentary switch that is pushed by the mechanism when it's in the park position to turn on the light works. That could be adjusted so that you release the switch when the light comes on. How long to hold the switch to release the brake could be done with a different color light, so you have RED when on, green or yellow when off. Just put the lights on a key switched circuit so they don't run the battery down, though using LEDs the lights could stay on for a month and not run a car battery down.
 
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