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OE Electric Parking Brake bible: We're looking at different rotors, add on parking brakes and also integrated electric parking brakes.

Just had a set for a 2022 f150 show up at my doorstep.

I believe they where an option on the f150 from 2016 to current.
 
I'm almost finished with my current iteration of a controller. I have my brackets built for the 14 bolt using the Tesla Model S/X rear caliper. There are spacers in the caliper to accomodate GM 3/4 rotors.

First 3d print of this. The bend radius is too tight to do a SCS so I opted to make it in in separate pieces: 2 pieces and a spacer out of 3/8. The bottom piece uses the top bolt of the existing bracket to locate it and then welds on. I have yet to take this thing apart to do all of this yet.

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Rev 1 of the parking brake controller. I was trying to figure out why my printer wasn't printing PETG very well so this first iteration of the case turned out a little rough. The next one is printing right now and should be a lot nicer.

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Circuit_Board Holder v10 Holder.png
 
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My code uses an Arduino Nano clone that is $10. It uses a DPDT lighted toggle switch from a Skytrac and then splits one side into two Hall-effect current sensors then two relays going to each caliper.




I can measure the current on both directions to the caliper and control if the calipers move or not via sensing and timing programs in the circuit. The idea behind independent control is that some calipers don't close or open as fast as others - and being amperage aware is a way to compensate for different calipers. My goal is to make this idiot-proof for future me.

It requires the ignition be on, the brake to be depressed and is aware of what state it was previously in (meaning if the brake is set, it won't attempt to reset the brake or vice versa).

I'm planning this to work on the F-150 calipers for the rear of my EB - which rolled away from me in high school and I don't want that to happen again.

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Awesome work on the controller. So individual control of each caliper, current sensing in both directions? That sounds pretty damn ideal, then you can program whatever specifics you want from there. Are you handling the polarity reversing for releasing the caliper with that dual relay board?

I've been doing some hunting on the same topic, and there are a couple motor driver shield boards for the Uno that have caught my interest.

Polulu Dual VNH5019 - 12a continuous, 30a peak per channel:
Pololu Dual VNH5019 Motor Driver Shield for Arduino

Video example:



Monster Moto Shield VNH2SP30 Dual - 14a continuous, 30a peak per channel (but this one might be obsolete?):
Amazon.com
Tutorial:
Tutorial for Monster Motor Shield VNH2SP30

They are set up to control dual motors in both directions, sense current on each channel, and have pretty high current capabilities. It'll be a while, but might have to do some tinkering later in the year
 
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AgitatedPancake said:
Awesome work on the controller. So individual control of each caliper, current sensing in both directions? That sounds pretty damn ideal, then you can program whatever specifics you want from there. Are you handling the polarity reversing for releasing the caliper with that dual relay board?

I've been doing some hunting on the same topic, and there are a couple motor driver shield boards for the Uno that have caught my interest.

Polulu Dual VNH5019 - 12a continuous, 30a peak per channel:
Pololu Dual VNH5019 Motor Driver Shield for Arduino

Video example:



Monster Moto Shield VNH2SP30 Dual - 14a continuous, 30a peak per channel (but this one might be obsolete?):
Amazon.com
Tutorial:
Tutorial for Monster Motor Shield VNH2SP30

They are set up to control dual motors in both directions, sense current on each channel, and have pretty high current capabilities. It'll be a while, but might have to do some tinkering later in the year
Click to expand...


Had I known about this, I probably would have started with one of these modules. I'm sensing in both directions but I am using the relays to disconnect only one side of the circuit. The reversing and switching are done in the actual DPDT switch.

My initial research on the F-150 calipers and the Tesla caliper showed a clamp amperage ~6-8A so that's why I went this route. I'm going to give it a a try tonight once I finish wiring this and see if it works as expected.
 
Initial try at the controller. My workspace is messy and YouTube blocked my video because I had the Eagles on my hacked Pandora.




I have a ~1 inch thick piece of bar in between the calipers to get them to grab onto something. Current limitation is 5amps per caliper for testing. This can go up to 15 per caliper - though these fawkers are starting to bend at 5 amps. The release function is 1.5 seconds on both calipers. I will likely add in am amperage shut off on the opening function just in case I have calipers accidentally open all the way when they are first installed. It's possible to power cycle this and have it forget its position. With current sensing that is not a problem. Already have it working on the closed side of this anyway so I know it works.

I had to make some voltage dividers to make the controller not smoke when it detects signal - it can only be a max of 5 volts. Here is the site I used to calculate:

Voltage Divider Conversion Calculator | DigiKey

Use DigiKey's Voltage Divider conversion calculator to quickly and easily determine the output voltage of the divider circuit given the input voltage and resistor values.
www.digikey.com www.digikey.com

You can see me testing the memory function a few times. Once in position hitting resetting the switch does nothing. This will function as an emergency brake if there is hydraulic pressure lost provided the ignition is on and the brake pedal is depressed.

Now with that all said - I found a better way to do this only after I built this thing.

This module DC 5-12V Dual Channel H Bridge Controller is a far better choice to do what I am doing since it's self-contained with the PWM and current sampling capability all in one unit. No relays or current sampling necessary. You only need to get a controller Arduino and use anything you want to trigger it. All self contained. I may look at doing this in the future but what I have works for now.
 
Good stuff man. Interesting on the caliper flex even around 5a, I heard the guy say they stall around 15a in that video and made me wonder, because I run relatively small rotor diameters for my tire size. But if the caliper is flexing significantly by that point, meh.

Great find on that standalone dual H bridge controller too. I was seriously expecting there to be a pretty good selection of them in uno shield format, but most seem obsolete and/or expensive. So that standalone you found looks like a better bang for the buck, and more readily available.

Side tangent, are your calipers 2 wire or 4 wire?
 
AgitatedPancake said:
Good stuff man. Interesting on the caliper flex even around 5a, I heard the guy say they stall around 15a in that video and made me wonder, because I run relatively small rotor diameters for my tire size. But if the caliper is flexing significantly by that point, meh.

Great find on that standalone dual H bridge controller too. I was seriously expecting there to be a pretty good selection of them in uno shield format, but most seem obsolete and/or expensive. So that standalone you found looks like a better bang for the buck, and more readily available.

Side tangent, are your calipers 2 wire or 4 wire?
Click to expand...
4 wire calipers. For a parking brake there's really no reason to mess with the position sensor portion of the calipers. From the research I've done was that that was overkill for a caliper and unnecessary. 2 Wire calipers combined with input from the ABS system and a PWM have enough variability in the closing speed and response time to work without all the position sensing.

A video of this here:
 
That's some cool logic on the circuit...tapping into the speedo signal could be sweet to avoid any accidental button pushes at freeway speeds.

So one of the additional wires is the output of a hall effect sensor on the caliper motor? That goes with what I had read, what's the second wire? A voltage reference for the sensor?

I agree that watching amperage plus some timers seems completely acceptable in my eyes, though I still find the position sensor intriguing even if I don't have an intended use for it
 
AgitatedPancake said:
That's some cool logic on the circuit...tapping into the speedo signal could be sweet to avoid any accidental button pushes at freeway speeds.

So one of the additional wires is the output of a hall effect sensor on the caliper motor? That goes with what I had read, what's the second wire? A voltage reference for the sensor?

I agree that watching amperage plus some timers seems completely acceptable in my eyes, though I still find the position sensor intriguing even if I don't have an intended use for it
Click to expand...
On mine I went simple, the switch is down where it's hard to hit by accident and you have to have the brake depressed to enable it. I figured if I ever wanted to use it I would likely be moving and have the brake pedal down.

If you were using the PWM controller board previously posted you could change the scale up logic of the PWM to slow the motor speed down when sensing a signal from the VSS. My VSS is not Hall Effect so there is more conditioning to get the Arduino to read it. I may research that for my EB but for this in its current form its good enough.

My goals were to be able to air up my tires with OBA and not have to find something to roll into, and take stress off the transmission and transfercase

Here's a pinout from another board:

teslamotorsclub.com

Electric Parking Brake Wiring

Hello, I am seeking information as to how the EPB system works exactly in these cars. I would like to retrofit these calipers onto another vehicle, which, due to poor design properties have high failure ratings and an aftermarket supply that is even worse. I plan to use these in lieu of the...
teslamotorsclub.com teslamotorsclub.com

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