Foot pedal arrangement for electronic throttle control of truck engines

A foot pedal arrangement for controlling a throttle of an internal combustion engine in a vehicle, comprising;

• a support structure adapted for mounting onto the upright wall of a vehicle cab;
• a foot pedal pivotally mounted on the support structure;
• a throttle controlling computer;
• monitoring means for monitoring pivotal movement of the foot pedal connected to the computer, said monitoring means mounted to the support structure;
• and
• coupling means for coupling the monitoring means and foot pedal;
• said monitoring means comprising a potentiometer and a rotatable spring biased spool;
• said spool connected to the potentiometer whereby rotation of the spool is monitored by the potentiometer, said spool having minimum and maximum rotative limits and said foot pedal having minimum and maximum pivotal positions, said foot pedal pivotal movement between minimum and maximum positions being pivoted through a determined angle that is less than the rotative movement between minimum and maximum limits of the spool, and said coupling means including translation means to proportionately translate the minium to maxium movement of the foot pedal to corresponding minimum to maxium movement of the spool.

A foot pedal arrangement indirectly controlling the throttle of an internal combustion engine that is directly controlled by a computer comprising;

• a configured support structure including a base attached to an upright wall of an internal combustion engine powered truck, a plate-like support projected from the base,
• a spool rotatably mounted to one side of the plate-like support and defining an axis of rotation, a shaft fixed to the spool and projected through a bore in the plate-like support, a potentiometer connected to the spool shaft on the opposite side of the plate-like support, stop limits on the support structure defining minimum and maximum rotative positions of the spool, and spring biasing means for biasing the spool toward the minimum position,
• a foot pedal arm pivotally attached to the plate-like support and defining a pivotal axis parallel to and spaced from the axis of rotation of the spool, said arm having a lower portion extended below the pivot and an upper portion extended above the pivot, a foot pedal mounted to the lower portion,
• a first curved carrier portion on the spool defined by a radius projected from the axis of rotation of the spool, a second curved carrier portion on the upper portion of the foot pedal arm defined by a radius projected from the pivotal axis of the arm, a flexible link attached to the spool and upper portion of the arm, said flexible link extended over the first and second curved carrier portions, said first and second curved carrier portions relatively arranged whereby the flexible link is projected as a tangent to both curved portions throughout rotation of the spool between minimum and maximum positions, and
• a computer, said potentiometer connected to the computer, said potentiometer monitoring the rotative positions of the spool shaft generated by rotation of the spool between minimum and maximum positions.