My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

ZotTower · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 7:00 am Post subject:

I agree with blue beefman about not using those $5 dollar controllers. I had about 5 or 6 of those fry on me, meanwhile both the non-analog playstation controllers I used worked fine and didn't fry out. You can buy used non-analog ps controllers for only 7 bucks at electronics boutique so why not spend 2 measly dollars to save yourself from the risk of frying a controller?

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LORD OF THE DANCE · Trick Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

Yeah I agree. I'm pretty sure the official sony controllers would do a better job but there is one problem: where can I find the solder "plan" for this controller? I really don't know the solder points on this one...

And do you know if this controller will work for the PS2 and the freeze arrows in DDRMAX & MAX2 ?

Xeon Transponder · Trick Member Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Location: The moon

Andreq · Trick Member Joined: 11 Apr 2003 Location: Quebec foreva

Im friend is hosting the Videos

URL of the _root

http://ticpu.hopto.org/andre/riptide/

chapter 1 to 5
(3 is reuploaded because of a conection lost while sending)
http://ticpu.hopto.org/andre/riptide/chapter1.avi
http://ticpu.hopto.org/andre/riptide/chapter2.avi
http://ticpu.hopto.org/andre/riptide/chapter3.avi
http://ticpu.hopto.org/andre/riptide/chapter4.avi
http://ticpu.hopto.org/andre/riptide/chapter5.avi

this should work so.. new mirror for you

I saw that 5 is not in the dir but ill arrange this right now

bye
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My dance dance revolution metal pad pictures and stuffs : http://membres.lycos.fr/csclanbef/DDR/

The Reverend · Trick Member Joined: 05 Apr 2003 Location: :noitacoL

Yea! I finally finished my pad.. well almost i still have to solder on the controller but otherwise im finished................

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I can do whatever I want to be.

The Reverend · Trick Member Joined: 05 Apr 2003 Location: :noitacoL

does anyone have a picture of a sony controller soldering points?

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I can do whatever I want to be.

Blue Beefman · Trick Member Joined: 31 Oct 2002 Location: WI

eh...well I got my first pad related injusry yesterday...I was moving the pad and I pulled my hand away and my thumb got caught under the corner of the sheet metal...

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He is the Painkiller

Andreq · Trick Member Joined: 11 Apr 2003 Location: Quebec foreva

PLZ !!! do not leech on my mirror of videos !!!

1 chapter at time plz

my friend want to put a 1h block for leeching .... hehe
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My dance dance revolution metal pad pictures and stuffs : http://membres.lycos.fr/csclanbef/DDR/

Robmcbob · Trick Member Joined: 16 Apr 2003

Dont spose anyone can show the solder points for a official ps2 controller? I got one with broken buttons

It should be better than a 3rd party controller

Blue Beefman · Trick Member Joined: 31 Oct 2002 Location: WI

Robmcbob · Trick Member Joined: 16 Apr 2003

I've opened it up at the side and it looks like there is a board in mine. Gonna bust it fully open when i find a decent tool

Blue Beefman · Trick Member Joined: 31 Oct 2002 Location: WI

Rupert T. Jones · Trick Member Joined: 09 Apr 2003

I'm thinking about building a pad along the lines of Patsters design... my brother, who owns all kinds of crazy tools and knows how to build things will be helping me.

So anyway, he has this idea of building it 'top down' instead of 'bottom up' so that no screws are showing on the dance surface. Sounds good to me, except this would make it difficult to get to the sensor screws if you need to adjust them. You'd practicly have to take the whole thing apart to get to them. Can anyone who has built a Patster type pad tell me if those screws ever need to be adjusted, how often?

Thanks.

trolli · Basic Member Joined: 17 Apr 2003

I asked these questions on riptides forums, but I don't think they are viewed very often so I thought I would ask them here too.

building questions

I've been reading up on the different home built pads and wanted to build my own. I have a few questions though.

I understand everything except for the plexiglass. ddrhomepad says .093 lucite, and you say .22 plexiglass. Both materials are in the same family, but lucite is a stronger material I believe. Is there an advantage to one over the other? and if I were to use lucite would I not need as thick of material because of the strength difference? or is the thickness because of the thickness ofthe plywood used on the 5 non button sections?

Secondly what is the reason for 2 sections of plexiglass per button? Just so that you can sandwich the image for the arror, or in your case the cool mahjong winds, between the two?

I'm looking at taking some of the parts from a previously purchased hard pad that broke. So I was going to use the arrow buttons which are a single 1/8" thickness plexiglass with the arrow painted on.

I'm just looking at saving some cost and wasn't sure if a single sheet of plexiglass that thick would be strong enough for a pad of this kind.

Another question is, I've been trying to download the movie files for a couple days now without much luck. they either download at about 1k/sec or not at all. I know there are three mirrors now, and none seem to work all that well. I know this has been said by a lot of other people, but are there any other places to find these movies?

Last question I just thought of. I'm looking at what to use for the controller part. and I have decided that I'm going to use a wireless controller that I have. I'll just mount the battery pack piece under the side of the board, and cut out a hole in the front of the board for the IR. Anyone know of any drawbacks to this? Other then the fact that I will also have to add 2 switches. One switch to turn it on and off. The other to specify player 1 or player 2, since my wireless remotes are a pair. Maybe once I open the thing up i'll see how to "hardwire" the pad to a specific player port, but It might be nice to be able to specify it.

Thanks for the great design and any information you can give me.

Andreq · Trick Member Joined: 11 Apr 2003 Location: Quebec foreva

Xeon Transponder · Trick Member Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Location: The moon

i dont understand why people dont just buy the gamestop controller and solder to that.
1. its simple, the solder points are visible and big
2. its cheap (6 bucks!)
3. mine has lasted for six months, no missteps, no problems except for the wires inside the cat-5 cable breaking but that has nothing to do with the controller.
4. other controllers are confusing and have a bunch of other junk everywhere which be moved and heald while soldering (a big pain in the buttocks)
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trolli · Basic Member Joined: 17 Apr 2003

I'm not saying I'm having problems with the wireless controller. I haven't even started building yet. I was just asking if anyone has tried it, and if anyone saw any downside to making the pads wireless. I thought it would be nice to not have the wire running from the pad to the playstation.

I haven't looked inside the wireless controller to look at the solder points. More then likely when i open it up and look you will be right and it will not be worth it. But I thought I would ask here before I started building.

Now on my other question, about the plexiglass, anyone have any answers? Or if it has been asked before and I missed it can someone point me to where in the message board it was answered?

Thanks

riptide · Trick Member Joined: 14 Aug 2002

trolli, sorry I haven't been looking at my forum as often as I should, I've been kinda busy with other projects. I need to set up my forum to email me a listing of new posts... anyway, here's a copy of how I responded to you on my forum:

I did say plexiglass a lot when putting together the instructions for my pad, but basically any acrylic will work. This includes plexiglass, duraplex, lucite, etc. The thickness has to do with getting the right height for the plywood.

The reason I use two sheets of acrylic is to be able to layer the graphic between the pieces in case you print them on paper. It also gives the right height for the arrow panels.

I don't know what material that hard pad you had before is made of, but I haven't heard of anyone using the materials from one in any home built ddr pad, so I can't tell you if it'd work.

I'm sorry about the videos being slow/dead links, I am running the web server from my cable modem and I don't have the bandwidth to host them. Others are hosting them for me out of good will, but when conditions for them change, they sometimes have to limit bandwidth or take them down completely. Unless a well established site decides to host them for me, it will remain this way.

I haven't heard of anyone using a wireless controller in the building process. If you go forward with this, please tell me how it works out.
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- RipTide
riptide (at) digitaltorque (dot) com

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My pad design: http://www.wubros.com/ddrpad/

trolli · Basic Member Joined: 17 Apr 2003

I'm actually going to head to lowes early next week to start buying the supplies. I will probably just have them cut everything to the right sizes, as they have the easy tools there to do it. granted I will have to possibly do the little trimming here and there, but for the most part everything should fit.

I'll just go ahead and get the acrylic from lowes or a sign shop I deal for other things instead of trying to use the ones I have. then I can put my own images in like you did. and have the right thicknesses.

I finally got all 5 movies downloaded. and 4 of them I have converted to vcd quality mpg's. I'm having a problem converting the last one, and i'll have to try again when I get home. I figured what better way to make one then sitting with a vcd in the dvd player watching the instructions. I guess andreq didn't like when I was downloading all 5 files at the same time, thats when that "don't leech" message came about. Sorry about that andreq. It was a nice speed, I figured I would be done with all of them in under an hour. Multiple T1 lines here.

Anyway as for the wireless controllers, I'll open them up and see how easy it would be to solder to them. If it is, then I'll just mount the battery pack under one of the metal plates, and cut a hole in the 2X4 in the front instead of for a wire make it big enough for the IR transmitter.

Well down to measureing out a few last sizes of pieces I will need cut before I take the list to lowes.

Thanks for all the help.

mactek · Basic Member Joined: 17 Feb 2003