My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

Weston · Trick Member Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Location: Minnesota

Finally! A new problem I can mess around with! I was playing on my pad today, and the shoes I was wearing were wet after the rain, but I dried them up, and I noticed that it makes the pad really um... not-slippery like the ardace. It's impossible to slide your feet even the least bit. This is also the case in the past even when my shoes were very dry. So I was wondering if anybody knows a way to give my panels the same kind of texture as the arcades. I was thinking about rubbing wax paper on them, but I haven't tried it. Has anyone else here found a way to make their plastic panels as "slippery" as the arcade?

-joe- · Trick Member Joined: 08 Jan 2003 Location: lv

Thanks for the info tr4il!

weston, just tape wax paper to the bottom of your socks/feet

(im kidding,.,)

hmm, my arrows squeek like CRAZY. it sounds like a door opening REALLY slowly, its so annoying. where is this coming from! it never squeeked before, its driving me nuts
i hear...

COMBO IS CONTINUING,, SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK
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good times, good times.

Weston · Trick Member Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Location: Minnesota

Joe: I know exactly what you're talking about. And it's been bothering me for as long as the pad was built... but I fixed it. The sound you're hearing is the plastic rubbing against the metal brackets.

I'm assuming you have plastic panels like Patser and Riptide. To stop it, get strips of sticky felt (cut it about 1/2 inch thick) and put it on the corner edges of the plastic where it looks like it could rub against the brackets. It may make the panel fit a little tighter.

ZotTower · Posted: Mon May 19, 2003 7:43 pm Post subject:

I started building my pad today. It is going to be a doubles pad with the exact dimensions of the ones in arcades. I am not going to put in the bars though, and I am going to add little switch type buttons for x,o,start,select up top too. First off here's my home depot supplies I got today along with prices for those interested...

1 small box of 1 5/8 inch screws $3.19
1 small box of 2 1/2 inch screws $3.19
3M Adhesive Spray $11.98
1 rubber mallet $13.83
16 packs (2 in each) 2" stanley corner brackets $47.68
2 packs of 1/4" weather stripping $3.98
2 sheets of zinc 3'x2' 26 guage sheet metal $39.76
2 sheets of 2'x4' .236" thick acrylic $55.94

I also got a 30 dollar sheet of 4'x8' birch plywood (really nice) for the base. But the cashier made a mistake and only charged me 14.98 for it. I also got 2 2"x4" pieces of wood that the cashier didnt charge me at all for because she couldnt get them to scan. I'm not sure how much they were supposed to be. I also had them cut the 10 square pieces of plywood I'll need for the non arrow panels, and also they cut the big piece of plywood for the base.

2 used PS1 controllers will cost me $14. I'll need to get some wire tomorrow too. LED's too once It's almost done. Eventually I'll put a full list up with pictures of how to build it. (Probably all on a webpage)

But what I'll say so far is cutting that damn sheet metal was such a pain. I strongly recommend wearing protective gloves and using very sharp tin snips. I also noticed that trying to cut 26 guage sheet metal is a lot harder than cutting 22 guage. And right now I'm waiting for the dumb battery to get charged in my saw/drill thing so I can get back to work.
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tr4il · Trick Member Joined: 03 Dec 2002 Location: Jerz

ZotTower · Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 11:27 am Post subject:

So I was just sawing my plexiglass I bought at home depot (the .236" thick sheets of 2x4' plexiglass advertised as 20x stronger than glass....not lexan), and IT FREAKING CRACKED IN HALF!!! It's so worthless. The reason I bought this was because it was the only kind they had that was close to 1/4 inch thick. So I'm gonna return my unused piece tomorrow. The good news is I found a plastics company nearby that sells 1/4 inch sheets of lexan so I am going to get that.

NEVER BUY CHEAP PLEXIGLASS. GET THE GOOD STUFF
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krillin2121 · Basic Member Joined: 06 May 2003 Location: Wisconsin

ZotTower · Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 4:28 pm Post subject:

krillin2121 · Basic Member Joined: 06 May 2003 Location: Wisconsin

tr4il · Trick Member Joined: 03 Dec 2002 Location: Jerz

lookout321 · Basic Member Joined: 10 May 2003

Hey, I just finished building my pad tonight, based mostly on riptide design. I wired all of the screws together and connected them to the power from the controller (original PS1 controller). FOr the ground, I mounted on the underside of the Plexiglass COPPER TAPE, which we often used for constructing Slot Racing tracks. The copper tape is then connected to the wire from the Ground of the controller. Any screw around the perimeter of the arrow base that touches the copper tape will then trigger the arrow, It is soooo sensitive. And the copper tape conducts the electricity just like wire, needs no soldering to steel plates, and no steel plates to be affixed to the bottom of the Plexiglass. Working great!

tr4il · Trick Member Joined: 03 Dec 2002 Location: Jerz

ZotTower · Posted: Thu May 22, 2003 4:17 am Post subject: Re: My New Pad

tr4il · Trick Member Joined: 03 Dec 2002 Location: Jerz

lookout321 · Basic Member Joined: 10 May 2003

The best part of the coper tape is no soldering, just stick to the underside of the plexi. First lay the bottom piece of plexi over the screws, mark where the screws touch the plexi, then flip over and lay the tape in a continuous line connecting the dots. Works real nice

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

`pr0digy · Trick Member Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Location: ogmios.ath.cx

woot I'm back too... My stupid computer... I bought 2 more 40 gigs drives (at $30 a piece! woot) and RAIDED them together, went to FDISK them, and FDISK'ed the wrong RAID array... oh well

I'm back after a refreshing windows xp reinstall

I submitted my Graduation Project Proposal today (which is to build a metal pad), hopefully it gets accepted. There's too many differant designs to go with now though

Is it better to do the corner contacts, or to use straight mending braces along the sides... or both ?
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tr4il · Trick Member Joined: 03 Dec 2002 Location: Jerz

I took a little pic of my pad today. Here it goes -> THE Pad

ZotTower · Posted: Thu May 22, 2003 3:17 pm Post subject:

As dumb as this may sound, I never actually realized how the corner brackets worked until just now. Before I was thinking that the sheet metal on the bottom of the plexiglass had to touch 2 of the brackets for the circuit to be completed (like 2 brackets are normal and 2 are ground). And I was thinking 'gees why do you guys think that would work good; that would barely work at all'. But now I see. So I guess I can either take out my riptide-like screws (not a problem at all to do), buy some corner brackets, and go to work doing that. It sure seems like an easy and very effective way to do it.

Oh and I got some tubing today too.....I could not find any silicon tubing stuff at home depot but I think I found something just as good.... I got some of that latex tubing. It's yellow in color and I know I've seen it somewhere at the doctor's or dentist's office before. But home depot sells it. They only had stuff that was .5 diameter inside and I think .625 outside....A little too big, but I can cut it in half the long way. The great stuff about it is that it is very strong and very bounce-backish (i couldnt think of a better word), but it seems like the perfect material if you want the arrow steps to bounce back up as soon as your foot lifts up.
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