My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

KrakenGuy · Trick Member Joined: 03 Feb 2002 Location: Edmonton

Elmers Spray Adhesive not strong? Wow, you must've got a dud bottle, how long did you let it sit? I use this undustrial strength spray adhesive, my dads work place uses it somtimes, it smells like propane but it gets the job done. Last time I used Elmers I had to struggle to pull the sheet metal off. Try spraying the spray adhesive onto the plexiglass and letting it sit than spray some on the sheet metal than paste it onto the plexiglass, that should work.

[EDIT]

Sorry for the double post, my computer is acting up again. I just noticed this but I got the 1000th post in this topic, woot.

Collector · Trick Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002 Location: Canada

OK, so I now have 31 2 inch mending brackets.... what now? I haven't seen any pictures of em on anyone's pad yet so I'm totally lost on what to do with these.

Collector · Trick Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002 Location: Canada

Well, since everyone is keen on not helping me, I'm highly tempted on giving up and pouring gasoline on the pad and burning it.

eryk · Trick Member Joined: 25 Jul 2003 Location: Toronto

Next project, an Xbox metal pad!

XenoBach · Trick Member Joined: 27 Jul 2002 Location: Greeley

I can't believe my post got lost...*sigh*. I had wrote up this huge thing but it totally got lost in some IE freeze. So I'm sorry if I rush through this.

I'm starting up a DDR pad that is riptide style with bluebeefman contacts (if I understand them right).

I went to the local Home Depot and they didn't really have exactly everything I needed. Either way I hope you guys don't mind if I run some of this by you fine gentlemen.

Passing by the sheet metal section (and an extremely rude employee) I saw that they only had 30 guage sheet metal (only one sheet no less). So I hope I can get to some other store that sells that kind of stuff, if you guys know of any chain stores that sell that (other than Lowes), please do tell.

Went to the lexan panels department and only found this "Duraplex" type brand of panel. Now they had it in two diffrent varieties that I could buy. One was a Optix Acrylic sheet (.236 thick) or a High Impact sheet (.093) thick. Should I get one of those (and if so, which one?) or should I keep on looking for a .22? Is the high impact really necessary?

I'm not really too knowlegable on this subject so I'm not sure if a 2x4 peice of wood called "rough cider" is ok. Or a 4x4 piece of wood called "white melamine" is acceptable. Those were the only two types of wood that I could find that I need (I guess my Home Depot is sucky...).

I was just checking the Duraplex website and those suckers (the acrylic panels) only come in four packs. Grr. Does any body wanna split the bill/sheets? (j/k). I'll find out if they'll make an exception.

Any input is greatly apreciated.

Snof · Trick Member Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Location: UCSC

Ok, for anyone who wants to see a picture of the contacts done with mending brackets, I finally took some pictures.

Here are the mending brackets:
Arrow Well
Here are how the metal strips are placed on the bottom of the arrow panel:
Panel Bottom

There are a couple other images in that same directory (/DDRPad).
I'm not sure how reliable that hosting is, I've never used that webspace before, hopefully it works. And sorry about the blurryness of the arrow panel, the camera decided to focus on my guitar instead.

Katalyst · Basic Member Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Location: Buford, GA

Just bought all my materials from Home Depot. I had to go to Lowe's to get the weatherstripping and it turns out that Lowe's had cheaper items and a wider range of them at that. Oh well, Home Depot cut my wood and plexiglass for me. Everything cost me about $115. All of the construction seems to be going well, I had a question about the adhesive though. What are alternatives to putting the sheet metal pieces on the plexiglass (a can of adhesive was $12. I'm not paying $12 for something I'll probably use only once, call me cheap

)?

Snof · Trick Member Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Location: UCSC

shuiend · Trick Member Joined: 07 Aug 2003

Ok i have finally decided to take the plunge and build me a metal pad. Now i have a few questions that need answears as i begin to build. I am using RipTieds design to.
1. If i use a arrow design how do i put that in? I am thinking that you use 2 sheets of plexiglass and put it in between the 2. But how do I make those 2 stay together.
2. For each arrow u have a ground and a arrow wire. Where do all 4 of the ground wires go on the contoller? Isnt there only one ground point on it?
3. How exactly does the sensor work. If both metal brackets are touched and and ground and arrow wire connect how does that trigger that u pushed the left arrow or such.
4. Does the plexy glass sit on the corner triangles you put in or does it sit right out side of them?
I have read through the whole board and such and sorry if these questions have been allready answeared but i am still shakey on the wireing part.

Snof · Trick Member Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Location: UCSC

shuiend, answers to your questions and more are in the video instructions on Riptide's site. I highly recommend watching them, they explain the entire project very well. Of course, if you use a modem, then it's kind of hard to watch them (they're quite large), so...

1. Yeah, you sandwich the picture between two pieces. I don't think you need to do anything to keep them together, since they'll be cut to the same size to fit into the arrow well they shouldn't come apart. Of course you could probably glue them or something.

2. On the controller there are lots of grounds, usually one by each button's contact. However, there's no need to use all of them, I chose one, stuck the four ground wires together, and soldered them all to the same ground.

3. Ground wires connect to half of the contacts (every other one), and the arrow wire connects to the other ones. When the arrow is pressed the metal on the bottom of the arrow makes a connection between the ground contacts and the other ones.
<edit> Look at the images I linked a few posts ago, it's a different contact design from the original riptide design, but the concept is the same. Notice how there is a red wire going to four of the eight contacts, and a black wire going to the other four. One of those is connected to the ground wire (don't remember if it was black or red, doesn't really matter though), the other is connected to the arrow wire. In the other image you can see the bottom of the arrow panel, the metal strips are placed such that they will make connections between adjoining contacts when pressed down. </edit>

4. The plexi sits inside the triangle pieces, not on top. You have to cut off the corners of the plexi squares so it fits in.

Hopefully that's all correct and helpful.
Again, you should really watch those movies if you've got a broadband connection.

shuiend · Trick Member Joined: 07 Aug 2003

Thansk for those quick answears. I am planning on doing the contacts the same as you have them in your picture. I am on cable and i am slowly dling all the movies. There is only 1 mirror wokring so it is taking some time. As soon as i finish them all i will watch them and then start to build. And now i understand how the contacts work to. Also how sensitive are the contact with only 2 on each side? I am wondering cause i might do the screws if those are more senmsetive.

Snof · Trick Member Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Location: UCSC

Snof · Trick Member Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Location: UCSC

Double Post.

ddartistic · Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2003 11:14 am Post subject:

This is my very first post in this thread, and I have a question...
I was planning on buying a Cobalt Flux Pad but I don't have near as much money needed to buy it and was wondering...is making your own dance pad a good alternative?

-Schuyler
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No Dance Game is better than the other, if you like to dance, dance your own way in the game you like to dance to.

ITG><DDR><PIU

cool · Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 2:16 am Post subject:

shuiend · Trick Member Joined: 07 Aug 2003

Ok i am always done with my pad now. I am planning on finishing it tommorow. But i dont have the plexi glas yet. I was wondering which type to get. My local lowes as Lucite and Lucite-tuf. Which should i get?

Zagreus · Basic Member Joined: 11 Sep 2003

A quick question before I start getting materials to build my own DDR pad. I found a 2' x 3' 30 gauge galvanized steel flat sheet for cheap at the home depot. If I go by the riptide design could I use this for the pad or would I have to make some adjustments? Also, I want to use a DDR soft pad control board instead of a playstation controller, but I haven't really seen much info on how to wire it and sodder it. If anybody could help me on this I would be very greatful.

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

shuiend: I'm guessing that you're making a ddrhomepad design pad. Don't get Lucite-TUF. That's the stuff I used on one of my pads. It's terrible. It may seem strong because it's stiff, and because it says it's 100x stronger than glass, but it cracks like peanut brittle. A better alternative instead of getting something stiff like that would be to use Lucite-ES if they have it. I used this in my Patser style pad, and nothing has cracked or broken. It's more bendable, so it won't snap easily.

Zagreus: 30 gauge might be too thin for the project. It will dent easier, but it won't be as hard to bend when building the pad. You can use this for the pad design if you really want to, and I don't think any adjustments need to be made. The best sheet metal to use is three 12" x 24" sheets of 26 guage. You just need to make three cuts, and you're done cutting the sheet metal until you use it for contacts.
You could wire the pad by using teh controller box from a soft pad, but you are not likely to find a tutorial of it of course because there are various soft pads with different wiring schemes. A controller is very straight-forward to wire, and you still have the functionality of the controller itself. With a soft pad box, you'll have to make your own non-arrow buttons if you want to select songs. Just find a cheap controller, the functionality is a lot better.

Zagreus · Basic Member Joined: 11 Sep 2003

I was figuring on using one of my soft pad control boards and for control using push buttons as shown in riptide's design. Also, from what I have seen the contact points are much larger on the control boards as well which will hopefully make soddering easier. Thanks for the tip on the 30 gauge, I'll probably get some 22 gauge like they showed on riptide's stuff once I can find where to buy them in my area since Lowe's and Menard's doesn't want to sell them.

cool · Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2003 12:45 am Post subject:

Hey riptide are you gonna ever update your videos to go with your new contact design, assuming there is one? It's been over half a year since you promised to update them within "a month hopefully."
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