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ãã©ã¤ã¢ã³
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Joined: 20 Sep 2003
Location: Allendale, MI / Grand Valley State University |
0.  Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 2:44 pm Post subject: Metal Arcade Style Home Pad for XBOX |
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With the lock down on the Nov. 18th date (thank you Jesus!  ) I am now on the hunt for a guide/walkthrough/faq/whatever for how to make an arcade style pad for my personal use. I've seen countless PS2 guides, and I might as well have the frames and arrows and stuff memorized, but I'm not too good with wiring. So I was wondering if someone would like to make or let me know of a guide (or whatever u like call it) including pictures about how to wire the pad up to an XBOX controller. THANKS!
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thetaller1
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JasonMans
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Joined: 02 Sep 2003
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| 2. Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Just open up a cheap XBox controller and route some wires from your pad's sensors to the left/X, up/Y, down/A, right/B or whatever the layout is. It'd be the same as a PS2 home pad. You may want to find out which buttons are used to issue commands and wire accordingly, too. |
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ãã©ã¤ã¢ã³
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| 3. Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 6:03 pm Post subject: |
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I didn't find it as simple as you heard. If anyone has found one, or is planning on or already did create one, please let me know. I probably will just pop open a cheap xbox controller, but I don't think I'll know where to go from there. Maybe a bunch of guides will pop up once the game comes out.... 
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Istari Asuka
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Joined: 27 Oct 2002
Location: Tucson, AZ |
| 4. Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 10:01 pm Post subject: |
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There is a PS/PS2-->Xbox converter available. Similar to the PS2-->USB adapters that many people use to hook their pads up to DWI/SM. Apparantly you can find it for about $7 on ebay. So just wire it up normally for a ps2, then attach adapter when wanting to use on xbox.
Alternately, if you figure out how to wire a xbox controller, you can have a wire coming from the pad that terminates in a Cat5 or 15pin connection. Then have in control boxes (a la CF) your various controllers, wired so you can just plug them into the pad connector. Hence, you just change controller box when moving from ps2 to xbox to pc.  |
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Plautus
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Joined: 17 Oct 2002
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| 5. Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 10:49 am Post subject: |
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When I built my first pad, I only had a Dreamcast to try it out on, but I built it using basically the same instructions. I don't imagine the XBOX controller technology would be that different from PS2 or DC.
In any case, I anticipated maybe using it with other systems, so since the construction and wiring would be exactly the same (except when you get into the controllers themselves), do what I did, and have all the wires terminate in a socket at the top of the pad (ethernet, whatever, I used DB25 connectors since I had a few laying around). That way, whenever you want to use it with a new system, just wire a new controller with a similarly-wired plug, unplug the old controller, and you're set. Check out this barebones page I threw together in response to another post to see a picture of a DC controller plugged into the top of my pad:
http://www.geocities.com/plautus.geo/pad.htm
On the underside of the pad, I taped a list of which contacts go with which pins on the plug so I could wire stuff in the future.
My tentative plans for the near future include building a platform kind of like thetaller1's mod, only big enough for doubles and with more supports (http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=75261), cover it with hard floor tiles, and use solid-state piso-pad technology on top for the buttons (http://royconejo.host.sk, if I had more space and a hard floor I'd just do it like him, but I have all carpet and will need to lean this thing against a wall). I'm looking for something cheap, sensitive, and easy to service. Hope this'll do the trick (and thanks to my system I described above, I won't have to wire any new controllers to do it!).[/url] |
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Syxx
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Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Location: Chicagoland |
| 6. Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 11:11 am Post subject: |
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Here's a problem with those X-box to PS2 converters: Are they going to let you hit left and right, or down and up at the same time on the pad?
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ãã©ã¤ã¢ã³
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Location: Allendale, MI / Grand Valley State University |
| 7. Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 11:25 am Post subject: |
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| Syxx. (period) wrote: | | Here's a problem with those X-box to PS2 converters: Are they going to let you hit left and right, or down and up at the same time on the pad? |
I was unaware of that problem or thought or whatever...... hmmm.
Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see. Why wouldn't they though?
ADD-ON: I was reading another post about someones home modded soft pad. He said that he was planning on just pulling out his sensors and turning it into a metal pad. Would that work- if I put the sensors into the metal pad and then took out the case where the controller cord comes out of the pad into the video game system, and then just plugged it in as a normal controller? I would probably get an extension XBOX cable if this worked in case I needed some extra room.
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Plautus
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| 8. Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:13 pm Post subject: |
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It might not do that, because a standard controller wouldn't physically allow that because of the way it's built, so you could see why they might not support that on the electronic level if they don't have to. This is a problem for a lot of Playstation to USB adapters, as well as a problem I found when looking at 3rd party Dreamcast controllers to use with my dance pad (Haven't found this problem with any PS controllers, but wouldn't be surprised if ones like that exist). A lot of manufacturers simply don't take dance pads or homebrew projects into account when they build this stuff (imagine!).
All the better reason to have the controller and the pad be separate components you can test separately! |
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ãã©ã¤ã¢ã³
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Joined: 20 Sep 2003
Location: Allendale, MI / Grand Valley State University |
| 9. Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Plautus wrote: | It might not do that, because a standard controller wouldn't physically allow that because of the way it's built, so you could see why they might not support that on the electronic level if they don't have to. This is a problem for a lot of Playstation to USB adapters, as well as a problem I found when looking at 3rd party Dreamcast controllers to use with my dance pad (Haven't found this problem with any PS controllers, but wouldn't be surprised if ones like that exist). A lot of manufacturers simply don't take dance pads or homebrew projects into account when they build this stuff (imagine!).
All the better reason to have the controller and the pad be separate components you can test separately! |
Are you talking about using a PS2 to XBOX converter, or are you talking about ripping out the sensors and cord of an XBOX soft pad and making it that way? Or maybe both?
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ddrpablo
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Danny_Broos
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| 11. Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 3:55 am Post subject: |
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just open a cheap gamepad and look! You can see the lines on the PCB. These are the connections. Notice that some of the lines join to one line. What could it be? It's the GROUND connection. Notice when pressing a button the GROUND and another line are joined by the button contact. Solder a wire to the GROUND and use it for the bottom of the buttons. From 1 line in the controller you can wire all of the buttons, just make sure you connect it only to the bottom of the arrows. After that solder a wire each arrow to the correspondending buttons (don't know on xbox...) and make some start and go back buttons or whatever the same way...
It's easy! I thought I would be hard, too. I had never wired something before and it worked! Only my wires are bad, they break all the time, that's why I don't use my home made metal pad... |
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ãã©ã¤ã¢ã³
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| 12. Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 11:22 am Post subject: |
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| Danny_Broos wrote: | just open a cheap gamepad and look! You can see the lines on the PCB. These are the connections. Notice that some of the lines join to one line. What could it be? It's the GROUND connection. Notice when pressing a button the GROUND and another line are joined by the button contact. Solder a wire to the GROUND and use it for the bottom of the buttons. From 1 line in the controller you can wire all of the buttons, just make sure you connect it only to the bottom of the arrows. After that solder a wire each arrow to the correspondending buttons (don't know on xbox...) and make some start and go back buttons or whatever the same way...
It's easy! I thought I would be hard, too. I had never wired something before and it worked! Only my wires are bad, they break all the time, that's why I don't use my home made metal pad... |
thanks, I think I could follow your instructions pretty well. But do you think that I could take out the wires from a cheap gamepad, and hook them up into the metal pad, without the soldering of the wires?
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thetaller1
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| 13. Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 11:53 am Post subject: |
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yah, thats wut i might do, but my softpad mod is alot easier. does any1 know where to get cheap sheet metal [i know this is softpad but i figure, wut the hey]
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ãã©ã¤ã¢ã³
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| 14. Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 1:34 pm Post subject: |
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| thetaller1 wrote: | | yah, thats wut i might do, but my softpad mod is alot easier. does any1 know where to get cheap sheet metal [i know this is softpad but i figure, wut the hey] |
your best bet is probably your local hardware store.  but if you can, shop around first to see who has the best deals. There are a few hardware stores (including Menards and Home Depot- my first 2 best bets) that I am looking around to see how prices are. Again, if you can, look at the name brand places like Menards, Home Depot, etc., then check out the smaller places, usually just local places.
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Plautus
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| 15. Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 8:06 am Post subject: |
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| Mobile Mayhem wrote: | | thetaller1 wrote: | | yah, thats wut i might do, but my softpad mod is alot easier. does any1 know where to get cheap sheet metal [i know this is softpad but i figure, wut the hey] |
your best bet is probably your local hardware store. but if you can, shop around first to see who has the best deals. There are a few hardware stores (including Menards and Home Depot- my first 2 best bets) that I am looking around to see how prices are. Again, if you can, look at the name brand places like Menards, Home Depot, etc., then check out the smaller places, usually just local places. |
I've also heard from several people that if you can find a sheet metal fabricator in the yellow pages, you can save quite a bit of money that way.
Earlier, I was referring to a PS2 to XBOX adapter. It might work perfectly, it might not. However, I would not endorse any effort to rip out the sensors from a soft pad to use them somewhere else. Don't even try this, it can only end in tears. The 'sensors' are just layers of contacts printed on flimsy plastic separated by foam.
The Piso-Pad is just a really cheap way this guy made a dance pad, that is, by putiing conductive tape on the floor. You put the tape in a square pattern so the contacts are close together but not touching (not unlike the pcb in a standard controller, btw), and you complete the circuit by stepping on the contacts with conductive footwear (he puts the tape on his shoes also)! The catch here, of course, is the necessity of having conductive footwear (in the arcade of course, it is merely optional). I think if it were done right however, it could be very sensitive as well as cheap. I'm going to do some experiments with this before I start on a bigger project. |
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thetaller1
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Joined: 26 Jun 2003
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| 16. Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:24 am Post subject: |
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| hngkong wrote: | | Maybe if you had read JUST A LITTLE you would have noticed that there will be a way of distinguishing controller scores from pad scores. |
sry to break your hearts but if they do have a way to distinquish then you can make it off a controller, this is in the ultramix thread, lastpage.
so i don't think you can make a homemade pad.
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ãã©ã¤ã¢ã³
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| 17. Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:24 am Post subject: |
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The_Taller_One, this is actually metal pad. But anyway- I had the greatest, most creative way to make a metal pad for XBOX! If I had a scanner, I would show you you my sketch sheet. Trust me- it's sweet as heck, pretty easy to make, and most of all- CHEAP! When Ultramix comes out, and I get the pad done, I'll get some photos and put em on here.
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thetaller1
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| 18. Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:43 am Post subject: |
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im saying if ur using the wiring of an xbox controller it will probably think ur using a controller instead of ur homemade pad.
and in the ultramix forum people are saying that when ur playing it say if ur using a controller or a pad.
EDIT: when playing online
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ãã©ã¤ã¢ã³
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Joined: 20 Sep 2003
Location: Allendale, MI / Grand Valley State University |
| 19. Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 1:06 pm Post subject: |
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| thetaller1 wrote: | im saying if ur using the wiring of an xbox controller it will probably think ur using a controller instead of ur homemade pad.
and in the ultramix forum people are saying that when ur playing it say if ur using a controller or a pad.
EDIT: when playing online |
Well I already knew that a long time ago. I've got a couple things to say about that:
1. I don't have broadband, and my parents don't plan on getting it anytime soon.  So I don't need to worry abou that.
2. Plus- my new metal pad idea (IF ANYONE STEALS THIS IDEA, I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU!!!) actually uses a soft pad without even taking it apart.
I figured I might as well tell you all my idea, since it might be useful for people who read this who have PS2.
1. Take a soft pad- I am basing this of of the Konami Original Pad from DDRMax, and put it on a 1/4 or 1/2 thick piece of plywood. Thinner or thicker if you prefer.
2. Duct tape the pad down to the plywood.
3. Cut out some sheet metal as you would (like in ddrhomepad's instructions) for an arcade ddr pad. But also cutting out spaces for the A and B buttons and leaving some room for some side panels- you will pound these around the corners later. (X and Triangle buttons, I think on PS2). Only cut the sheet metal up to the top of the A and B buttons (or X and Tri.)- leaving the Start and Back (Start and Select) buttons open.
4. Screw a plastic frame under the metal (screw from the top- but don't go all the way through so you dont ruin the pad). Make sure the plastic is bendable enough so that you will be able to make the sensors go off.
5. Place the metal and plastic over the pad, make sure the pad isn't reading that any arrows are being pressed. Test this before the next step.
6. Pound the side panels around the left, right, and back edges (thats the only places you have side panels, since you left Start and Back/Select open). Screw them into the plywood.
Yeah, that's me sweet idea. This way for XBOX, you won't have to worry about being screwed with PS2 to XBOX converters, or being screwed with online play if you are intending on using it. When I get the game and pad and do this mod, I'll post some pics and make a website. Again- IF ANYONE STEALS MY IDEA, I'LL SLAUGHTER YOU!
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