My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

Nicotine · Trick Member Joined: 12 Nov 2002 Location: Ontario Canada

http://home.cogeco.ca/~nicotine/ddrpad1.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~nicotine/ddrpad2.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~nicotine/ddrpad3.jpg

there mine is.

based off patsters design, but i improved a lil with the corner bracket supports, etc...

pretty much the same...

works wonders...
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TheKornKid · Trick Member Joined: 11 Aug 2002 Location: Toledo, OH

flipboy101 · Trick Member Joined: 18 Apr 2002

Hey guys. Long time no see. Just had a quick question. I built my own pad a while ago and just can't seem to fix one problem. As the title of my post says, my controllers always seem to short out.

They are great for like the first week, but after that, a button always gets stuck as being pressed down. I know it isn't my pad because I've checked it over and over. The problem always gets fixed when I buy a new controller and go through the fiasco of soldering it all over again.

The thing is, I don't want to buy a new controller every 2 weeks. After a while, that $5.00 for that new controller starts to add up.

Is there anything I can do to keep my controllers from crapping out on me?

BTW, this is the controller I buy and mod:

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Yet, another Asian boy hooked on DDR.

RhythmAndPolice170 · Basic Member Joined: 20 Mar 2003

Alright, im sorta confused. Is the weatherstripping there so that the pad can move down, but then rise back up after you step off it??
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~Rhythm and Police~

SarcasmSRA · Basic Member Joined: 23 Sep 2003

RhythmAndPolice170 · Basic Member Joined: 20 Mar 2003

Hey sarcasm, are you gonna post a plan on how you built this pad? because a $40 dollar pad that works well would be nice
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~Rhythm and Police~

flipboy101 · Trick Member Joined: 18 Apr 2002

SarcasmSRA · Basic Member Joined: 23 Sep 2003

Little Firefly · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:48 pm Post subject:

tolookah · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2003 8:01 pm Post subject:

firefly: just looked at your design, and thought it has potential, although many designs that don't work have potential *grumbles at things that didnt work for self many times*

now, to answer your questions...

Paint: well, if you use paint, it may be difficult to adjust the positioning, so im going to suggest what im using right now, It is a Foam like substance, about 2mm thick, it cost me something like $0.40 for a 9inx12in sheet of it, and i used about half of a sheet for my pad of 8 functional buttons. I'm currently working on the theory that it's that cheap, if it only lasts two weeks, thats a running cost of less than $5.00 a year (only been using it for a week or so now, still good)
I got it at a craft/fabric store, and i ended up buying the one i trounced on too (they dont like it too much if you throw their product to the floor, and jump on it)
Link: http://www.darice.com/ecom/ProductDetails.aspx?it=1144-13&oid=6090

now, to avoid the brackets, i would still suggest using a metal, maybe just a triangle, to hold down the arrows, i myself had no real problems drilling holes in my Hyzod for this, but if you may have issues with that, then i'd go with the other brackets... just make sure you drill your holes with the paper sheeting on the material.

As for bending, if you use a stronger plexi (like a polycarbonate) they bend a little less in the middle so you may not even need the center piece, though it's a sound idea. so if you wanna go with it, go with it.

Hope i helped.

TheKornKid · Trick Member Joined: 11 Aug 2002 Location: Toledo, OH

Hi everyone again, I just finished my home-made ddr pad and it works Perfectly!....

Except for one thing, Patster, the new lighting design didn't work and i'm not sure why. i double checked every single wire going through this and everything is in the exact place you said it should be. The problem is that the relays (because they use the controller signal) are connecting the circuit for the controller buttons. My controller had little L.E.D. lights built into it and they light up when a button is pressed, and they were glowing nonstop. The wierd part is that all the buttons still worked, and once we disconnected the relays from the controller positive wire the L.E.D. lights turned off, and the buttons still worked.

Another wierd part is this: if the relay was constantly connecting the controller circuit, then the lights should have been all constantly on, but they never turned on at all. I had the hot wire from the cord in prong-1, the center of the light socket going to prong-2, the controller ground in prong-4, and the conroller positive with the resistor on it going to prong-3... i really don't know why the lights don't work, If you think of anything please let me know.

Thanks

Little Firefly · Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2003 4:16 pm Post subject:

Istari Asuka · Trick Member Joined: 27 Oct 2002 Location: Tucson, AZ

Hey, finished my pad recently. It's really nice, only 1.5" thick and has lights

. They look really great.

Anyways, i can't actually play with it yet as when we put the 5$ madcatz PCB into a box (kinda like the control boxes on CF) that connects seperately to the pad, it no longer worked. Whenever it was plugged into the playstation both control ports stopped working (the normal PS controller in other port wouldn't do anything while madcatz box plugged in), which is odd as my dad is quite sure he didn't do anything that could have fried it, and he's a Master's in Electrical Engineering and has done lots of this type of thing before. Perhaps the madcatz is just REALLY cheap and fragile and crappy, as was just brought up.

So, could anyone who has that pic of the offical PS controller soldering points that i saw floating around here a looong time ago post it? Then i can actually play.

And perhaps even take a video of the pad in action...with lights!

TheKornKid · Trick Member Joined: 11 Aug 2002 Location: Toledo, OH

needed the diagram for the controller..? i just posted a few posts ago you might have skipped it accidently, here's a playstation controller board.. i'm pretty sure it's an official psx controller

Thank you to customdrr.com for that pic

tolookah · Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:04 pm Post subject:

nope, that's actually a gamestop controller(recently opened and broke one of them) ... you should be able to follow the traces on the playstation controller, its a little tighter than the one below, has more lines (no black blob, actual parts n stuff) but here's a rough rundown of the one i just opened up two days ago (its working now, so i don't wanna mess with it)

all the buttons have 3 black blobs, one of them connects to a common lead, shared by all, also having a hole near the start button which you can call ground. if you follow the other lead, attached, you will find that the solder points are kinda tiny, although possible with three hands (or a really good holding device) if you want, send me a picture of it, and ill gladly post back within a day or two all the buttons labled on it.

MadRhetoric · Trick Member Joined: 03 Oct 2003

I'm hoping I can get some help on repairing my metal ddr pad. For reference, I revently bought this pad:

http://www.ddrgame.com/psps2suarmep.html

After playing for a while, the down arrow was consistently getting stuck. Shipping back the pad would have been a major hassle, so I had them send me a replacement down arrow.

I'm assuming to fix the problem, I will cut the wire of the existing button then solder the wires onto the new circuit. Can someone please tell me if this is the correct thing to do. Thanks.

Patster · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 4:33 pm Post subject:

Istari Asuka · Trick Member Joined: 27 Oct 2002 Location: Tucson, AZ

tolookah · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 10:15 pm Post subject:

KickTheCan · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2003 2:49 pm Post subject:

The ORIGINAL sony playstation controlers, without the analog sticks i mean the first ones made, are really good for this. The actual triangle square and those buttons are hard to solder, but the arrows are extreamley easy. When you open it its all covered in black junk but it easily sanded off with sand paper and then it gives you a lot of copper to solder to. Each arrow will have about half of a 1cm wide circle to solder to. If you REALLY need it i can take a picture of it on here.
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