My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

Momo -YHB- · Trick Member Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Location: Killeen, Texas

I'm totally redoing my pads but i have a question. Instead of running 4 ground wires (1 per arrow panel ) into one ground wire, would it be possble to have just one ground wire running to every panel and connected to the controller? I've attatched this diagram so u know what i'm talking about.

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hooded__paladin · Trick Member Joined: 10 Nov 2003

Of course. There are lots of physical ways of getting the same correct electrical setup. Whether you have 4 ground wires or 1, as long as each arrow press connects that button with ground it's right.

Haacon · Basic Member Joined: 20 Nov 2003 Location: Provo, UT

Once I get my ddrhomepad's working, I'm going to start on my next project. This is a big one, and I hope it works as well as I want it to. It'll be a six ft by six ft linoleum breakdancing pad. I've always been kind of frustrated with no room to do anything really fun as far as freestyle goes, so I've decided to design these pads. I'm not quite sure on button size, yet, but I'm thinking about fiberoptic lighting and clear flexible plastic for the buttons. I would like the pads to be flexible enough to roll, but still functional afterword. I have some ideas on the contacts, but I'd love to hear anything from you guys. Tell me what you think, and maybe we can get a really good design going.

rsd212 · Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2003 10:02 am Post subject:

Shadow_Dragonz · Trick Member Joined: 16 Mar 2003 Location: California

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

cobalt flux for me

Ive got 16 extra stanley brackets, i polished them with a buffing wheel and compound. Looks better than brand new. doesnt include the screws though, i threw those out a while ago when i bought them

anybody needs them, send me a PM. dont reply here, just private message me. thanks
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good times, good times.

Haacon · Basic Member Joined: 20 Nov 2003 Location: Provo, UT

I'm havin a bit of trouble with the contact deal on the sony controllers. What should the contact look like after I sand it enough, and should it just simply solder? There any trick to it cause it still isn't quite working for me. Thanks.

rk_cr · Basic Member Joined: 22 Nov 2003

I was looking into making my own home pad, and I have (obviously) found RipTide's, Patsters, and DDRHomepad's, but I cannot find anything detailed on the newest versions of Riptide's or Blue Beefman's contact design. I've waded through the first thirty pages of this huge topic and still have, at most, found pictures or a few confusing measurements, but absolutely no explanations on how exactly to setup the corner contacts.

Is it just something that will become more obvious once I start to make the pad, or is there simply a great lack of information on this? Or if there is info on this somewhere, where is it?

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

are the corner contacts supposed to be better? just curious...

I just used screw contacts going all around where the arrow is, that works better than any arcade i've played at. heres what my contacts look like. This will just give another option as to how to do the contacts, having as many options open as possible is good.

Shadow_Dragonz · Trick Member Joined: 16 Mar 2003 Location: California

Haacon · Basic Member Joined: 20 Nov 2003 Location: Provo, UT

Okay, so I finally solved the shorting problem by switching to an original Sony controller. Now another problem has arisen. I can play for about half a song, then the thing decides to quit registerring anything, not the directions, nor the T, S, etc buttons. I read a few posts ago about something similar happening to a guy with only two of his buttons and a MadKatz controller or something of the like.

Anyone know what's happening and how to fix it? Someone's gotta have a better idea than I.

Frosty555 · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2003

I hate to tell you the same thing, but there's a rather good chance that your controller is shorting out. What happens is the plexiglass pieces rub against each other and slowly build up a static charge, then that charge sparks across the screws (or whatever your contacts are), and shorts out your controller. This usually is only a problme on smaller, more sensitive controllers, like official Sony controllers.

OK, you can either replace your controller with a larger, more rugged third-party one (I used a psx Superpad, they're huge!), or, get yourself some 10 kilo-Ohm resistors and put them in series with the positive side (not the ground) of your contacts.

BE CAREFUL!! Don't play on your pad until you solve the problem!! If you short out your pad really bad you could damage the controller, and the arrow it shorted out on will be forever stuck down!
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Team D5R - DDR team of Newmarket/Aurora

Shadow_Dragonz · Trick Member Joined: 16 Mar 2003 Location: California

Frosty555 · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2003

LOL! Kinda funny you said exactly the same as me Shadow!

I don't think it's a problem with too much wire. I believe that entire theory is a myth. If you connect a PSX controller together you can have as high as 40,000 ohms of resistance before the controller no longer recognizes it as a hit (if you think about how the buttons on a controller work, they're these silicone-based things that have a couple hundred Ohm resistance). even 50 or 60 feet of wire wouldn't have half that kind of resistance. I don't think that having too much wire could possibly ever be a problem unless you're wiring your pad halfway across a city

.
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Team D5R - DDR team of Newmarket/Aurora

Haacon · Basic Member Joined: 20 Nov 2003 Location: Provo, UT

Thanks for the help, Shadow and Frosty. I don't have a whole lot of wire, only about 8 feet of Cat-5 other than the regular controller length. I figured it would probably be a problem with static build-up, so I tried something that might be a little dangerous, but prolly should work alright. I took one of my ruined controllers and ripped one of the wires out of it, then soldered that in addition to the pad grounds to the ground contact on the controller. From there I tried a few things, first, I tried grounding that wire to my pad. It solved the problem, at least for four or five songs (I had to stop after that so I could go do some homework). Figuring that that might be a little unsafe for the controller were I to accidently touch it to something with a big voltage difference, I instead hooked it to the screw of an outlet, and that also seemed to solve the problem. I'd appreciate any comments, especially if someone has any idea what's actually going on and isn't just making things up like I am. Once I get paid I'll prolly go out and get one of the bigger controllers and try them.

hooded__paladin · Trick Member Joined: 10 Nov 2003

hey Frosty555, you posted on the digitaltorque forums a while ago a schematic for controlling lighting with one switch. That site's down now, though. I don't really get why you would need two circuits at all, just add a relay in-line, but could I see that schematic?

Shadow_Dragonz · Trick Member Joined: 16 Mar 2003 Location: California

Frosty555

I said the same as you

. Woops

. Ah well, two head are better than one

.

Does anyone have any schematics that they could post, or how they set up their dance pad for lights? I'm just curious due to the fact that there's a lot of talk about it yet there's nothing really documented about it or concrete. The only thing that I can refer to is Patster's design. If anyone wouldn't mind, it would be greatly appreciated

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Shadow_Dragonz
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My home built metal pad FAQ can be found at http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=6930450&highlight=#6930450
Some lurk in the day, others by night, but he creeps in the shadows.

hooded__paladin · Trick Member Joined: 10 Nov 2003

Last night, I made a list of materials that I need for my new DDR pad (I'm changing from a DDRHomePad to a Riptide) and it's not very much. It will be an easy trip to home depot and I'll have this thing done fairly soon.

okay, I know at least a couple people are looking for a good light design. My dad is an electrical engineer, and he would be able to figure out an LED system. I want it to use relays (so you don't have to worry about the power the controller gives out) and some sort of plug-in AC adapter to power 2 to 4 white ultrabright LED's per panel.

Any suggestions as to the design?

dj io · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 3:54 pm Post subject:

DJUjeen

It seems that it wouldn't be too difficult to make the diagonal arrows into this design, but the wiring has me concerned. I haven't yet bought the PS2 or the game, or the pad. I lived in Korea for a time and fell in love with DDR. Now back in the states, I'm getting interested again. I will make a pad and buy the other stuff for Xmas, but I want to know if anyone has had success with making a pad WITH diagonal arrows.

Specifically, how to wire those extra buttons to the controller. Is it as simple as the X and O buttons?

I can figure out the mechanicals of the pad itself, I believe.