My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

[Verified]

the foam core is the same material that a mousepad is. I'd just go buy a cheap 1/4 inch thick mouse pad.
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[LD1984]

Woo! I'm about to start Riptide's pad design. I have one question though:

The only plexiglass stuff I can find is .25 inches thick. The design calls for .22 inches thick. It's duraplex; same as Riptide uses in the video. Is the .03 going to make much of a difference?

Thanks!

Also, how heavy is this thing gonna be? It seems like it'll weigh more then me!

[DDRdre]

Hey how does the arrows move up and down like when you hit it it like moves a bit? Thanks
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....... < (My view of life)

[DDRdre]

Me and my dad were gonna make a metal pad using the websites on this thread but he then said if we could just repair the foam of the soft pad which is the problem of it and use the pad's sensors as the sensor of the metal frame which will then be my new metal pad. Does anyone no is that would work?

The reason my dad wont use the websites is because no one explained how the weatherstripping makes contact. Can some on explain that. thanks. Please answer my other question above this post
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....... < (My view of life)

[LordPyrex]

The purpose of the weather stripping is not to form a contact, but instead to support the arrow so that it is not in constant contact. The contact for the arrow is created by the sheet metal that is taped to the pegboard(ground lead) and the sheet metal that is taped to the plexiglass(direction lead). Re-read the information from each of the designs. I think that ddrhomepad's design pretty well explains how to do this.

Also the arrows move down when you step on them, and if your cushioning is properly placed between the pegboard and plexiglass the the arrows move back up to release the contact. Its just like a pressure sensored light switch.

Hope that that answers everything for you.
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Does anyone else ever get caught in that perpertual time loop that exists when your in line between Beginners and Light players?
J/King we all started somewhere

[sam3k]

Hi, can anyone help me get a hold of Riptides videos please.

Thanks a lot.

[wireplaycc]

Okay, I have finally read through all 99 pages of the
"My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)" topic.

I think building my own pad will be easier than sifting through
all those freakin' posts!
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http://wireplay.cc
http://wireplay.cc/forums
Sleep, n. 1. A substitute for caffeiene.

[Verified]

yah! and the wiring will be extra easy since i decided to use teh chip from my old floppy dance pad, those are SO easy to understand.
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[gamersource]

I already ruined one controller soldering the wrong way, can someone take this picture for me and point out which are the grounds and which are not...

it would save me from screwing up another controller - -

thanks
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For all your Bemani Needs http://bpm.net.cn

[hooded__paladin]

The article (by me!) at the bottom of Tolookah's guide ( http://www.tolookah.net/DDR/ ) will show you how to find which points to solder.

basically, each button has two segments - the ground and the "not ground side". When you find one segment that is connected to another segment of another button, those two (and all the other ones that are connected) are the ground sides. Find a convenient place to solder (like, on those nice big copper areas where the buttons are, or the copper circles that are scattered about) and solder one wire to there - that is your ground wire. Then, find the sides that are NOT ground and solder wires to each of those.

Viola! And, don't complain that we didn't do all your work for you. We are not here to do your work for you.

[LordPyrex]

When working with solder, practice makes perfect. Before you try to do any more soldering look at the guides provided by hooded_paladin. Before working on another controller, try practicing with a spare piece of wiring and maybe an old junk circuit board you won't need(i.e. drill the hole, insert the wire, solder the wire...). If your cutting the L/R buttons, these might be good test cores. And by the way, just looking at your picture I see plenty of good ground points Remember teh ground touches everything. It is the completion of the circuit that leads back to the Playstation. Depending on wether or not you plan on putting this controller back together for use as with other functions should be your main deciding point as to where you choose to go. Good luck, and practice makes perfect.
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Does anyone else ever get caught in that perpertual time loop that exists when your in line between Beginners and Light players?
J/King we all started somewhere

[fujiwara takumi]

anyone hooked one of these buggers up wirelessly yet? it would help if i could get maybe 5' back from the screen. (old age and all )

[tolookah]

[DDRdre]

Thanks well anyway my dad is have a ghetto planfor the pad something esle at least most his plans work. .
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....... < (My view of life)

[joshuass]

I finished my pad last night and its working great. I used mostly an original plan. I got some good shots of the internals before finishing it. Ill be uploading them shortly for you guys to view. Some key features of my design:

- Screws are used for contacts but they are drilled into heavy duty tin foil and then wood. The tin foil makes a really effective way to connect all the screws in each sensor together with ease.

- I used no weatherstripping for contacts because it would eventually give out after heavy use. Instead I used mousepads. One mouse pad will do an entire pad no problem (2"x2" right triangles in each corner of each sensor).

- For the controller I did not solder directly to the board. Instead I first scraped off the black material covering each button and drilled a tiny hole for a 0090 size screw (these things are tiny!!!) I then soldered to the screw. It was much easier this way but I lost the directional button functionality on the ps1 controller (no big deal).

- The 5 metal panels are held together with stanley corner braces but they are not permanently mounted to the rest of the pad. Some low density foam around the outer edge of my pad keeps teh panels in place (it was an unexpected but really awesome side effect). Ill get a close up of it for clerification.

If you guys have any questions I can try answer them. Like I said Ill be posting pictures of my pad once I get them resized and uploaded somewhere.

Have fun

[Momo -YHB-]

[nerd of nerds]

hello! this is my first post here...

i built a metal ddr pad a while back...and i am rebuilding it for the 2nd time...

but while i was working on it i had the idea for some super thin hard ddr pads, that are super cheap as well...

they don't use metal to cover the wood...i am just painting it silver with a very tough finish...the pads don't use those uber expensive stanley corner brackets, but instead use washers held down with screws...

when i am done these will be 1/2 inch thick! i already have the base done and an up arrow working...and i am building 2 of these...

here is the best part tho...it only cost 36 bucks to build two of em!!! i did have some of the materials on hand tho...

i should have them done by tomorrow or friday! i'll post pics then...
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the gp32 ROCKS!!!

www.gp32x.com to learn more...

[DOACleric]

Hey guys. I'm hoping I can get a tiny bit of help. I built a pad (following DDRHomepad's design) back in 2002. The pad still works! However, recently i've noticed that on one of the arrow squares, only half of the arrow responds to a step - the inner half responds fine, but the outer half doesn't register at all. Even if i slam down on it as hard as i can, it still doesn't register, yet I am sure contact between the two metal sheets are being made. I've cleaned my pad out and replaced the foam several times, yet this issue still remains.

Has anyone had a similar problem like this, or have any idea what might be causing it? Because I am clueless. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Thanks.

[Patster]

I've had to cancel my old ISP account so now Patster's Place no longer exists. Please remove any links to http://home.comcast.net/~patster/home.html
Thanks,
Patster

[LordPyrex]