My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

Rockhopper · Basic Member Joined: 30 Sep 2004

Wow, lots of activity since my last post. I've PM'd insanity, but I'll go ahead and try to answer some of the questions here.

First, The 9 panel pad is really no different than the four panel pad that everyone else has built. Rather than doing the metal steps, you just replace them with active, plexiglass steps.

Second, I followed the padmaker's design almost to the letter. It's very easy to build and using the plywood/plexiglass step design as opposed to the plexiglass/plexiglass step design greatly reduces your cost.

Third, and this was my personal preference, try to use different thickness plywood when building your 9 panels (the corners and the center are 3/4" plywood and the up/down/left/right are 1/2" plywood). This gives it a bit of a raised feeling to help you know where you're at on the board.

Fourth, I'm not sure how to wire a PS2 or Xbox controller to make it active for 9 panels. I ripped a control board out of a USB dance pad and, since I'm only using stepmania, I can map the each of the 9 buttons however I see fit.

Fifth, somebody asked this, Pump it Up is a game similar in style to DDR except it uses the corners and center of the pad rather than up/down/left/right.

Lastly, I got my arrow graphics printed at OfficeMax. It was about $1 per sheet printed on 11X17 high density photo paper. I was gonna go with standard paper, but it was only $.20 per page to upgrade to the photo paper.

Hope this helps.

HitokiriX · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Location: Berwyn, PA

sorry if this is getting kind of repetitive but I was wondering if someone could help me edit riptide's graphics to look like the ones he put on his pad instead of the one he gives on his site.

http://www.digitaltorque.com/mydancepad/
there's riptides site url

http://www.digitaltorque.com/mydancepad/?display=3%20-%20plexiglass%2FEast.jpg

http://www.digitaltorque.com/mydancepad/?display=3%20-%20plexiglass%2FNorth.jpg

http://www.digitaltorque.com/mydancepad/?display=3%20-%20plexiglass%2FSouth.jpg

http://www.digitaltorque.com/mydancepad/?display=3%20-%20plexiglass%2FWest.jpg

and there's the links to the graphics riptide give on his site. if you compare these graphics to the ones he actually puts on his pad...

http://www.digitaltorque.com/mydancepad/?display=6%20-%20finished%20pad%2Fpads008.jpg

right there....you can see the border is complete different in that the graphics he puts on his site have a smaller white border that just barely surrounds the chinese symbol where on his pad the white border is octagonally shaped and is about 1/2-3/4 inch away from the edge of the panel. I've tried to edit the graphic myself with gimp and other basic picture editing software but nothing seems to work. I'm thinking someone with photoshop can help me but up to now no one seems to want to....

I don't really want to go to officemax or kinko's and ask them to edit it for me since they might mess it up and I would have to pay for the messed up graphic. It would be a lot better to me if I came into their store with a disk or floppy with the graphics already in the right size and shape and look.

adamthole · Trick Member Joined: 15 Jan 2005

It could be done farily easily, but why don't you just ask riptide for the originals?

NoKKiE · Basic Member Joined: 15 Jan 2005

I'm sorry if this has been asked before and I've spent over 10 hours reading over 2500 posts so if it was covered in the last 800 im sorry... but I can't seem to quite get ground wire to the sheet metal that is glued onto the panel, is there some trick to this? I've tried using just solder and flux of course but after some stomping it eventually falls off. I've also tried to use some hot glue over it but sometimes it gets too thick and the glue gets in the way of the contact.

(im baffled)

HitokiriX · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Location: Berwyn, PA

HitokiriX · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Location: Berwyn, PA

grgisme · Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:27 pm Post subject: Arrow Graphix

Hey HitokiriX, I'll help you. Doubt I'll end up using these arrows, but you never know. I have Flash MX, and I've already started, I eliminated the other border and made sure they were the right size (I think they are, 11.15" by 11.15"... let me know if this is wrong). What I don't have (and am too lazy to look up) is the dimensions to the corner brackets, the border is neatly inside those corner brackets in the picture, so I need those dimensions, how far in on all the sides of the arrow (I'll add a little just to be safe), does the bracket come? You tell me that and I'll whip out a little border for you. Yes the graphic will still be the right size too, and I can save it as whatever format you need. I'll host them on my site and put links to them so anyone who wants them can nab them. Just post back here, or get in contact with me somehow and let me know the dimensions.

~Grgisme

peepsluvr · Trick Member Joined: 09 Jan 2005

ch · Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:01 pm Post subject:

I STOPPED GETTING E-MAILS Y????

o well. you guys can handle yourselves.

except grgisme. you cant put 8v across your contacts, because then it would go directly into your controller. 8v is far worse than static on a 3.7v controller board. so dont do that.

oh, and all the squares should be perfectly 11" by 11". your graphics will be a little smaller because your plexi isnt quite that size.
_________________

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/index.php?module=see&l=uk&code=36e44d4914f14070cc5b3d4c6bcd1042

CStarFlare wrote:

I approve of the direction this thread is going

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090310025322668

grgisme · Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:07 pm Post subject:

You underestimate me :-). I'm going to have two seperate circuits, so I'll be using strips of sheet metal, or something along those lines, rather than the one large square of sheet metal. The controller circuit won't come into contact with the 8 volts AT ALL. I'm even going to split the ground wire before it enters the controller, so I won't have to worry about it AT ALL. The controller will never see that 8 volts.

slvrshdw · Trick Member Joined: 05 Jan 2005

i got my newer pad done except the controller part..but what do u think?
(the tape was to hold the metal down while it dried)

i also remember the softpad mod pic..u just taped the pad to a piece of wood...heres my version

[/img]

grgisme · Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:38 pm Post subject:

Looks good to me, both do actually. One suggestion I would make for asthetics would be to add a border of some kind around the pad. Don't know if that's possible with your pad, but it might make it sturdier too. I can't tell if there is one from the picture, so thought I'd through it out there.

HitokiriX · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Location: Berwyn, PA

HitokiriX · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Location: Berwyn, PA

ch · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 9:11 am Post subject:

a corner brace is 2 inches on a side. but you'll have to account for indentation. and, even if you print on regulat paper, the plexiglass will still be partially shiny on top.
_________________

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/index.php?module=see&l=uk&code=36e44d4914f14070cc5b3d4c6bcd1042

CStarFlare wrote:

I approve of the direction this thread is going

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090310025322668

grgisme · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 9:55 am Post subject: Arrow Graphics!!!

First -- this may be stupid and obvious, but I figured out why occasionally we stop getting emails. It only emails us new notifications when we've visited the forum after having LOGGED IN. So if we ever visit it, but don't reply, there's a chance it didn't log us in, and we don't realize it, so we don't get replies after that point until we mosey back to the forum on our own good time and LOG IN. So anytime you click on the link from the email, even if you don't reply, make sure you login real quick before you leave, it works, promise.

Okay, now on to business.

EDIT: Just read cartoon_hero's post that says its 2in. for the brackets... that would really really suck, because it would mean there is zero indentation. But now that I know what I'm doing I may be able to correct the image completely rather quickly... just not right now, hehe. I'm going to go work on Calc 2, I'll come back to this later.

I edited the image, its taken me a while, but I recreated that border in flash. The first thing I noticed was that the japanese (whatever language) symbol was smaller than in his picture, so I made that bigger (the total dimensions are now 11" by 11" though). Now I look at it and the border may be too thick for the image... which just makes me want to cry, hehe. But I pray you'll like this one :-). Else I'll spend... a little/a lot more time on it making the border a bit thinner, its currently at 1/2". Let me know, and I'll crank out the others (they'll be easy cuz I'll just resize them and use the same border).

~Grgisme

Here's the pic: (its open for anyone to use)

East:

[/url]

HitokiriX · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Location: Berwyn, PA

OMG it's gorgeous!!

thank you soooo much grgisme!! you're my hero!! ahhahahah!!! *dances around* so happy......I would be so happy if you could crank out the other 3 for me. I think the border should be a little thinner and the diagonals on the border be a little longer and farther from the corners of the graphic. Other than that it looks so awesome. thanks again.

5thDementian · Trick Member Joined: 12 Oct 2004 Location: Kalamazoo, MI

grgisme · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:50 pm Post subject:

HITOKIRIX:

Lol, simma da' na'. I'll do the others, and fix this one if necessary. Like we said though, the correct graphic will depend on how large your arrow brackets are, and you were "guessing" with the 1.5in. So, go measure YOUR specific arrow brackets (if you have them -- if not, look up the demensions to the ones you KNOW you're going to buy), and post them here. I'll modify the border then and post all the final ones. I believe cartoon_hero when he says 2", but if yours are different no since in redoing these things twice. I'll fix it as soon as you let me know. I really do need exact too, in order for it to look good on your pad. Hehe, I'm going to use the border too most likely, so I'll just get brackets identical to yours, lol. I'm trying to think of a ratio that I could implementto easily modify these things, but I'm not so sure there is one. So lets make sure I have the right demensions. Again, I need NOT THE HYPOTENUSE, but the other side(s) (they'll be equal in length), that's the dimension I need.

Thanks
~Grgisme

ch · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:59 pm Post subject:

corner brackets come in all different sizes, but the most common ones that you can find are 2" stanley corner brackets. they look like this. they also come in 1.5" and 3", but those sizes look goofy on a pad.
_________________

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/index.php?module=see&l=uk&code=36e44d4914f14070cc5b3d4c6bcd1042

CStarFlare wrote:

I approve of the direction this thread is going

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090310025322668