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Lonfelk
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Joined: 27 Mar 2005
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slvrshdw
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Joined: 05 Jan 2005
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3921.  Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Nothing's going to break from someone stomping on it...there's really nothing that could break/snap from downward pressure. |
i have a couple of ideas for a bar, but i havnt done them yet because i havnt actually made a working pad yet..
ya i kinda think so too..that having been said...
however i DO have some advice on buying the materials..
JUST FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS BECAUSE I MADE MY PAD WITH THINNER WOOD AND PLEXIGLASS AND IT FAILED..
just follow the directions on basically anyone's pad, it should work. i wasted at least a week and about $40 
i tried to get cheap by getting thinner wood and plex, but it just isnt strong enough to support all the stomping of DDR.
ill keep u updated with pics of my pad, and possibly a bar for my friend with his RO pad..
i just wanted to let the new guys, (like me) to know about that KEY issue..  |
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Rswave2k2
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Joined: 01 Apr 2005
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stoli
Trick Member
Joined: 27 Mar 2005
Location: Southern NH |
| 3923. Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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Hey Steve - I am making some progress on my second pad and have posted some pics of the bending process for the stationary panels on my website. Hopefully they will shed some light on that long dissertation I posted a few days ago. Should have the border pictures posted in a few days. They are much more difficult than the stationary pads.
-Stoli
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steve771
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Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Location: Nevada |
| 3924. Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:41 pm Post subject: |
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Nicely done, stoli! Thanks a bunch for posting those, looking forward to the rest. I just gathered some of the materials but I think I'll wait to see the rest of your pics before proceeding. It is amazing the ideas one gets when looking at other's work!
Looks like you got the wires channeled nicely too. I think you said you used cat 5? I thought I read that someone said they used 16ga., but that's like lamp cord isn't it? (isn't that a little thick?). Couldn't you use like a 24 ga. speaker wire, or is that too thick too? I think I would like to use a thicker wire than cat 5 because of the flexing of the pads, if that makes sense? |
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stoli
Trick Member
Joined: 27 Mar 2005
Location: Southern NH |
| 3925. Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:06 am Post subject: |
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| steve771 wrote: | | ...I would like to use a thicker wire than cat 5 because of the flexing of the pads, if that makes sense? |
When it comes to wire, I don't think it is possible to go too large from an electrical standpoint. You can go too small in certain circumstances due to a voltage drop across relatively long lengths of wire. In this case, the Cat 5 is working well for me. Keep in mind that I have 7 wires running to my controller, so if the wire I used was much bigger, it would be difficult to find room for it. I'm sure you can find a lot of different opinions on this site and some of the other home builders' sites.
Regarding flex - There is very little movement when it comes to the wire. The weakest area would be where it is soldered to the pad contacts and since that is on the very edge of the pad, there is insignificant movement to cause a problem. I think the size of the wire I am using is good, but I would prefer a multistranded version instead of the single strand copper. The multi is much more flexible and doesn't kink as easy. Therefore it is less susceptible to a stress break. I used the Cat 5 because it was lying around in my basement.
Stoli
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stoli
Trick Member
Joined: 27 Mar 2005
Location: Southern NH |
| 3926. Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:16 am Post subject: |
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| Rswave2k2 wrote: | | If anyone could label this for me thanks. I dont know wheres to put the ground and where to put the wires. There was other sony pads but mines is alitttle different if anyone could label Thank you! |
Rswave2k2 - Sorry, I can't label it for you since I have not seen that layout before. Doesn't look like there are many clean contacts on this side of the board to solder on to. Maybe the other side has something?
Best advice I can give you is that the ground sides of each button will all be tied together, so if you can follow the connections, you might be able to pick out the ground on each. A continuity tester (Ohm meter) would obviously work better in determining which sides of each button is the ground.
If you wanted a guess - it looks like the right side of each button is the ground (that would be your right as you are looking at it ----->). That would only be a guess though since the picture is a little fuzzy.
-Stoli
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Rswave2k2
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Joined: 01 Apr 2005
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| 3927. Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 10:30 am Post subject: |
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| thanks I went on and got a mad catz pad and going the circuit board in that but i dont know whre the ground is. I know where to connect everything else |
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Blue Beefman
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Joined: 31 Oct 2002
Location: WI |
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SuRfReAk
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Joined: 19 Dec 2004
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stoli
Trick Member
Joined: 27 Mar 2005
Location: Southern NH |
| 3930. Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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Ya, that looks right. I was looking at the X, O, Tri and Sq. buttons on the right. Sorry if I confused the matter. Right ground, wrong buttons!
I'm not sure if I agree with SuRfReAk's way of testing the buttons though. Doesn't that lend a good chance of frying something? Like, if the spot they choose as the ground is not ground and +5v or whatever the max positive Vdc is running around in these controllers?
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Negated Void
Basic Member
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
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| 3931. Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 1:10 pm Post subject: |
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Hello!
Could anyone who uses the screws instead of the corner brackets go into more detail about how they got the holes on the two pieces of plexiglass and the wood all lined up right / straight? I can't seem to do it properly.
That, or if anyone has a six panel design using corner brackets, could they explain how they made it work?
Also, Lets say I drill a whole kinda angled or something - IS there something I can fill the hole with so I could re-drill it straight and not have it just disintegrate into nothingness? :-D
Thanks,
--Matt |
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steve771
Trick Member
Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Location: Nevada |
| 3932. Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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I was thinking along the lines of multistranded for flexibility too. Since I'll have to buy wire, I wanted to do it right.
stoli, with regards to some problems you referred to awhile back (pad shutting down momentarily... thought it might be static). Do you think since I will be using aluminum for the stationary pads, that I won't have that static buildup, or do I need to look for some sort of ground system for them?
Beefman, wish I had the capability for those videos. I've been wanting to watch them for some time... |
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SuRfReAk
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Joined: 19 Dec 2004
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| 3933. Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 1:50 pm Post subject: |
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stoli- I'm assuming that people will think logically and only test points around where the buttons are located on the controller. You're basically doing the exact same thing that happens when you press a button on a controller, connecting the ground and directional points. Yes, I guess if you went haphazardly connecting any two points anywhere, you could probably fry the controller. So far, however, I haven't had that problem (but I don't really need to test anymore, learned how to trace the circuits on my first controller).
Negated Void- To get the holes lined up properly, put the arrow together, and either clamp it, put some weight on it, or build a border first to keep everything in the correct place. I'd just stand on it and drill (you're going to stand on it anyways when you use it), and once you have 2 holes (with something in them), it'll all stay lined up. For a six panel design, I would build a border to fit around the entire pad first, then screw your brackets into that for the panels. If you mess up, do like ddrhomepad says and use toothpicks and wood glue, or just screw it in and pray  .
Steve771- I'm not sure exactly, why you're using thicker wire...? The pad doesn't flex once it's screwed into the plywood base (I screwed mine in from the bottom)....With my wires I just ran them through the gaps in the rails underneath ddrhomepad's, and drilled through the rails that were running in the wrong direction....I'm making a site, I'll put up pictures on my next pads. If you're not using corner brackets, I'd ground the pad/connect the metal panels.
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Negated Void
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Joined: 20 Mar 2005
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| 3934. Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:08 pm Post subject: |
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Looks like I"ll need to build some form of jig to get these right.
a warning about the haphazard contoller testing - Short the FULL power of the controller, and you'll blow the 750ma fuse inside the ps2 that I mentioned earlier - I'ts not smart.
That being said, just stick to the two contacts on either side of any button, and you're cool.
--Matt |
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SuRfReAk
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Joined: 19 Dec 2004
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stoli
Trick Member
Joined: 27 Mar 2005
Location: Southern NH |
| 3936. Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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Steve - The border section of my site is up. I haven't had a chance to proof read it so let me know if you find any glaring errors. Might be a few days until I do the next step. I've got a few other matters to attend to and probably won't have time.
My web host seems pathetically slow, so bear with it.
-Stoli
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Ulala321
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Joined: 28 Sep 2004
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| 3937. Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:21 am Post subject: |
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| Looks great, as always, Stoli. Can't wait to see the last two sections. *thumbs up* |
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Rswave2k2
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Joined: 01 Apr 2005
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| 3938. Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:22 am Post subject: |
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| SuRfReAk wrote: | I think I'm going to have to write an FAQ for soldering a controller. At least once a month someone wants solder points for something, or posts with problems soldering. To find solder points: take a short length of wire (think 5-6"), and strip both ends. During a game (in a menu or point where each button being tested will show some visual clue, e.g. in a ddr song, the direction "pressed" will cause an arrow to flash)pick a point you think is a ground, and connect to what you think is a directional point. Use trial and error if you have no idea whatsoever. Usually the labels on the back of the board give you the general location, if not the exact spot.
Should be about right. |
thanks a bunch! I cut all the wires on my tx1000 cause it was having [problem and wired them to the controller and it works better now. And the down arrow is fixed. took me all day but got it done. Thanks again. |
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stoli
Trick Member
Joined: 27 Mar 2005
Location: Southern NH |
| 3939. Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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| steve771 wrote: |
stoli, with regards to some problems you referred to awhile back (pad shutting down momentarily... thought it might be static). Do you think since I will be using aluminum for the stationary pads, that I won't have that static buildup, or do I need to look for some sort of ground system for them? |
I would think you will have the same issue regardless of what kind of metal you use. It was a very insidious problem that didn't show up until a week after the pad started getting use. Best I can figure is that when the pad was new, one of the corners of the center stationary panel was touching a corner of a rear stationary panel and all was well. After it was stomped on for a while, the corners probably separated a minuscule amount, but enough to isolate the center, and the problem started. Haven't had any problems whatsoever since I tied the center panel to the corner. Steps 18 and 19 of the Border Part 2 section of my site shows how I did this. Since you can't solder aluminum, you will need to do something similar. All the other metal pieces on the pad are touching together well enough that the center was the only one I needed to bond. I have not tied any of the panels to the controller ground yet and will only do so if there is a problem in the future. From an electrical standpoint, once you tie the center panel to the rest of the pad, it isn't much different than DHPs design and he doesn't tie his stationary panels to controller ground.
-Stoli
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