Vortz Ignition Pads dying one after another!

mab45 · Basic Member Joined: 15 Apr 2005

I'm on my 5th and 6th Vortz Ignition Pads (from Ebay) and they are all having the same problems... after around 50 songs on standard, the "down arrow" craps out (happened on ALL 4).

It's getting really frustrating. I bought 4 pads originally. All four have this issue.

What am I supposed to do? I was reading some other posts, is the dense foam a problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Pissed in Pittsburgh

IamMe · Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 6:33 am Post subject:

umm.. first, don't buy the same pad the craps out on you each time 6 times in a row..?

Maybe get a RedOctane ignition if that's all you want to spend, that lasted me around 8 months of heavy mode play.

cam · Trick Member Joined: 18 Mar 2005 Location: Massachusetts

Hey, I think I might have the same pad as you. I got it off ebay for VERY cheap, the pad worked great all through light mode but I've started getting great on standard. I've noticed my left button sometimes hates me and doesn't work or something... and when I'm switching through songs it'll register unwanted motions and flick through the songs and I'm not even touching it. I tried taking out the foam in the bottom, it works fine with out the foam inside, but when I put the foam back in it worked for about a song and started being annoying again. Its just the brand- what do you expect off ebay? I don't even think its a real company, its worse than a 3d party brand... But for a while it worked fine. The buttons are so sensitive... I know I don't plan on buying one of these again. I plan on either 2 Cobalt fluxes... or a Red Octane ignition pad. I'd recomend the same.

mab45 · Basic Member Joined: 15 Apr 2005

Hmmm, so yours works w/o the foam insert then? I will have to try that... any other solutions out there?

Agent J · Trick Member Joined: 29 Feb 2004 Location: Dimension X

I bought a pair of Vortz pads off eBay and it seems, unmodded, they have a lifespan of about a month. I did the Rychan mod on one, and it's still going, but on the other one the left arrow went crazy after a few weeks. During one particular session, after failing a song I started over only to get to the song select screen and watch the song wheel spin nonstop with me not even pressing anything. My suggestion is the Rychan mod, which can be found here on this site. This helps, I think, because the particle board is actually thinner than the foam insert. The foam insert seems almost too thick, like maybe the pad is stretched too tightly over it and the button can't decompress. At least that's what I've found.

Rychan · Contributor Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Location: Castle Rock, CO

So far I've found the thicker the wood piece, the thinner the foam to fill in the space the better off you'll be. My first pair of ignitions came with two really thin pieces of foam instead of the thick dense stuff. As long as people pick up their feet and don't slide every step (which shifts the insides of the pad causing them to tear), the modification should really help you.

The pad that I had with the thin piece of particle board, the board started to crack before I gave it to my brother's girlfriend for her pad.
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The "Rychan" Ignition Pad Modification | DeviantArt

joyu · Basic Member Joined: 01 Apr 2005 Location: Chico, Cali

I have the same pads, I am having problems with my down arrows also, they worked perfect for about the first month, but have now started to mess up. I should have done the Mod right away. Oh well, I might still do it and see how it goes. I had this beside a red octane for a week and they seemed almost exactly the same. The foam felt almost the same, but these seem to be softer now, and stay compressed a little longer then when new. Maybe thats part of the problem.

Also the upleft arrow has merger with the left arrow on one of the pads, so I just select with the upright button. Does vortz cover these if they were baught of Ebay, maybe I'll exchange and get mod it right away.

BTW I play on standard, with a's on all except max 300.

joyu · Basic Member Joined: 01 Apr 2005 Location: Chico, Cali

After inspecting my pads, they have rips on the inside above the cracks from the foam. If you have/get these pads, and are not planning on doing any mods, I would at least recomend doing the duck tape mod, just tape up all the cracks in the foam. From what I can tell when I am stepping on one arrow, the arrow on any side is not being compressed at all which is putting pressure on that area of the pad.

I have found that the upleft and left arrow are grounded together, so the crease has probably stuck the wires together.

Even worse my down arrow has begun to ground with the right arrow which would make it unplayable instead of an incovenience (right now I just use the upright instead of upleft to select songs.

mab45 · Basic Member Joined: 15 Apr 2005

Well, I'm finishing the basement in my new house and we're tearing down old wood panelling that was up before... A lightbulb went off in my head:

We cut a 32x31 piece w/ rounded edges from the wood panelling and inserted them on top of the Ebay Vortz Ignition foam. The panelling is only about 1/8 inch thick, so it fits perfectly snug. To prevent cracking/etc/etc I duct-taped all the edges and duct taped it to the foam....

we'll see how well this works -- any guesses? should this enhance their lifespan?

DDRHanyouMeitantei · Basic Member Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Location: in a house

termdeath · Basic Member Joined: 22 May 2005

I went through 6 ignitions (kept trading them in at best buy) before I finally just said f' it. They're crap. I play on heavy and they would last a few weeks at best. Also don't even try the xbox, a couple of them wouldn't even work straight out of the box. I ended up taking a couple of months off from ddr cuz I just got so fed up. I just received my CF doubles pack this week and couldn't be happier. If you don't have the cash you can home build a metal pad for the price of an ignition, but don't keep wasting $ on those things. If you play light, go for it, but anything like 6 footer or above will demolish those things in no time.

Wang · Trick Member Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Location: Erie, PA

My friend (who doesn't have an account here) is having the same problem as mab45. She plays on an XBox.

She bought a Red Octane Ignition 2.0 and after a little bit of play, the down arrow stopped working. So she called RO and had a replacement shipped out. Once again, the down arrow stopped working. She went through 3-4 Ignitions before giving up.

Now just recently, she bought a BNS Ultra DX-Xtreme from my recommendation. I've had mine for almost a year now and it's working great still. But on hers, the down arrow once again stopped responding.

I haven't gotten a chance to look at it for myself yet, but she says the arrow still works if it is the only button being pressed at the time. Example: If you are standing on the left arrow, the down arrow will not work, but if you are standing in the middle, it works fine.

Now, I can't believe this problem would have anything to do with the pads since: 1) It's happened to 4 pads, 2) from 2 different companies, 3) my pad works flawlessly.

My thoughts are that the problem lies within the XBox-PS2 controller adapter or some incompatiability with XBox systems. (I'm leaning towards the former.)

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

PS: Unfortunately, I don't know the type of adapter she's using. I'll find out ASAP.
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FreqLikeMe · Basic Member Joined: 09 Jun 2005 Location: Northern VA

Ok, I bought a gamestop soft pad a few weeks ago, and, as expected, it's already broken or breaking in numerous ways. So instead of just replacing it I decided to go out and get an Afterburner, which I recieved last night, YaY. But, somewhere along the way I realized that I cart my soft pad around with me quite often and that I wasn't going to be able to do that easily with the AB. SO, I decided to also purchase an ignition knock off. Namely, the Vortz. I haven't heard that many bad things about it and I was unwilling to pay 110 bucks for an RO ignition because I've heard almost ALL bad things about it. So, I figured I'd try this one out. Got a pair for like 35 bucks shipped on ebay so, what the hell. Now...my question is...has anyone modded this particular pad? If so, how'd it work out for you? Does modding the ignition knock off's usually extend the life of the pad or does it just make game play better?