My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

Synaesthesia · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 12:10 pm Post subject:

Is Ethernet cable synonymous with Cat5 telephone wire? I bring this up because Cat5 has 8 wires, and might be cheaper (though you're only saving pennies with wire costs...>.>)
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Maistorm · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Location: B'ham, AL

I've always heard Ethernet referred to as Category 5 cable, so I'd assume they are one and the same.

Ulala321 · Trick Member Joined: 28 Sep 2004

Okay, so I'm building pads with PS2 controllers, but if I want to go back to Ultramix every now and then, I would use this:

http://www.estarland.com/index.asp?action=redir&page=XBox&category=Accessory&product=14436&q

It says it translates PS2 to X-Box perfectly, but it also says it's not compatible with Cobalt Flux. Any ideas on why, and does anyone know if this would affect a home-built pad?

Aflac · Trick Member Joined: 28 Mar 2005

Ethernet cable = Cat5 cable.

Also:

If you are planning on using aluminum flashing for Stoli's design:

BE CAREFUL WHICH ALUMINUM YOU BUY!!!! (even though its cheap. BUT STILL BE CAREFUL)

I bought two rolls of flashing for my pad - one roll of 6"x10', another roll of 14"x10'. The 14" had a gold back, the 6" was the same front and back. Anyway, long story short, I now have scratch marks from the wood I clamped to the aluminum and black marks from the rubber mallet i used - BUT THIS ONLY HAPPENED ON THE 6" ROLL. So me, right now, I'm here extremely pissed that my aluminum would two-time me like this.

Also, if you plan on working with aluminum flashing, obey the advice of slvrshdw and geckoinc99 and cut a couple inches more than you need. it helps IMMENSELY with bending, especially for the border pieces.

Anyway...

Can anyone explain to me why aluminum doesn't have the static electricity problem? I was thinking about what someone said about aluminum being a better conductor than steel. Me = ??Confused??

Anyway again...

Stoli, about the silicone/rubber tubing you put on the screws going into the lucite: How deep should this tubing go? Should it go into the hardboard panels or should it stop right before it hits the panel? And- should the tubing be very tight on the screw threads, or should it be able to easily slip on and off?

Thanks and sorry for the long post.

stoli · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Location: Southern NH

Synaesthesia · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 10:53 am Post subject:

I just performed some more tests on my pad, and I found some very interesting things. First off, I slid the pad back to its original position, very close to the TV. To my surprise, it didn't ghost step any more than it does 6-7 feet away. That was partially encouraging. Putting it further back, I decided to measure voltage drops--which, interestingly enough, there weren't any; I couldn't detect any drop in potential with the TV on or off. (This is all very strange, since I haven't done anything different to the pad since I last messed with it.) Now for the really fun part; my pad seems to have learned a new trick. Placing my hand on (or even near, as in, 1/16") the Lexan causes that arrow to begin furiously activating. Holding the multimeter probes in place, I can touch my free hand to the Lexan, to find that my hand's presence causes the "typical" ~.5 V drop. If, when playing a song and watching the target arrows for activation, I touch my foot (with a shoe on) to the Lexan, it causes activation, but not so much as my bare hand. I can only guess my body is acting like a large antenna, so that when I touch my hand to the Lexan, it's doing something.... I don't really know what, but it makes the pad worse... I even tried performing the test with one hand on the metal frame of my mom's car, and the other hovering over the arrow (I thought the car would ground me out or something, but I guess not). I considered trying to wrap all wires in metal to shield them (as someone suggested earlier), but I don't really know how to go about doing that, and I'm not so sure it's the wires now that I've found this little "magic hand" trick. Is a dancepad circuit board the key to fixing all these woes (I could always make some improvised X/O/Start/whatever buttons), or should I still look at other alternatives?
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im a lasagna whale

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Aflac · Trick Member Joined: 28 Mar 2005

Ulala321 · Trick Member Joined: 28 Sep 2004

Okay, so I'm building pads with PS2 controllers, but if I want to go back to Ultramix for X-Box every now and then, I would use this:

http://www.estarland.com/index.asp?action=redir&page=XBox&category=Accessory&product=14436&q

It says it translates PS2 to X-Box perfectly, but it also says it's not compatible with Cobalt Flux dance pads. Any ideas on why it would be incompatible with Cobalt Flux? And does anyone know if this would affect a home-built pad?

If anyone has any experience with PS2 to X-Box contoller adapters, any information would be helpful. If not, I may just have to buy one and keep the receipt.

Aflac · Trick Member Joined: 28 Mar 2005

geckoinc99 · Trick Member Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Location: Chattanooga, TN

Aflac,
I believe that the reason the aluminum flashing doesn't have static buildup problems to the extent that sheetmetal does is because it appears to be clear coated. The clear coating makes a nonmetallic surface which makes it hard for static to build up. This, at least, has been my experience. I know that some multimeter testing indicated that it didn't conduct electricity. Hey, it works, so why question it

Hope this helps.

David

Oh, also, you can try using a solvent such as a paint thinner to remove the adhesive as long as it's only on the flashing (I would try a test piece first to see if it affects it any). Also, check the can for removal suggestions. They usually have those.
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Maistorm · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Location: B'ham, AL

Bah, I"m really annoyed now. I bought two used PS2 controllers today - A Pelican and a Sony one. The Pelican had horrible contact points (the two opposing pairs of three prongs type of contacts) with little copper to work with, and then the Sony one had a freakin' rubber PCB, and my soldering iron instantly melted it when it grazed by, so that controller is ruined. I'm going to try to exchange the Pelican for a different brand (is Mad Catz or Gamestop brand any good for this?), but I"m still out $8 on the Sony one. Argh.

Also, what should I use to drill the points? I'm using a 1/16th drill bit right now.

Kage · Trick Member Joined: 19 Mar 2002

Finished my pad about a week ago and it works AWESOME. I recommend using [8] sheets of Polycarbonate from MCMaster.com, part # 8574K25 because it's made to withstand high impacts so it's very durable. Cost me $40.75 shipped. No screws through the top of the brackets were used, they simply are not needed if you cut the PolyC to match the frame. Cutting both sheets at the same time with a carbide tip saw blade worked perfect for myself.

I recommend a 15W and 30W soldering irons for this project. Use the 15W for the controller and the 30W for the sheet metal contacts, the 15W just doesn't have enough power to make a rock solid connection. Liquid flux and a Qtip served me well also.

Here are some pictures:

Just had to dremel out the arrow pad, a slice for the ethernet cable, and some other near by ish to make room for wires. It went back together quite easily, just a PIA to keep the L1 keys in check.

If you have any questions about my pad, just drop me a PM.

Heffenfeffer · Trick Member Joined: 22 Apr 2002 Location: Las Cruces, NM

Maistorm · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Location: B'ham, AL

Ah cool

Well I did trade in the Pelican one for a Mad Catz and it worked great. Had one problem that was pretty much user error: I accidentally drilled through the trace for the down arrow, and when I realized it was the one arrow that didn't work, I opened it back up and filled the hole up with solder. The funny thing is, for some reason the down and right arrows on the other side of the PCB suddenly glued together, so either pressing down or right would cause both to go off (great way to do jumps!).

Fixed it though, and now i"ve got a working pad. I might take pictures later

Ravenwing · Trick Member Joined: 22 Jun 2003 Location: Leavenworth, KS

Put me down too for a 100% finished pad:

Thanks, Stoli, for your design!
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Synaesthesia · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:06 pm Post subject:

Today I decided to give high-end technology a try, and used some super-advanced Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil to wrap the wires leading to Up and Left, the 2 arrows which would randomly activate. It seems this has 100% worked! The "magic hand" trick I described earlier doesn't appear to be an issue, so long as I am wearing shoes. I tested it against Novice Mode on ITG, because I didn't have the frame attached, and didn't want the arrow panels flying all over the place. I was able to Fantastic Attack everything (out of 3 songs tried, I FEC'd 2 (<--SDE on those) and FFC'd 1), so it all appears to work fine. Tonight I'll draw up the arrow graphics (using Japanese kanji for the cardinal directions, freehanded), and tomorrow I'll screw it all into the baseboard. I ought to have at least 1 picture uploaded somewhere by the end of tomorrow. Here's hoping!

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im a lasagna whale

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Aflac · Trick Member Joined: 28 Mar 2005

Ravenwing · Trick Member Joined: 22 Jun 2003 Location: Leavenworth, KS

Thanks. Yeah, it's galvy, though it's actually a galvy flashing, not "actual" sheet metal. I used that on pretty much everything: metal contacts, side borders, stationary panels...it's all the flashing. As for the arrows, lexan w/ the greenish coating, and the arrow design was an original collaboration between me, my girlfriend, and another friend of mine. Arrows were printed on cardstock at a local print shop.

I pretty much followed Stoli's directions to the letter; Only discrepencies were the flashing of course...I also used some rubber cement to keep the mousepad corners in place, I spray-adhesived and staplegunned a Workbench Vice (aka rubber mat) to the bottom to protect my hardwood floor, and the tubing I used for the screws wasn't the same. Oh yeah...and either because I cut the squares a little too small, or the flashing didn't add enough width, the squares were further apart than suspected, so I actually had to solder a small piece of flashing to the center panel and one of the side panels in order to electrically tie it. The pad itself is super-sensitive already...right when I jumped on, it worked perfectly, and after taking it immediately to a friend's house for a lil' party, it held up beautifully... great on hardwood, carpet, with shoes and without. Not to mention, it's completely noiseless!!
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We all LIVE, therefore we are all EVIL, because the two words are one and the same...
...Oni mode is LIVE.

stoli · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Location: Southern NH

Hey Ravenwing - Excellent job. Nice sheet metal work and the arrows are very cool. They kinda have a Georgia O'Keefe meets Molly Hatchet in Hell thing going on. Probably your girlfriend's influence. If there is anything on my site that should be changed or was unclear, don't hesitate to let me know so I can fix it.

-Stoli
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Ravenwing · Trick Member Joined: 22 Jun 2003 Location: Leavenworth, KS

Heh, thanks Stoli, I'll let her know what you thought. ^_~

Actually, as far as your instructions go, I found them to be incredibly helpful and specific enough to not leave anything to guesswork. The only clarification that comes to mind is just specifying the dimensions of the metal pieces for the side borders...this came up in here a while ago, I think, and it's not even necessary so long as the builder does the math right. Other than that, I firmly believe that the perfect functionality of my pad is because, with your site and some ordinary common sense, I knew exactly what to do every step of the way. I even printed off the 3 pictures of the circuit board as a reference for when I was soldering my own controller.

But that reminds me! When I opened the controller, there was a sort of plastic "X" mounted over the X,O,Square,Triangle buttons that held the rubbery button-cushiony-stuff in place, and that made it -extremely- difficult to solder those two buttons. Did you snap that off, or did I just happen to get the "Mad Catz harder-to-solder Retro"? If you did, that might be another thing you'd want to mention, since I was unsure if removing it would hurt the controller. I can take a pic when I open my other controller if necessary. Again, it's not really essential...just for those who choose to go with the same controller as you, I guess.
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We all LIVE, therefore we are all EVIL, because the two words are one and the same...
...Oni mode is LIVE.