My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

[Master_Nabo]

Riptide, your the man! Will do my best to keep the files seeded .

[NiGHTS Chao]

DAMNIT *angry as hell* right when my pad gets done (note that I'm only about 115 pounds)

my arrows arnt senitive enough T_T so I got angry and stomped on it with all my weight on one arrow (it was funny)

and broke it, now it should be like this

Plexi-glass (lucite)
ArrowGraphic
Plexi-glass With 26 gauge sheet metal attached to the bottom
(inside of the arrow)
weather-stripping
foam core corners
sheet metal thats attached to pegboard


well the pegboard is starting to split in the middle thus its pulling the bottom sheet metal peice down and I cant hit the arrow

so I shoved wood under that peg board to support the arrow better and hope it would pop-back into place and hold it there from shattering
well its kinda working but I need to put even more in there


please help me
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1337

[deM']

Got a question for all the electronic geeks out there...
Using a NPN type transistor as a relay circuit in series with a riptide style contact switch, would the collector current be lowered amperage? Because it seems that my light circuit isnt giving my cathodes full power... but im really not sure.

[geckoinc99]

demonic,
I think from your post, you're using the transistor as a switch (to turn on the LEDs when the arrow is making contact). I'm working on this currently myself so I thought I would share what I have. I don't know for sure if it will work, but I will know by Monday when my new things arrive.
First of all, the PS controller goes from about 3.5V to 0V when a button is pressed. This is important. Since it works with reverse logic, an NPN transistor will not work. This is because the Base will only energize when the voltage goes from 0V to 3.5V (at least in this case). When you press the pad down, voltage goes to 0 which would make the transistor in the off state. The fact that you have some light going through means your transistor isn't in the saturated state and so is passing a small amount of current. However, when you want a switch type behavior you have to have saturation. I can help you pick the right transistor if you need help with that. The biggest help I can give you is that you will need a PNP transistor, not an NPN.
Second, I wouldn't put it in series with the switch. Now you may mean something else when you say that, but I don't know. I also don't know much about your circuit, so it would be hard to answer your question. Here's a picture (sorry for the crudeness) of the circuit I'm going to try out:


You will note a couple of things:
1. I have a PNP transistor that is wired in parallel BEFORE the switch. This is because we want the 3.5V going to the transistor when the pad is not pressed on. Once contact is made, it drops to 0V and the transistor turns on.
2. I have four LEDs running off of a separate power supply. In order to use white LEDs and get the brightness you need, you really need a separate power supply. This is pretty easy to do. Make a power jack and use a wall transformer. I'm using 24V in order to make sure my LEDs get enough. If anyone wants the calculations on why I came to this number, let me know. Also note that there is a resistor in series with the LEDs. This is also important.
3. I drew an arrow to show you the current flow in the LEDs just in case you needed it.
4. On the controller, I just use + for Power and - for Common (ground as some are calling it).

Again, I haven't tested it, but in theory it should work. I don't know if this will help you, but I hope it gets you somewhere.

David
_________________

Life is very different 3000 feet above the earth with only a wing to hold you up....
Can't wait to be there again. Wanna join me? Visit http://www.hanglide.com

[deM']

thats a great idea, i never thought to use pnp transistors. I was wiring the npn in parrallel with the ground of the controller, which obviously wouldnt work... now that i think about it =)
But im also using an external psu to run the 12v needed for a cathode kit, and im actually going to go to radioshack tonight and give that schem of yours a try, it seems flawless. Thanks alot for the help and il make sure to keep you informed on progress

[deM']

WElllll
i tried out that schem of yours, and i ran into an unusual problem, it seems that the transistor is turning semi- on when the button isnt depressed and fully on when it is...

[NiGHTS Chao]

Need Help one last time

well on my pad I did what people told me and bought a soft-mat dance pad then soldered the wires for my homemade metal one to the circut board

one last question

it works fine with the softpad circut board still stuck to the pad

(so it goes like this)

my metal pad
|
wire
|
my softpad circut board
|
|
then the softpad is obviously having the controller wire come out and into my adapter then the compy

but the softpad circut board is STILL attached by like ribbon wire or something to the actuall soft pad part

now what i'm wondering is, should I just cut that? and then stoe the circut board in my metal dance pad? or do I have to do something different?

im also soldering wires with cherry microswitches so they function as start-select
I currently cant hit double arrows because my adapter tells me that I need to hold "start-select-up" for 3 seconds so it changes to a dance pad (and I tested it before soldering my soft pad and it works fine)
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1337

[Heffenfeffer]

[NiGHTS Chao]

[deM']

please dont quote such a long passage for a 2 sentance answer.. =p

[NiGHTS Chao]

[deM']

well erhm emm im on my stepmania server, which has 800x600.... so yea, on a 19 inch monitor thats pretty damn big. but still, no need to quote, all you had to do was say his name

[geckoinc99]

Dem0nic,
Like I said, I hadn't had a chance to test the circuit out yet. I'm waiting for my supplies to show up (should be this Monday). Give me a few days to try it out and let me see what's happening. Part of your problem may be the other things that you're using. I would need to see exactly what you have in order to better understand. It may be that you just need to modify the circuit a bit in order to get full saturation (which is what the problem sounds like). If you're interested, email me and we'll see if we can work on it together. Maybe we'll both learn something.

David
_________________

Life is very different 3000 feet above the earth with only a wing to hold you up....
Can't wait to be there again. Wanna join me? Visit http://www.hanglide.com

[Paramount X]

Hey I am going to start this Mod. First things first I want to do an xbox version. I also didn't want to read this 200+ page thread So if anybody has done this using xbox stuff please direct me to it.

Also how much would it cost.
and how much time consuming it is.

[deM']

hehe, start reading =p its fairly easy to do a xbox pad, especially for use with pc. But we all had to read thru it, it only takes about an hour,

But on the topic of lighting, yea i would love to be able to figure this out, il drop you an email on say, tuesday, and we can go from there.

[Paramount X]

A home made metal pad
A cobalt flux
and a after burner

out of them, which is better. I think it really HM and CF. is the home made metal as durable as a arcade ?

[deM']

Well, homemade pads can be as good as you make them, litterally. You can make a pad that craps out worse than softpads, but then again you can make pads that will "Never" break, and have the arcade feel. For the best retail pad i would give the cobaltflux the most durable award, and the afterburner the most arcade realistic. It's all a matter of personal preference

[Paramount X]

Ok so the HM pad
http://www.digitaltorque.com/dancepad/

is built best.

what about somthing bout flexy glass, and luc* somrthing what will differ

[deM']

what are you talking about flexiglass, and luc*?
plexiglass*? and lucite... theres only one suffix for luc =p

What about them?

[slvrshdw]