Cobalt Flux Dance Platform

[Dave Didder]

I would like to share what I believe to be a HUGE problem with the delivery of Cobalt Flux pads. CF only delivers via FedEx, and FedEx no longer requires a signature upon delivery to residential addresses. This can equal a problem if you are not home when your CF is delivered. FedEx can and will simply leave your CF on your doorstep. THEY DID THIS WITH ME. And I live in a reeeeeeally bad urban neighborhood. Thank God I found my pad before someone else did.

Signature confirmation (to residential addresses) is an option that FedEx offers for an extra $2. I will be contacting Cobalt Flux to implore them to make this a mandatory part of the ordering process. I hope that you will all join me in this crusade. Just think...how would you feel if your shiny new $350 DDR pad was stolen before you even received it?

Having said all of that, I'll add the obligatory praise of the pad's actual performance. I'm very happy with the performance of my CF so far. After disabling the corner buttons for when the songs are in progress and adding the rubberized feet that CF provides, my pad has been delivering top-notch responsiveness and stability. I'll be ordering the arcade mod kit soon to make it even better.

Oh, and I also downloaded some of the custom arrow graphics from the Cobalt Flux website. Printed them out and installed them, and here's the result:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d136/av01der/CFITGmod.jpg

Hope this post has been helpful to all who are considering a Cobalt Flux purchase.

[DJ_R!ch]

I recently just bought another DDR bundle with extreme 2 and i realized i just started getting tired of the soft bad. it slips and bunches, so i started looking online for a metal pad . i thought the TX series on ebay was good, but after reading all the negative comments on them i decided not to go for a TX. I just read all the positive comments on cobalt flux pads and i realized its worth paying more for a quality product. I was just wondering if the pad is compatible with DDR Extreme 2. Picking songs on Extreme 2 is similar to the arcade, left and right for song, but difficulty is chosen by up and down on the original Konami soft pads. I was wondering if the arrows on the CF were used to select songs and difficulty just like the soft pads Konami provides in the bundle packs. I was also wondering if any CF owners played Extreme 2 with their CF pad. I know you have to buy a control box, but does the control box come with all the necessary buttons for choosing songs and difficulty on the newer versions of home DDR in the US like Extreme 2?
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[AA Bob]

[nuttyturnip]

[jeffhos]

I also got my CF almost exactly a month after ordering it.

I can confirm that the BNS parallel port adapter works perfectly with the CF. And using the NTPad XP driver, it is compatible with Windows XP.

Interestingly, I was looking at some of the schematics linked from the NTPad site, and saw that the adapters that work with it do no conversion from the PS2 controller signal... they map the pins from the PS2 controller straight to pins on the parallel port, and the driver understand the PS2 protocol. So using this adapter, you shouldn't see any more lag than hooking the pad directly up to a PS2 (this is confirmed by my experience... had no problem getting tons of marvellous-es in StepMania immediately after hooking it up).

The USB adapters map themselves as USB joysticks, so they actually have to decode the PS2 controller signal and encode the USB joystick signal, wich necessarily introduces some lag.

So if you have a parallel port free, I'd say definitely go for the parallel port adapter.

[Nitrogen]

[DJZylch]

I finally got my CF today!!!

But...

THEY DIDN'T SEND ME A FUCKING CONTROL BOX!!!!!!
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cartoonhero91089 wrote:

u put ur RFI u put ur RFO u put ur RFI and ya shake it all about..

Miike wrote:

Hello Kitty wouldn't be half as cool if it was like, Hello Parakeet

Evilhawk 78 wrote:

That's not fair! That's like trading a Charizard for a Weedle!

[-dark-xuxa]

[Nitrogen]

[ICNH]

I desperately need a CF. But with me throwing $350, I'm a little wary. I'd appreciate it if someone could help answer some questions. I've heard it breaks on a shag carpet. Can anyone confirm/deny this? Also, how long will it take to arrive at my house from the time of order? Finally, how much will shipping be to New Jersey? Thanks for anyone who can help.
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Who posts here anymore?

DDRecall. | Groovestats. Challenges? | YouTube Vids.

[Nitrogen]

A lot of these types of questions can be answered at http://www.cobaltflux.com/forum but to answer the ones you brought up:

Shag carpet is known to cause uneven stress on the baseboard, which can cause the baseboard to crack. The most common fix for this is either a home-built wood platform, or just a sturdy piece of plywood underneath of it.

They are shipping faster during Christmas season to try to get them out to people before Christmas, but the average wait time is 3-4 weeks.

Shipping is same anywhere in the United states: $45

[ICNH]

Good, and thanks for the reply. Now, how can I tell if my carpet is shag? Probably a stupid question, but please answer anyway.
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Who posts here anymore?

DDRecall. | Groovestats. Challenges? | YouTube Vids.

[Nitrogen]

Basically, it's shag if it's loose. If you can run your hand over and cause the strands to lay over in another direction, you have loose, shag carpet. However, if your carpet is tightly woven, you can't move the strands at all and it's a pretty hard surface.

A good way to test if it's going to hurt the pad would be to lay a large piece of wood on the carpet, and press on it like you would a pad. If the back lifts up from the pressure, imagine that being your baseboard. Enough bending in this fashion cracks it. If, however, the board lays flat wherever you step, you should be fine.

[EdwardForrester]

I, like most of you, have been waiting anxiously for a Xbox Control Box for your CF or before you get one. And we have been waiting for quite sometime, and while I dont have an exact date to tell you. I do have some hopeful news from Vance over on the CF Fourms. Now I know we have heard stuff like this before, but I confess I am hopeful.

To put it simply Vance has said the following:

Hey guys, I thought I'd give you an update on the control box. Being mysterious is fun some of the time, but this particular product had been in the works forever, so I'll keep you all posted.

Basically, it's done, and it's incredibly sick -- we're almost ready to start taking preorders. However, what Daemon said is true: before we can sell it we're waiting on some last verifications from Microsoft (primarily in terms of part availability). Since it's Xbox 360 season, MS seems to be blowing almost everybody off, and every single peripheral company on the planet is hammering for 360 parts/info (including us Wink ), so we're just crossing our fingers we'll hear back from them soon. The last thing we want to do is start selling them and then find out we can't get Xbox plugs until March after our initial shipment.

If MS takes too long, we'll start looking to companies like Lik-Sang for parts so we can reliably build the thousands of these we're going to need. Lik-Sang is a solid company and they've come through for us in other pinch situations.

In addition, since you guys are all waiting with baited breath, I'll add on a teaser. Cobalt Flux has a brand new v3 on the way. The v3 is an entirely different platform than the v2, and will likely be in a slightly higher price bracket, as the modifications we wanted to make push it a bit. As most of you know, we have a fairly extensive line of commercial products (some of which are also launching this season), and we've taken a few ideas from those to come up with the what we believe is the truly ultimate home platform. Keep an eye out.

Now I dont want to immedately get my hopes up but at least we know where they are development wise. Thought I would let you all know.

Forrester
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[Nitrogen]

Could you link to the thread you got that from? It would seem such an announcement would be on fire with replies, but I haven't seen anything like this on those forums.

[deM']

http://www.cobaltflux.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3519&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=80

[Nitrogen]

Thanks.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I said I would follow up on how the parallel port adaptor works. I first tried NTPad - most well known XP drivers, but these did not work. I next tried PSX pad (http://www.psxpad.com/index_e.php) and these drivers worked perfectly. Luckily, there's a few different ones available at aldostools.com. So, for me, $7 shipped for a perfectly good adapter is the way to go.

[Jupichan]

Today, while I was coming home from work, my dad told me that he and my mom might just buy the pad for me. O_O

I'd kinda feel bad though. I never intended on trying to get anyone else to buy the pad for me. I've been saving up for awhile, waiting for my bank account to get over a certain number, and now that it has, I was going to buy the pad very soon. But now my parents might buy it as a Christmas present for me.

My first though was "Holy finger sandwiches, Batman! I'd totally put in the other $300 to get a doubles set..."

But my dad doesn't like THAT idea...o.O

Seems he's willing to spend a ridiculous amount of money on ME, but he's not willing to let me spend money that I've been saving specifically for this. Kooky.

[Snouman]

[maxx freak]

Hmmm... The cobaltflux does not have recessed arrow buttons... I'M NEVER GETTING ONE. Maybe when i turn 15 i'll look into a redoctane afterburner...