My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

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

Just a little note of Congratulations to slvrshdw for making the 5,000th post in this thread. Perhaps he can celebrate by getting himself some vowels.
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HitokiriX · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Location: Berwyn, PA

Synaesthesia · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:42 pm Post subject:

The post number in a thread starts at 0. So slvr got the actually 5000th, while Heff got the 5000 GET.
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Heffenfeffer · Trick Member Joined: 22 Apr 2002 Location: Las Cruces, NM

VoijaRisa · Trick Member Joined: 10 Dec 2005 Location: Lawrence KS

Synaesthesia · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:44 pm Post subject:

Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong kind of lag, but I think if you experience pad lag, you can adjust the game's timing such that you don't notice it. Oh, and the "1 reply per day trick" was actually per my suggestion.

(The trick is, in just about every other forum, we have complete morons constantly signing up and spamming stupidity, had a moderate "attack" of some crackheads from another website, etc. It sucks because the folks who start in this thread aren't the moronic spammers we're trying to silence. AFAIK you can still send PMs just fine, though.)
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geckoinc99 · Trick Member Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Location: Chattanooga, TN

VoijaRisa,
If you already have the wireless controll, then by all means use it. However, a suggestion, I would make sure that if you need to you can easily swap out the board whether because the wireless lag gets annoying or the board fries. In your case I hope it works out well. You may have a better board version than I had and it doesn't lag as badly. I was just speaking from my experience with one. I would expect that it would get you throught light and standard, but eventually you will probably need the accuracy of a wired pad. Luckily, they're only $20 and you can just swap the board out (if you decide you need to).
Yes, you are correct in saying that the wiring is the same. They were just saying not to deviate from the other plans because it's been tried and trued. However, if no one deviated we wouldn't have different versions of pads. I deviated by having a pad that I can get to the contacts under my arrows in one second and also have a pad that breaks apart in three pieces for easy traveling in small cars. You could have the first functional wireless pad. Time will tell. At any rate, enjoy the build and new pad when you're done.

David
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Life is very different 3000 feet above the earth with only a wing to hold you up....
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VoijaRisa · Trick Member Joined: 10 Dec 2005 Location: Lawrence KS

geckoinc99, intresting to hear that you have a pad that is easily dissassemblable. I was considering trying to create a way to do something similar given that my pad will probably need to be travelling with me between home and college fairly frequently and I'm reliant upon space in other people's cars. Do you happen to have any pictures or plans that I might see?

HitokiriX · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Location: Berwyn, PA

Wow that sounds really interesting! How did you get the contacts to stay connected even when you broke it up? And the quick dissassembly design looks cool too. It would be awesome if you could show these designs online!

mindless2 · Trick Member Joined: 24 Oct 2005

Yeah, or even just pictures. It osunds interesting

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

Hey group,
Glad to hear that some are interested in my break apart pad (Yeah! Someone's interested in one of my ideas! Time to contribute!). I apologize that it's going to be a little while before I can get pictures up for you (wife and I are going to Ft. Worth, TX for a week visiting friends). Basically, all you do is divide the board long two lines (from left to right) so that one piece has back platform and back arrow with two non arrow squares, then another piece has left and right arrow with middle non arrow squares, then the last piece has the up arrow and two nonfunctional arrows and top control plate (if you mounted the buttons on the board). I realize a picture would help with this and I'll get to that as soon as I can. Then, you just make plugs for the wires at the break away points so that you can unplug them when you need to. Then you just hold the pieces together with the largest mending brackets that your pad will accomodate. Screw it to the sides so it spans across the break. That's about it.

Now is this design perfect? No, for a short answer. Because the base is cut, there will be a small amount of flex at the joints. The thicker the mending brackets the better this will be. Also, it might not flex much if you have a hard floor (I have carpet and it flexes a slight amount). Also, this design can't use the corner brackets, so if you have to have those (I didn't want them) it won't work. At the present moment, Stoli's design is the only one that would work with this with a modification to the outside border (since it has to be in sections also). My arrows just float, meaning that I have my top plexing, graphic, bottom plexi, and metal contact strips bolted together so they don't separate and then just set this donw in the well. Since everything else is raised and all the mending strip contacts are on the outside edge (my pad is a Riptide pad mostly), I never have a problem with the square popping out during play. Now, the floating arrow is a problem if you pick up the pad, but since I don't move them that much it's not a big deal to me, especially since I can just lift the arrow out to get to the inside for tweaking. However, Stoli's design would work well if you have to pick the pad up often.

Now, with this difference how does the pad play? As far as I'm concerned very well. I'm no master, but I'm up to 8-9 footers and am just now taking on 10 footers (with a marginal success). I guess the best rating I can give you is that I almost had a AA on Rhythm and Police with 43 greats, 1 good (my fault) and the rest perfects. I hardly notice the flex and don't see it as getting in the way. By flex, I mean it moves a few millimeters (not much, just not as solid). Despite the flex, this design gives you a very decent pad (I think just as good as others) but will break down into three pieces that will take up about 3 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot of space, easily put in any small car.

My design is not perfect, and there may be better ways of doing it, but this was what I came up with and is easily accomplished by anyone who's building a pad. Anyone with other ideas are welcome to submit them. I will eventually get something written up on this for those curious about it. Hopefully this posting will give you enough to work with. As always, I'm open to questions. Happy pad building!

David
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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

VoijaRisa · Trick Member Joined: 10 Dec 2005 Location: Lawrence KS

I'm curious as to what kinds of "plugs" you used at the joints? Did you use Cat5 cable and just use outlets and the crimpers for that?

I like your idea overall and think I might be trying to do something like this. I know the poor girl that gives me a ride to school would appreciate me not having such a funny shaped thing in her car all the time.

gca4evtc1 · Basic Member Joined: 14 Dec 2005 Location: liverpool

im just wonderin do u have to have foam core in the arrows or can it be just weather strippind cuz im gonna do ddrhomepads designt but do riptides designs with the arrow brakets so i avoid the risk of shorts

HitokiriX · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Location: Berwyn, PA

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

Greetings,

I just built two more pads to give as Christmas gifts and while shopping for supplies, I noticed that Best Buy does not carry the Mad Catz Retro controllers any more. So, I used the Beatpad Controllers instead. They cost more ($20 per) but as many have stated, they are much easier to work with. I put some pics of the new pads on my site and also updated some of the step by step instructions. Here is a pic of one of the new pads with the new controller. I added two buttons (found at Radio Shack) for the "Select" and "Start" buttons on the controller.

Cheers,

-Stoli
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Marvel627 · Trick Member Joined: 07 Jun 2003

Hey! In your opinion, which is more like the arcade, ddrhomepad/stoli pad or riptide's pad. Also, are there any homepad instructions that feature recessed arrows.

Quad_killeR ^.^ · Trick Member Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Location: Da Nati

Hey I have a quick question. Why do you need to solder the wires to the ground switch also?? What does it do?? everyone says solder the wires to the ground switch but i dont know what it does.

Also, for riptides videos. How come my bit torrent wont load them? I keep getting the same 'ol error.

Sry to interrupt your question Marvel627.
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stoli · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Location: Southern NH

mindless2 · Trick Member Joined: 24 Oct 2005

Stoli, you rock

I am making your design and I am using the same madkatz pad for the controll box. Nice placing

I'm gonna use that now

Edit:
Update (12/15/2005): The Fellowes mouse pad that Target sells is much thinner now. I found one at Staples for $4.00 that was the right thickness.

Nice, a new staples just opened by me

Quad_killeR ^.^ · Trick Member Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Location: Da Nati

Ah thank you very much!!! I get it now. I was just a little confused before. Also does n e one know how to solve my problem with the ripide videos???

This is the error: ERROR Problem connecting to tracker - <urlopen error (10060, "Operation timed Out")
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