My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

Marq(uistadorous) · Trick Member Joined: 03 Aug 2005 Location: Arvada, CO

I know this is not the answer you want, but don't use any type of controller. TRUST ME!!! I just got done with my homemade pad after trying soldering to a ps2 controller, soldering to a soft pad control box, and finally soldering to my old tx1000 control box. I just got a 15 pin connector from radio shack, soldered to the right wires to the right pins, and plugged it in to my tx1000 control box. That is the only thing that worked. When I tried using the control box from my old softpad (it looked the same as the pic above me), the start button would randomly activate, and I would miss ALOT when there were any fast steps in a song. Just use an 15 pin connector to solder the wires onto and then plug it in to a tx control box. For more info on what I had to deal with, read the thread titled: Marq's homemade metal pad, or what ever I calleed it

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vicman617 · Basic Member Joined: 26 Jul 2005

is the diagram of the circuit board from the red octane pad (on the page before this one) the same on any circuit board. could i take one out of any of my soft pads and would the solder points be the same? also is it possible to solder to an authentic ps1 controller, and where exactly do i drill the holes and what are the little coper circles. if anyone could PLEASE pm me on what exactly to do to solder to the ps1 controller, please do.

Jaufwa · Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 8:19 am Post subject:

It IS possible to solder to an official PS1 controller, but harder than if you use an unofficial controller, because Sony are mean and put powdery stuff on the copper contacts to stop people like us soldering to them!

so you have to scrap that crap off first if you wanna use official.

You drill the holes in a way so that they are near to the contacts, but not so that the hole has damaged anything. So you can basically put the holes where you want, as long as you aren't drilling throught any wires! The end result is that the wires YOU put in can come from the back of the controller, through your lovely holes, so when you put the controller back together, your wires aren't blocking anything, so the controller is still functional!

The copper contacts are basically the things that, when connected, register a button press. Pressing a button down on your controller connects two of the contacts, (the button literaly has a bit of metal underneath it that manages to touch two of the copper points!) by soldering these contacts to 2 bits of sheet metal in your pad, you can emulate a button press! By whacking the arrow with your foot the two bits of metal touch, and as far as the controller is concerned, you've just pressed a button!

Hope that helps!
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My home built pad: (DDRHomepad... thank you so much.)

vicman617 · Basic Member Joined: 26 Jul 2005

thank you very much! i just have one more question. where do i solder for the ground on a ps1 controller. there isnt any specific point labeled on the controller like there is for up, down, left, etc....

Jaufwa · Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 1:50 pm Post subject:

Ok this is an image from www.tolookah.net/DDR/, a link from DDRHomepads site:

I guess this guy really knows what he's doing, as he's put different labels on, but the ground is there! Nice and clear!

Don't worry about what I said about the powdery stuff, if your using those little copper circles, it won't affect you!

If your not sure about anything, then just plug the controller in the PS2, get yourself a metal wire, and just play around, touching the direction points to the ground point, just to see triggers a response and what doesn't, that should clear up once and for all what is what!

Btw, this pic also demonstrates why you'll wanna drill holes in yours, and have the wiring coming out from the back, instead of throwing it all on top like he's done. That controller is NOT gonna be put back together anytime soon!!
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My home built pad: (DDRHomepad... thank you so much.)

vicman617 · Basic Member Joined: 26 Jul 2005

thanks man. i already scraped the black stuff off because i hadnt read this yet and also when i scraped the black stuff off i accidentally scraped a little bit around the copper parts(where the black stuff was) is this a bad thing?

Jaufwa · Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 1:18 pm Post subject:

Nah you should be fine. What are you planning to solder to? The little tiny copper circles, or those big (previously black) semi-circles?
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My home built pad: (DDRHomepad... thank you so much.)

vicman617 · Basic Member Joined: 26 Jul 2005

the previously black ones.

Jaufwa · Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 3:02 pm Post subject:

Ok cool well you should be ok. You can check that the controller is still in working order if you like by doing the wire thing I mentioned earlier. If everything is ok then proceed!

I've heard of some people drilling holes actually THROUGH those contacts, as opposed to next to them, but I dunno what the general opinion of that is here!

Good luck! Lol I tried to do exactly what your doing, with the exact same controller when I was building mine. I spent ages scraping off the black stuff, drilled a perfect hole, powered up the soldering iron, and then quite marvellously BURNT out the contact! You see, I had made the fatal mistake of accidently touching the contact with the bare naked iron, before applying any solder. The contact literally turned into liquid and dissappeared. Rendered the controller completely useless.

Boy there was a lot of swearing that day......
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My home built pad: (DDRHomepad... thank you so much.)

spritemanjc · Trick Member Joined: 06 May 2006 Location: Puerto Rico

vicman617 · Basic Member Joined: 26 Jul 2005

ok so i soldered the wires and everything works perfectly! thanks for the hlep guys. i think i might have actually discovered a new way to solder for the ground wire, unless im just stupid and didnt understand the directions. ok so first off, i soldered to a dualshock 1, and i drilled the holes for the four positive contacts and brought those wires through the back of the controller. then i was very confused on the ground wire and where i should solder it to so i ended up soldering the positive wire to one
half of the copper contact on the controller where i scraped the black stuff off and then soldered the respective ground to the other half of the circle.
like this( here is a crappy diagram )

Ground------(l l)--------Positive

i dont know if this is what you are really supposed to do, or if i just got lucky.

CrazyIvan · Basic Member Joined: 14 May 2006 Location: CANADA BABY

hi ppl

me and my friend are preparing to build a pair of ddr pads
i intend to use stoli's design for construction
i also intend to use an xbox controller for each pad and custom layout for wiring

most odd thing about my modded design is that my friend likes pump as well as dance (weve been playing sm for a while) so our pads will have 9 step buttons plus start/back on the right/left above the step buttons
because of this i need the 5 pump arrow graphics (ive looked for them for about an hour and all i found was a picture of a pad
i have little artistic ability so could someone design square pump arrows (the pink and light blue kinda) and a centre button, and if possible Start and Back graphics (black & white style like x/o buttons) with intended size to be 4x11in. for me pls?

because of the issue with the dpad unable to go left and right at the same time i plan to change around the button connections as follows

ill likely post more info about modifications/issues as we build them
any advice is welcome

Mike

Jaufwa · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 3:07 am Post subject:

I think the D-pad will be ok to go left and right at the same time, it just can't at the moment because it uses an axis. Obviously when you solder, the axis problem is removed, and hence you should be ok.
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My home built pad: (DDRHomepad... thank you so much.)

-Scorpion- · Trick Member Joined: 16 Feb 2005

As Jaufwa mentioned, you can solder onto all Dpad buttons. You just need to configure the XBCD driver the right way.
There might be some problems with the other buttons on the xbox controller, as they are analogue. I don't know how that affects the buttons, though.

CrazyIvan · Basic Member Joined: 14 May 2006 Location: CANADA BABY

i was actually refering to windows game controller driver not allowing the dpad to move in 2 opposite directions (i dont have ddr for the xbox)
and mapping it this way would allow me to leave the config alone cuz i find xbcd a little confusing when trying to move the buttons around in such a manner (yes i have xbcd, i bought a cable to plug my xbox controller into my computer since i didnt want to buy a gamepad for my computer and i liked the xbox controller anyway)

as for the buttons im thinking i might have to find a connection closer to the control chip on the pcb (pressure sensitive buttons) or strip some silicon away to get a a copper line somewhere

Mike

-Scorpion- · Trick Member Joined: 16 Feb 2005

Changing the dpad axis to buttons is done with the click of a button, just go through the xbcd configs and find an appropriate entry. You don't have to remap everything yourself.

petricore · Basic Member Joined: 04 May 2006

Has anyone done the buttons like in Matrix's design ? Im doing some like them (with some mods) and am wondering what he uses for the mending plate/mousepad sandwich to hold them together. Just glue ? That was my first thought, but wasnt sure if it would hold up to alot of jumping on it.

p.s. Matrix I sent a PM in case your not monitoring this thread anymore.

vesper · Trick Member Joined: 06 Dec 2005

Hey guys,

I'm staying after school today until I finish my pad (so I might be here for a while

) but I still have a few lingering questions.

I don't have my arrow graphics printed out yet, so is it alright if I just leave that part out for now and get back to it later? How hard would it be for me to go in and add these after?

Be prepared to see a lot more posts from me in the upcoming hours

spritemanjc · Trick Member Joined: 06 May 2006 Location: Puerto Rico

vesper · Trick Member Joined: 06 Dec 2005

Yup, I'm using Riptide's design as well, I think I might've cut my plexiglass too much today but oh well

So far I've screwed down all the 2x4's and the 5 non-arrow panels, all of the plywood triangle corners are in place and I have the 64 screws all 1/4 inch in. I have all of the wiring to do tomorrow, and I sure as hell hope the plexiglass fits

Just another question, but is there anything else other than spary adhesive that I can use to glue the sheet metal contacts to the plexiglass? We hope to finish tomorrow now but I don't know if I have all of the materials.

*EDIT* Also, I don't have the push buttons that Riptide used for start, select, etc. . .so are there any alternatives I can use for that?