My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

[geckoinc99]

vesper,
There's no problem not having the graphic in place, however, I do suggest putting a blank piece of paper in there that is the same size as the graphic will be. I say this because I made a pad and didn't have my graphics, and when I used it, it made a lot of noise from the plexi rubbing together and also scratched the surface. Placing a piece of paper in between for the time being will stop that from happening.
If you want to glue your contacts on, you can also use contact cement. It won't harm the plexiglass any (it's a neoprene rubber so not harmful to acrylic). I would coat the area at least twice before gluing the pieces. Good luck with that.

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

[HitokiriX]

Does rubber cement work with creating the solid panels as well? I'd rather not have a pad that squeaks all over the place.

[vesper]

OK Guys, I almost finished my pad, but I still have a few minor bugs to work out?

The problem is that my arrows aren't stacking up the right way. From Riptide's Design, what size weatherstripping should I be using? I had to stack up the stuff I bought 3 times for it to work, and it just didn't seem right.

Also, what exactly is preventing the plexiglass from coming off? When I tested it out today I only put on one layer of plexiglass because I didn't think adding a piece of paper and another layer would've helped at all.

Everything was almost ready to go, except my down arrow was messed up. The other arrows worked fine, but I think something is shorting out somewhere. The wires from the PCB that get soldered to the arrow wires were held down by electrical tape and I think the wires weren't placed down properly so that might've messed things up

Lastly, I'm trying to add a bar from a TX style dance pad (I'm not sure which bar it is, but I know it has two legs coming off of the back for support) and I'm not really sure how to do this since my base is just enough for the arrows. How far back is the center of the bar's legs from the back arrow panel? I have a small 2x4 attached to the back of my pad, but I think it is too close to be useful barf:

If anybody has any suggestions regarindg weatherstripping, the bar, or the overall arrow setup let me know :

[geckoinc99]

Contact cement can be used to glue the sheet metal down. In fact, it works VERY well. This stuff grabs and never lets go. I used it with my first pad. The only problem I had is that with the aluminum flashing (very thin material) any uneveness of the cement shows through, but I don't care much since it does grip and does not make crackle sounds. Regular sheet metal, which usually is thicker, probably wouldn't show uneveness. Contact cement works by first adhering to the surface, then sticking to itself. It's a great way to glue things that normally wouldn't glue together.
To use the contact cement, here are my steps:

1. Make sure both surfaces to stick together are clean.
2. Stir the contact cement well.
3. Using a disposable brush, start brushing a layer onto both surfaces that need to be stuck together. Allow the coat to dry.
4. Apply at least 2 coats to the metal and 3 coats to the wood (wood absorbs more). Allow time to dry between coats (usually 10-30 minutes).
5. When done coating and final coat has dried, carefully take your sheetmetal and position in the right place. Remember, once this stuff sticks together, it's almost impossible to take apart. Once it's in position, roll into place so it doesn't trap air bubbles. Press down with lots of weight (I just stood on top of mine).
6. If you put contact cement on the sides, it will help hold the metal in place when you bend it in place.

That's my simple instructions. There might be some popping at first but after a couple of days it should go away. Just make sure that when you first put the sheetmetal on you avoid air bubbles and press it in place very well. Good luck with that.

My pad design is based on Riptides, though I went several different directions. However, The contact system is mostly the same, so it should apply. What I used was stuff called Automotive sponge rubber weather stripping. It came from Lowes, but I imagine Home Depot would have it. It's black colored and 1/2 inch tall. It works about right for the needed height. It also seems to hold up pretty well. Just my two cents.

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

[The Wise Fool]

I finally finished my pad! This is my setup.

Messy. Yeah, I hacked a keyboard instead of a normal game controller. StepMania is better. However, all that's actually on the pad is...

...a cat5 jack. Then whatever I hack and insert a wire into will plug into the jack and the pad will work! Currently all that's been hacked is a keyboard (the one I'm using to type this post, in fact).

We did a very neat job, if I may say so myself. The soldering job, though, is sloppy, but it seems to work well enough.
So how does the pad preform?
I started with a heavy song.

Hmm... well, the buttons do supposedly take some time to work well. Let's move down to standard.

That's a little odd... maybe I'm just unused to the feel of the pad? Let's try a light song.


Well, it turns out that not only do I just suck, but now my right arrow is triplestepping. During song selection, it acts like it's being held down. I'll have to try DDRhomepad's advice... I'm a little reluctant to open up the pad again, but I'll do it.

EDIT: I opened up the pad and figured out the problem. The solder joints on the two sheets of metal were right on top of each other, and they had grinded their way through the duct tape and were touching some of the time. We'll fix it after dinner.

[slvrshdw]

hey guys...been awhile for me

well, mainly cuz of school, comp troubles (which is still not fixed)

anyway, i re-re-re-re-restarted my pad to try to get a good sensor design..so far every single one failed

now i screwed up the 2x4s and gotta flip them over or get new ones heheh

anyway, i did find out a good tip on attaching the sheet metal to the underside of the plex USE DOUBLE SIDED foam tape..its really good (from what have done)

im going to go back to the screw design like riptide later..

and nice setup on the SM thing..although my arcade setup is better
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[-Scorpion-]

@The Wise Fool
Afaik keyboards with PS/2 ports are only sampled at 60HZ. That means your arrows are only checked about every 16ms. USB is sampled at 125Hz and can be overclocked with a tool to up to 1000Hz, so a USB gamepad might be the better choice for Stepmania.

[The Wise Fool]

Okay, I actually have a usb keyboard I could use, so maybe I'll do that.
By the way, do you know what the arcade pads sample at?

[-Scorpion-]

I don't know about DDR, but ITG is sampled at 1000Hz.

[marcan]

Hi all!

I'm almost done with the final version of my analog pressure sensitive pad! I put all the electronics into a neat box, added a bunch of stuff, used a DB-15 cable to connect pad to box, and used a nice wooden frame for the pad. On testing the sensors work great, and everything looks like it's going to turn out fine except for one thing - lighting.

Electronics are not a problem, however light placement is. Currently, under the two pieces of Lexan per arrow I've got a rather large octagon of wood that takes up most of the arrow and distributes pressure to the sensor in the middle. So, no lighting can come from directly underneath the arrow.

My initial idea was to place 4 white LEDs on the corners of the arrow, inserting light into the lexan. By total internal reflection, it should bounce its way around. Painting the edges white would make the light stay inside, and painting the bottom would allow a place for the light to hit the paint and bounce up into the arrow graphic (this is how lighting on TFT screens work, with lights at the edges and a dot pattern painted onto the plastic diffuser to distribute light). I tried it and the idea works, but the light is too dim. It would be fine if you were playing in total darkness, but I doubt it will be very noticeable under normal lighting conditions (I may be wrong though). Adding more LEDs would help, but the current would increase (to the point of violating USB specs unless I use an external power supply) and most importantly I don't have that many LEDs (about 30 total I believe). Conceivably I could replace the LEDs with CCFL tubes at the edges with some hacking, but CCFLs are fragile, although they give out much more light.

Another option I considered was making an arrow graphic that had a distinct border that can light up. Since the border is more accessible under my pad design, I should be able to light it up. Another option is to replace the wood panels with some transparent acrylic, but the center would be covered by the sensor still, and I would need to do some etching onto the acrylic which would be much worse than doing it on wood.

Ideas?

[vesper]

I'm still wondering what keeps the arrows together from Riptide's Design?

My arrows consist of the 2x4 wells with screws, a layer of plexiglass, the graphic image, then one more piece of plexiglass. Are the four corner brackets supposted to keep everything from falling out, or am I missing something?

[marcan]

I've tried a CCFL tube and I'm pretty much sold. Works great. I'll embed them on the sides and problem solved!

Look forward to the full info webpage on the pad (It's pretty much a new design, very thin and with a different sensing technology)

[slvrshdw]

have any pics?

im trying to get my freaking sensors to work, and NOTHING seems to work..its riptides design, but just slightly modified

i can get pics too, but id like to see yours and see if i can change mine
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[Matrlx]

Shameless plug for my sensor design for slvrshdw. I recently AA'd Max300 on DDR Extreme(j) on my pad, so I'd say it works pretty well. I'm planning on making a second pad with a complete tutorial within the next couple months, so keep your heads up. See my signature for the website and a couple pictures and diagrams on how the sensors are setup.
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Matrix Arcade Style DDRHomepad: http://members.shaw.ca/lluk/ddrpad/

[slvrshdw]

yeah, see my design was similar, but i just used weatherstripping and bit of "coozy cup" foam for mine

i have the L braces on the corners and then screws underneath to register it

i guess ill have to get pics to explain better..hopeully tomm

i just cant figure the stupid problem...it just WONT work

i might have to try out your design
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[Matrlx]

Maybe you could elaborate on what kinds of problems you've been having with your different sensor schemes and we can help out here. If your idea seems like it should be working but it's not, it'd be good too to post it here so maybe others can avoid the same mistakes too. =)
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Matrix Arcade Style DDRHomepad: http://members.shaw.ca/lluk/ddrpad/

[slvrshdw]

ok, i got some pics to clarify...

its the same concept that MatrIx had, but mine wont work for some reason..im going to have to try that mousepad idea now :-/
(click on the pics for larger image)









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[Alaby]

sry for the nub question, but is it ok if i use plastic instead of plexiglass?

I went to the hardware store and was dissapointed with how expensive plexi was, so can I use hard plastic as an alternative?

[The Wise Fool]

What design are you planning on using?

[HitokiriX]