Cobalt Flux Dance Platform

{SFSA}MelJ · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jan 2002 Location: The 518

Seems I overtightened my screws. I put quarters underneath the panels and its seemed to help with the pad BS. But it just seems to be that its just 1 decent or way off, and it isn't every song. I've heard that ITG for the console has frame skips. Might have something to do with it. I FECed Walking on Fire expert but got a decent on Da Roots, which seems to happen in the same spot. I wanna leave that one for player error for the moment. I'll keep troubleshooting, because I think I've narrowed it down to the down arrow. But it still boggles me why it works really well for DDR, but not ITG..
_________________

Friends don't let friends play DDR with charlie horses.

DAVE101 · Trick Member Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: Indiana

Where did you put the quarters exactly?
_________________

poop

{SFSA}MelJ · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jan 2002 Location: The 518

Don't bother with it, Dave. I've come to the conclusion that the Fluxes aren't meant for the harder step patterns for ITG. I FCed Max300 on DDRMAX yesterday though, yet I played So Deep over and over and over again and kept getting pad BS for the gallops. Go figure. As for the coin mod, upon further reading and taking my pad apart to clean it just to clean it, i saw marks from the coins. Luckily I didn't play enough to dent the metal. There isn't any way to make it more sensitive that I can think of. I'm thinking of sending it in in the near future and maybe the company can find the problem.
_________________

Friends don't let friends play DDR with charlie horses.

{SFSA}MelJ · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jan 2002 Location: The 518

I don't know what the hell happened. All I did was make the screws reaalllly loose, but not enough to trip over.

Remember December. Better than my arcade score

_________________

Friends don't let friends play DDR with charlie horses.

ChilliumBromide · Trick Member Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: Beaverton, OR

So, Kumoricon finally had one of their pads stop working and decided to bring them to me to fix up, after me waiting for 3 years to get a chance to prove that all it would take to turn their pad-miss-ridden, undersensitive, whacky-feeling pads into the $300 pads they paid for 5 years ago would be a screwdriver and a small piece of fine-grain sandpaper. I'm pretty sure that my scores speak for that point fairly effectively. After just 10 minutes of work, I got one of the pads working pretty much flawlessly, and I've been SDGing 9's pretty effortlessly while playing 1x no bar.

The other thing I wanted to confirm was that the cobalt flux is the simplest game controller ever crafted. The amusing part of this is that a few simple mods and an extra $30-$100 make this the most reliable, versatile, cost-effective homebrew design available. I built a cobalt flux in a day using scrap wood and metal, and drywall screws. The total cost? About $35. $100 could have made something quite a bit better than the official cobalt flux pads I have from Kumoricon.

So, I have a question for you, BC: why is this such a well-kept secret? Why do people still spend $300+ on homebrews? I'm probably the most technically inept person here; I spent $1500 and three years trying to build pads from designs that someone with actual craftmanship could have crafted flawless pads from easily. Yet, I effortlessly crafted a quite functional pad using this basic design in just a few hours.
_________________

I used to be active here lol

{SFSA}MelJ · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jan 2002 Location: The 518

I need to go by the store and pick up wire and sandpaper for a car project. What grit grade of sandpaper did you use? I think the wire still has some of that nasty adhesive on it. Probably will also tie in some of the speaker wire and see what that does. Pad is working fine, trying to mess around and see if I can make it even better.
_________________

Friends don't let friends play DDR with charlie horses.

ChilliumBromide · Trick Member Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: Beaverton, OR

Actually, I didn't check. However, the finer, the better. You don't want something particularly rough, otherwise you might start actually grinding down the metal. I wouldn't be too worried about sanding off the galvanization unless you store the pad in a very humid place, or you don't clean it up after spilling on it. Plain carbon steel doesn't tend to rust easily without fairly high levels of moisture. (though it will if used for an application such as cutlery, which is why non-stainless knives will sometimes rust)

Steel wool should work too, though that could potentially be too rough; I haven't tried it. I'm also quite certain there are cleaning products out there which can remove gunk from metal, and all you have to do is scrub them lightly with a cloth or sponge. Goo Gone might do the trick. It's designed to removed adhesives and waxes, from wood and plastic primarily. Shouldn't have a harmful effect on metal though. It should mention it on the package if it does.
_________________

I used to be active here lol

Shuma Gorath · Trick Member Joined: 15 Dec 2008

It comes in handy to have a multimeter on continuity test to check for the good condition of the metal plates. that way you can be sure if there is any need for sanding those plates.

{SFSA}MelJ · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jan 2002 Location: The 518

Yeah. I got the softest sandpaper I could find. I used the Goo Gone just to clean up the adhesive around the sensor. I only used the sandpaper for like 2 minutes total. Nothing too major. The pad is either possessed or I've gotten better. I tri-starred queen of light and had a blue combo on Xuxa expert until about 25% and just caught a brain fart

. The part where the pad would give me crap was on the major stream. No pad BS after the cleaning. So I guess I'm good to go.
_________________

Friends don't let friends play DDR with charlie horses.

DAVE101 · Trick Member Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: Indiana

Can you list everything that you did to the pads to make them work so well?
_________________

poop

{SFSA}MelJ · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jan 2002 Location: The 518

Ok. I ran into a problem, which I think has to do with where I live now. It's been pretty rainy here lately. For some reason, the carpet gets wet but the actual floor beneath is fine

. And when I would get ready to play, my sneaker would get wet, even though they NEVER touched the pad. Then I would start getting all this pad crap. I disassembled the Flux and it wasn't really dirty, but I think that moisture caused a problem along the way of the weather we've had lately. Here's what I did yesterday in terms of cleaning.
1. Got some Goo Gone to clean off the wires. Dabbed a q-tip in the bottle and swabbed it on all 4 wire ends. Let it sit for a while and did this while the stuff worked its magic.
2. Moist towel and some all purpose cleaner and sprayed all eight contact points.
3. Wiped off the GG and cleaner with the moist towel. Scrubbed thoroughly, although it wasn't necessary.
4. Dried off all surfaces. If you've got an old cotton t-shirt lying around, it works wonders. It absorbs very well and its FREE! I use em' for my car, so it's gotta be good.
Here's some results. My up arrow was flaky, but after the cleaning it was back to where it was on day 1.

_________________

Friends don't let friends play DDR with charlie horses.

ChilliumBromide · Trick Member Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: Beaverton, OR

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this yet; just want to point out: CF's latest control boxes are actually well-made (for a long time they were total crap), and are natively compatible with PS2, GC, XBox, and USB.

I'm considering buying a couple, and just building my own pads to hook up to them.
_________________

I used to be active here lol

Suko · Trick Member Joined: 13 Jun 2003 Location: Lynnwood, WA

I wonder if these would be compatible with a pad made in 2005 or 2006?
_________________

"Arcades have gone away but the culture is not gone."

DDRecall | Groovestats | Beatspace | UI Bemani Club | Suko's Shirt Shack

Homo-Wan-Kenobi · Trick Member Joined: 02 Mar 2002 Location: Brattleboro, VT

I didn't really have any problems with my CF until today...I plugged it into my PC and Vista does not recognize it. It did before and I don't remember ever having to get a driver for it. Anyone else have this problem and if so, were you able to find a workaround?
_________________

No place like home

Sbrodie911 · Basic Member Joined: 30 Oct 2009 Location: Michigan

Iv seen a lot of talk about this pad around,

Is it worth the money or does it loose accuracy rapidly and turn to garbage a month or two after you purchase it just like all the other pads Iv tried, IM DESPERATE ha

Edible Bondage Tape · Trick Member Joined: 26 Jan 2002 Location: Kerri

this is the pad that every other pad tries to be though last i heard the controlll boxes were kinda spotty
_________________

Suko · Trick Member Joined: 13 Jun 2003 Location: Lynnwood, WA

maxhavoc · Basic Member Joined: 28 Dec 2007

So I was browsing the Cobalt Flux site and I came across this little item: https://www.cobaltflux.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16152&cat=249&page=1

Does anyone have any experience with this pad? It looks interesting to me especially because of the 2 year warranty for $100 more than the CF which has a 6 month warranty (or $70 more if you get the 1 year extended warranty).

From the description: "Designed for the most discriminating players, the Arc 1 SE combines arcade-quality construction and a 2-year warranty at a very special price. The platform is made of super-heavy duty expanded pvc and is encased in a suspended foam deck for shock absorption."

Does anyone know what the hell expanded PVC and suspended foam deck mean? Are these good things or just words thrown in there to make it sound more appealing?

Suko · Trick Member Joined: 13 Jun 2003 Location: Lynnwood, WA

Wow, it took me 5 minutes to login and make this reply. I really wish DDR Freak would kick it up a notch, this is getting ridiculous.

Anyways, nice find there. I don't know when they put that up on their site, but it's definitely recently.

If you ask me, it looks just like their commercial dance pads: http://www.cobaltflux.com/commercial/products/arcade2platform.html

Aside from increased durability, I don't know what else distinguishes this from the traditional CF pad. Perhaps the foam deck is the thing running around the perimeter which is probably used to prevent the thing from breaking apart if it was dropped or handled roughly in a school setting.

Heavy-duty PVC would likely mean less chance of cracked panels or frame, but I'm worried about the loss of sensitivity in the panels. These pads are made for school and commercial use. In other words, they're not made to be the most "precise" dance pads out there, just durable.

I could be wrong about the sensitivity though. I'd love to have someone pick up this pad and give it a good review.
_________________

"Arcades have gone away but the culture is not gone."

DDRecall | Groovestats | Beatspace | UI Bemani Club | Suko's Shirt Shack

maxhavoc · Basic Member Joined: 28 Dec 2007

I've had a lot of bad luck with soft pads like the Red Octane series, my current one has a broken up arrow after less than a month of use and I'm getting really sick of unreliable pads so the idea of a really durable one sounds good to me. I can only do 5-6 bar songs so precision really isn't a big deal to me at this point and it's probably more precise than a soft pad anyway. I think I just might pick this up but I wouldn't really know how to review it since I can't get AAA or scores close to 100% to test precision.