Homemade softpad concept...

langjoshua · Basic Member Joined: 09 Jan 2006

Okay let me know what you think... I haven't quite figured out all the logistics yet but I was thinking of making a soft pad out of a peice of carpet padding... That would keep it from moving alot and also allow you to move it from place to place...

any comments/suggestions plz. let me know.
--Josh

mouseish · Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 7:44 pm Post subject:

This is VERY vague...Let us know what you plan on using for sensors and so forth when you get that far

langjoshua · Basic Member Joined: 09 Jan 2006

I know its vauge I'm kinda looking for ideas... this would be my first pad and I'm not to sure what can be used ... but I was thinking of doing it the same way the cheap soft pads are made. They have a layer of thin foam between the two contacts and the foam has holes in it. I was thinking I could make the contacts for the sensor out of aluminum foil...or possible thin sheet metal. I saved the top of the pad I ripped apart to study and I might possibly use that for for the cover.
PS. Sorry I was vauge I haven't completely thought everything out and was looking for some ideas.

DefaultGen · Trick Member Joined: 06 Nov 2005

Why in gods name would you put effort into a homemade softpad. If you're gonna work on something, as least make something decent

clunker · Basic Member Joined: 29 Dec 2005

I think there is a lot of value in a home made softpad if you can pull it off. It would be great if it were possible to make better softpads that lasted longer. langjoshua was (I think) trying to see if there were better, more reliable ways of making softpads besides the traditional metal foil-foam-metal foil sandwich.

Microphones are relatively cheap. Could you use the piezo from a microphone and place one or more in the foam? They're thin and measure pressure (from the sound waves), which is what you want. I don't know how much force they can take before breaking, but maybe you could make a thin clamshell to protect it and spring load them to the piezos.

Or how about silicone tubing. Could you make a pad out of that, seal one end and then measure the pressure at the other end?

There must be a more durable way than the way the current ones are made.

mouseish · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 4:45 am Post subject:

I mean this honestly, not rude or anything:

If you want a good softpad that will last you, get a konami softpad and then come talk to me. I'll help you get that thing so you can play with cleats on it

and it wont involve that shair mat stuff (not a fan of that mod, though it does help(

langjoshua · Basic Member Joined: 09 Jan 2006

Defualt: the reason I want to make my own soft pad is 1.) to make it better and last longer. 2.) because I don't have the room to store a Hardpad and 3.) So it can be portable... I mean I drive a caviler and there is not that much trunk space, and if I could get something that would bend a little bit it would fit fine.

clunker: I like the idea of silicone tubing it might work... but the problem would be keeping it from becoming completely flat and holds.

mouse: I already own 2 cheap dance pads I bought off the internet and they completely stoped working and I kinda just like the DIY feel of it... I don't know why... but that feel if someone is like wow these are really nice pads I can be like yea I made them.

I'm really kinda new to the whole thing but does anyone else have any ideas for a sensor... I know Ive seen actual DDR arcade buttons for pretty cheap... I could house them between to peices of plexiglass maybe?

--Josh
ps thanks for the comments and thoughts.

NVWC2006 · Basic Member Joined: 23 Dec 2005

i'm basically doing the same thing, i have old soft pads that because they stopped working, i'm going to just mod them in some way..

for the foam, i'm thinking it's neccesary to find out what kind of foam it is and just get something a tad bit thicker and/or stronger. theoretically, if you can keep the pad from bunching up, and have a good foam, a soft pad should work great. the foam needs to be strong enough not to rip, soft enough to compress for the contacts to meet (i'm just using the default contacts from a soft pad, myself).

you layer the contact, foam and contact.. on top, regular pads have vinyl, so you can try that, or another material. either way, i'm thinking add a removable layer of tougher but still flexible plastic on top, to allow the pressure of the foot to go through, but also take the damage away from the pad. underneath, you can mount the pad either to some non slip fabric, or as i was planning to do, wood (though there goes your flexibility). also if you want comfort, you could replicate the good quality pads by taping/gluing plastic inserts under the arrows and putting an inch of dense foam between the pad and the very bottom layer.

one can either sew it together like the soft pads, maybe staple it (you'd need alot though, so no one staple takes alot of stress), glue, duct tape, or something else strong.

i hope i've helped.