New and Improved Homebuilt DDR Pad!

mastermind3k · Trick Member Joined: 24 Sep 2003

My father and I got the wacky idea to build a DDR pad. We modeled ours after Patster's, Riptide's, DDRHomepads, but most of all, after the arcade pad. There were a few things that we changed which makes this thing improved.

1. Switches: We've bought many ddr mats and most of them use sheet metal contacts which does not last very long. The screw contacts was another thing we considered but, they were too loud. Instead we used these rectangular black switches not much bigger than a dime. The reason we chose these was because they were responsive, very durable, and they're low profile so they don't leave shadows when the mat is lighted.

2. Lights: Riptide should check these out since he's looking for a way to light his mat. We did look into trying an ultrabright LED and reflecting but we ended up finding the brightest LEDs in the world. Luxeon Stars. They're no bigger than a dime. We used four lights on each button and they light the arrow no problem.

3. Size: The thing about the arcade mat is it's big. Using these switches and lights though allowed us to make the mat only 2 inches deep. To make look like an arcade mat and for overall performance it was raised a couple of inches to give more stability so it doesn't rock. It also gives it the solid look that the arcade mat has.

If you would like to check out how the mat looks and how it works check out my site: http://geocities.com/beavstir
I only have pictures up but hopefully I'll get some videos goin'

ICWA · Trick Member Joined: 01 Nov 2002 Location: Long Island

Thats awesome

Gotta give you props on that one.

Little Firefly · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 7:30 am Post subject:

Are you planning to make a guide on how to build this pad? Just asking because it angers me when people have this gorgous pad and they don't have directions to build it.

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My pants fit fine! What is wrong with you? Don't you have eye contact?-Lucifer, Angel Sanctuary Yugioh Crossover fic
Go Ahead, Read about my Boring Life, You know you want to.

mastermind3k · Trick Member Joined: 24 Sep 2003

I could make guide on how to build this thing but there is one thing that I left out. The price. This cost us so much that we stop counting and we had to bukild this over a period of a few months. People probably wouldn't want to dish out so much money for a DDR mat. Although it works good.

Momo -YHB- · Trick Member Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Location: Killeen, Texas

I'm looking for a new contact design. Where did u get those switches from? I'd go to your website but access is temporarily out
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mastermind3k · Trick Member Joined: 24 Sep 2003

We got the switches [/img]http://www.tapeswitch.com/indxspec.php[url]
They are under the N.O. switching cells. We got the rectangular 1.0" x .75" ones. You just put four in each button (two for the PS2 switch and two for the light switch.) There is one problem thought. The price. We got them for 10 bucks a pop. Four for each button and four in the front dashboard. It's expensive. Anyway that's the scoop. Btw my site is up again so check it out please and send some feedback on what you think.

Little Firefly · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 8:07 pm Post subject:

Quick question.

It looks like you have these black things on the top of the pad, which i assume are start select X square blah blah

Am i right, cause i had a problem with ddrhomepad's design mostly because a it didn't light up and b it still had the controller and wasn't self contained.
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My pants fit fine! What is wrong with you? Don't you have eye contact?-Lucifer, Angel Sanctuary Yugioh Crossover fic
Go Ahead, Read about my Boring Life, You know you want to.

mastermind3k · Trick Member Joined: 24 Sep 2003

discobiscuits · Trick Member Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Location: phoenix

wow dude that is beautiful, u most of tooken a long time to make that.... the lighting is kick buttocks

nice job on the pad man

. all ur missing is a bar...

maybe u'll add it later..... but still this looks like it beats cobaltflux....
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just passing by

diabloslayer469 · Trick Member Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Location: Neo-Geo Land

Link doesn't work.
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Mercedes Benz 450

Oobrakadoobra · Trick Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003

If you are going to use some crap website to host your pics that dosen't support remote linking and the bandwith is close to nothing just put this infront of the image url: http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/ insert picture address here. Not only can you remote link from websites, but I believe it does not take up bandwith, not sure about that one though. I do it and people never have had any problem viewing my pictures so i don't think it takes up bandwith.

mastermind3k · Trick Member Joined: 24 Sep 2003

Yeah sorry about that. Geocities only supports so much bandwitdh but it should be up in a while.

diabloslayer469 · Trick Member Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Location: Neo-Geo Land

mastermind3k · Trick Member Joined: 24 Sep 2003

Momo -YHB- · Trick Member Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Location: Killeen, Texas

Id really like to see the arrow panel for 1) the locations of where u mounted the switches and 2) what type and thickness of weatherstripping or material u use for it to bounce back up.
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mastermind3k · Trick Member Joined: 24 Sep 2003

diabloslayer469 · Trick Member Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Location: Neo-Geo Land

Wow! It looks really nice, but in the pic with the lights, it looks like you could add some more in the arrow panels (particularly on the inside). Not all of the panel lights up.
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Honda XR600

ddrpablo · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 10:53 pm Post subject:

thats really quite excellent? does it fell like the arcade? hehe =). btw, you dont have an estimate as to how much it was?.....500?600?

[B&] DumpsterKeeper · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2003 6:26 am Post subject:

I just made my own tape switches for pennies a piece and my pads work beautifully... no need to spend $10 a pop on them.
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mastermind3k · Trick Member Joined: 24 Sep 2003