Buying a Busted Metal Pad

Reenee · Trick Member Joined: 21 Nov 2003

For a good couple of weeks, Fry's Electronics has had two pads at their DDR "station". In my past two visits, however, I've noticed the bar-less metal pad they use is busted. There's cracks on the step panels and the sensors are busted. Here's what I'm talking about:

It appears to be the EXACT same model.

Now, here's my genius: rather than shell out the outrageous $200 for a new one...why not buy this one? I thought that I could just get new poly-whatchamacallits for the arrows, and replace the sensor with the one in my official Konami pad.

So I have two queries:

1. How much should I be paying for it?
2. With absolutely no experience with messing around with wiring, soldering, etc., how hard is it to switch the sensors?

Bioclown · Trick Member Joined: 13 Jan 2004 Location: So Deep

Okay, so the pad is busted. The arrow panels don't work. That... is easily fixable! Buy the pad. It should be at least at a 50% discount, if not more. It doesn't take much for these panels to be fixed (I built my own pad, I know what I'm talking about) and doesn't require soldering handiwork... if the wiring is not the problem. There are__ things that could be causing the problem.

ONE: It could be that the contacts are not making correct contact. DDR pads run with pressure switches, meaning that two contacts pressed together form the circuit and form a step. If that is the problem, then just add some conductive material on the dead spot.

TWO The circuits might be firing. This happened with my first pad. This is simply tracing the bad wire to the contact on the circuitboard and resoldering it.

Hope this can help!
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