My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

Little Firefly · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 3:26 pm Post subject:

I have a few questions.

1. Does the plywood need to have 2 good sides? I have the 1/2" that my soft pad was taped too, but it only has one good side.

2. I really like ddrhompad's design, but I am a complete novice, and i'd rateher have a control box (or have the X,O, etc. inside the pad) than a cheep ugly controller. Can someone point me to that?

O and if anyone knows where i can buy a large # and variety of LEDs can you tell me?
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Blue Beefman · Trick Member Joined: 31 Oct 2002 Location: WI

Shadow_Dragonz · Trick Member Joined: 16 Mar 2003 Location: California

Firefly:

1. I believe that it is best to have both sides of the plywood good. You don't want one side all chipped and damaged. You do have to screw to it, and it has to be able to with stand weight too. It really depends if you can spend the money on new plywood, if you want to, and how bad your plywood is right now.

2. At page #1 of this forum, you should see that ddrhomepad has a link to his web page. There you will find instructions on how to build his dance pad. Also, I believe that you'll find instrucions on how to build a control box. http://www.rufus3.com/ddr/pad/box/

3. If you are looking for LED lights for ddrhomepad's design, then there will be no real need to get the lights. If you are designing one with an open center, then you could add lights.

Hope that helps

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Little Firefly · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 4:13 pm Post subject:

well thanks everyone.

My dad has a degree in electronics, so i am going to use ddrhomepad's design for the mostpart, but I think i will figure out how to put a whole bunch of mulitcolored LEDs, well anywhere i can basically.
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Prowler · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 4:36 pm Post subject:

Firefly: If you want a lighted pad, you might want to consider this design:

http://junta.cromas.net/

And follow Shadow_Dragonz' link for the control box design.
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xerox personality · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 6:28 pm Post subject: trick bar

YAY! I have finaly finished my pad! well when i say finished i mean its in a working condition. It still needs a few fine adjustments... such as the trick bar. Where can i get the specs for the trick bar?

Also I'm currently working on an uber-cheap design that is verry simple. Infact i was quite suprised no-one had thought of this design yet. Anyway when thats finished i will hopefully be able to put building instructions up on a website.

1 last thing. I saw in an earlyer post someone mentioned selling some. If people are selling these things i wouldnt mind knowing how much they are selling for. I have seen the red octane metal pads on the net that sell for about $200 and are no where as good a quality as these homebuilt 1'ns. So any info on that would be apreciated.

peace out

XeroX
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StarmanDXE · Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2003 10:31 am Post subject:

I've got a quick question for all of you people building your own pads:
I'm buying a metal pad, and it says it is lighted, but from what I've heard, it's just got little LEDs on the edges. So, I was thinking there must be some way to channel this light across the whole arrow in the same way that an Afterburner works on the GBA. Does anyone know where I'd get the plastic or whatever to get it to do this?
Thanks.

FTV · Trick Member Joined: 02 Mar 2002 Location: Portland, OR

Well if these metal pads are like most than there would be some kind of contact sheet sandwiched below your arrow that would totally block light from touching the bottom. The only way to make a full lit set of arrow panels is to do it more like arcade DDR pads that have their contacts around the rim of each arrow. If you wanted to get real creative you could theoretically set your pads on top of a frame and cut holes through your contact plates (leaving only a rim to complete the circuit) and move your leds directly under each arrow with maybe some kind of reflector to aim the light at the bottom of your arrows. I haven't heard of anyone doing that so I have no clue as to how well it would work but if you give it a go let me know.

StarmanDXE · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 12:10 pm Post subject:

Ok. Well, it's coming on Thursday. Then, I'm sure I'll play for a good while. And finally, I'll work up the courage to open it up and root around inside. Then, I'll have a better understanding of how it works. If I figure anything out, I'll be sure to share.

Shadow_Dragonz · Trick Member Joined: 16 Mar 2003 Location: California

FTV

What you have said FTV is actually already done. Bluebeefman has done it, Patster has done it, and Riptide has done it too. I don't know of anyone else that has done it at the moment, or that I can think off of the top of my head

. For Patster's design, he has a written document on how to add lights to his design for a metal pad

. However, he doesn't have any instructions or measurements on how to build it

. The only thing is that I believe that Riptide recently was thinking of adding reflectors to one of his pads to make the lighting more efficient. But if you have different ideas on how to do that, that would be great

.
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FTV · Trick Member Joined: 02 Mar 2002 Location: Portland, OR

I know people have built lit pads from scratch but I was talking about taking a factory built metal pad and modifying it. StarmanDXE asked how he could mod a manufactured metal pad to make the lighting better than just some little blinking leds so I just typed up an idea off the top of my head.

StarmanDXE · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 6:43 pm Post subject:

Ok. I'll have to pop it open (if I really do care that strongly about lights) and take a look-see.

tolookah · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 5:26 am Post subject:

ok, Silly question to ask, but does anyone here know anything about strain gauges? Or have any experience trying to make a strain gauge work propperly with a DDR pad? the design I'm going for right now(after smashing a mechanical switch) will use them, but im not sure if they'll fit my requirements. I have the electrical experience to make one hell of a circuit, so when i get done, and if it works up to par, I'll start Distributing schematics, and some other basic ideas. Although i am using relays, and an AC outlet, i think this will give me the ability to add lighting. But back to the first query:

Anyone know anything about strain gauges? (other than they are nifty little devices that change resistance when you bend/pull at them)

saucemstr · Basic Member Joined: 08 Oct 2003

hi, i'm new here so be gentle. i've read through this entire post and i can't hope to remember everything. here is my thought. i'm planning on doing the ddrhomepad style, but it seems to me the switch contacts from riptides design might be more sensitive and adjustable, particularly if you are hitting offcenter. does this seem plausible? has anyone noticed if the ddrhomepad design is less effective if you hit off center?
also, i noticed that they use different thicknesses of lexan and hence different thicknesses of plywood as well. is the extra thickness necessary for strength since the riptide switches are only supported around the edges? just looking for some help and thoughts. thanks in advance

cool · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 10:56 pm Post subject: Re: homepad hybrid

Shinji2k2 · Basic Member Joined: 09 Oct 2003

Hi all

I got a problem with the Soldering part for the homepad. I had it soldered by a friend who did it nicely. Now i went and made a Ho-plug Check ofer the EMS USB2 on my computer, to see if the buttons all work over the soldered wires. All 8 buttons worked. i used a copperwire to connect the wires accordingly. i added a switch box to it now, (after unplugging) so i can use it with the homepad and have the controller outside the pad (something close to TerTerbox

). Now i tried with the same method if the buttons work, and 3 quit on me. After checking if the wiring was ok, the 4th one died.

Anyone can tell me what i did wrong? Is the Hot wiring method wrong to do? i'm looking for any kind of help

thx guys

tolookah · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 2:03 pm Post subject:

KickTheCan · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 3:27 pm Post subject:

my pad is almost complete i have everything done excepct connecting the top metal squares down to the bottom. Anyways i have the mouse pad and 2 layers of .22 inch plexi stacked up and it seems a bit shorter than what it should be. Is this right or did i mess something up. BTW my pad is a patster style with mending bracket contacts.
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KickTheCan · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 8:18 pm Post subject:

I finnaly finished my metal pad all the contacts work good and what not but i do have 1 problem. I did not do the small triangle peices of wood, because they cut my plexiglass for me and home depot and i could not get the corners cut, and since those are not there the peices slide around and hit the corner brackets. It is REALLY loud and extremely frustrating. Anyone have any ideas to fix this? BTW my pad is patster style but i did mending bracket contacts and my plexiglass like ddrhomepads, kinda.

BTW dont buy anything STANLEY brand it will cost about $1.50 more. I went to lowes and they had some other brand, i remember it had orange packages, and their mending brackets were $1.50 cheaper each than the stanley ones. I would imagine the corner ones to be about the same, i did not get a chance to see how much the stanley brand of those were.
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"I am Jack's smirking revenge."
"I am Jack's cold sweat"
"I am Jack's raging bile duct"
"I am Jack's broken heart"
"I am Jack's complete lack of surprise"

Shinji2k2 · Basic Member Joined: 09 Oct 2003

Tolookah, unfortunately the soldering is perfect. No loosened connection or anything. I even checked the connections from the wires soldered onto, to the chip where all the contacts connect too. everyting fine there

Any other suggestions?