My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

tolookah · Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2004 7:17 am Post subject:

I didnt use that contact design, but looking at it, the arrows seem to bend inwards a little at least, so the contacts would therefore split away from the other contacts (stripping as a pivot point)
Thats just a first glance thought ^^
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DDRPad Soldering and electrical Help: http://www.tolookah.net/DDR/ As hooded_paladin put it: "Currently, help for Beatpad Pro, official Sony Playstation Controller and ANY controller unless you are extremely stupid or lazy."

HitokiriX · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Location: Berwyn, PA

i'm pretty sure it wouldn't do much of a difference with sound but you could try it. if you used a very solid, durable acrylic for the arrows i don't think they would bend at all when stepped on even after use so foam on the inside compared to foam on the outside doesn't really make a difference in the thought of contact connections. although placing weather stripping on the inside would make it hard to create a pad with blue beefman's arrow design and ter's as well.

D r S a n e · Trick Member Joined: 07 Jul 2004

I live in Ottawa, where can I find a Gamestop controller?

Weston · Trick Member Joined: 17 Feb 2003 Location: Minnesota

Your idea is the same contact design in the Patser design (And my pad too, if you check my sig). I can't compare weather or not it would be softer or louder though. My pad still has a little hollow echo, but it's nothing that would drive you crazy.
I like the original design, it looks like it will hold freeze arrows better.

D r S a n e · Trick Member Joined: 07 Jul 2004

Okay, I need an urgent response here. Can I rip apart a soft pad and use the wires that connect to the arrows there and connect them to the ground/contact wires without soldering? What are my alternatives? Since I ruined the curcuit for my controller can I use the plug and connect the wires to inside the plug?

Quick answers to those three questions please.

james9631 · Trick Member Joined: 27 Jan 2002 Location: Lexington, KY

D r S a n e · Trick Member Joined: 07 Jul 2004

It's my dad who solders, and he blew up the last two controllers (PSX). I don't know where to find a Gamestop controller so I'm just trying to improvise. Why are the soft pad wires so bad?

james9631 · Trick Member Joined: 27 Jan 2002 Location: Lexington, KY

i dunno, i think they are in some kind of plastic and they just dont seem like they can be modified... as for getting controllers, have you checked ebay?

_ter,
i really like your newer design with the hoses and the angle metal contacts, i went to lowes today and saw the latex hose for $1.40 per foot and they seemed like they allowed a lot of give unlike the vinyl tubing... does the latex push the arrow panel up pretty well? it just seems like the vinyl may work as well, its a lot cheaper, but i dunno... i like the idea for the hose bc it allows the air to escape easily

_ter · Trick Member Joined: 10 Sep 2002 Location: Seattle, WA

DDR_Jas,

The thing about the latex hose is yes, it's very easy to compress, but it keeps its form very well. This actually makes it very suited to the task because it is very easy to push the arrows but it bounces back immediately. There's only about 9 inches used per side... so 3 feet per pad for a total of 12" ... $16.80. A little more expensive than weatherstripping but I think it works exquisitely.

As for the vinyl hose solution ... it may or may not work. A "harder" substance may eventually relax and stop giving the proper resistance. You'll have to try it to find out.

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james9631 · Trick Member Joined: 27 Jan 2002 Location: Lexington, KY

I agree with everything you said.

As for the angle contacts, those would be kind of expensive too right? Would you think something else would work? Something that is thick like those and will not warp. I guess I will just have to try and see huh? That's really what this is all about. I made my first pad off DDRhomepad's a looong time ago. The link to it is the first on his links to other pads page. I wasnt happy with it so i think im going to build another... along with your ter ter box, ;) Thanks for your help.

D r S a n e · Trick Member Joined: 07 Jul 2004

I don't have time to buy a controller off of Ebay, I have a tournament coming up. And it's a good idea to first have played the game before going in to a tournament for that game. SO FRUSTRATED! AH!

So the soft pad wiring can not be used at all...?

tolookah · Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 8:32 am Post subject:

you can use the circuitboard from the softpad instead of the PS controller circuitboard.
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Aim: Tolookah
MSN: Tolookah
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DDRPad Soldering and electrical Help: http://www.tolookah.net/DDR/ As hooded_paladin put it: "Currently, help for Beatpad Pro, official Sony Playstation Controller and ANY controller unless you are extremely stupid or lazy."

D r S a n e · Trick Member Joined: 07 Jul 2004

But I'll need to solder, right? Will it be easier to solder then that frick PS1 controller (those contact points are so close together!).

tolookah · Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 9:35 am Post subject:

it shouldn't be hard to solder, open it up, take a look ^^
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Aim: Tolookah
MSN: Tolookah
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DDRPad Soldering and electrical Help: http://www.tolookah.net/DDR/ As hooded_paladin put it: "Currently, help for Beatpad Pro, official Sony Playstation Controller and ANY controller unless you are extremely stupid or lazy."

somnambulist · Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 4:37 pm Post subject:

soldering to a soft pad board is really easy, just follow the circuit back to a point that already has solder, then solder your wire to that point.

riptide · Trick Member Joined: 14 Aug 2002

D r S a n e · Trick Member Joined: 07 Jul 2004

Holy crap. I higly recommend using a soft pad control board to solder to...

It works amazingly, the ground is a giant 1x1 cm contact point that I used a voltage tester on to figure out which humungous contact points were which arrows. I had no trouble soldering to them, it was extremely simple and impossible to mess up. After a bit of adjusting and modding a little center piece into the sheet metal contacts to make them more sensitive, it works great. First time trying to play the game I 'B' Outer Limits Heavy (10 Footer). That was great.

Thank you to all!

Ulala321 · Trick Member Joined: 28 Sep 2004

Okay, I've started construction and have all my plywood and sheet metal squares, and just started bracketing. As of now I'm using the instructions from DDRHomepad, but I noticed up above someone mentioned they weren't very happy with the design? Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions that are modified versions of his instructions that I might be able to use in my construction process (building the arrow so they're nice and sensative, and work for that matter! for example), they'd be greatly appreciated! I hope to finish up this weekend and I'll post a picture or two of my progress. Thanks again for the help guys!

tolookah · Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 7:54 pm Post subject:

Anyone by chance have any experience with large pieces of acrylic? (I'm looking at half inch thick stuff) I'm looking at building a friend a bling bling pad for birthday+christmas and was wondering how well the acrylic would be as a base material (going with what CF did and making it low profile, will post instructions/pics if it works well and/or looks as good as I want it to)
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Aim: Tolookah
MSN: Tolookah
XBox: Tolookah
DDRPad Soldering and electrical Help: http://www.tolookah.net/DDR/ As hooded_paladin put it: "Currently, help for Beatpad Pro, official Sony Playstation Controller and ANY controller unless you are extremely stupid or lazy."

Mukan · Trick Member Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Location: Avondale AZ

Well, 2 weeks ago, I started building my home made pad. My dad and I looked at a lot of the current designs, and didn't find anything near what we liked. So, we kind of came up with something easy. I'll get pictures and explain once I get it working. I only got to work on it every other weekend. (2 weeks ago, and this weekend.) We "finished" it this weekend, after much struggling and on the run changes.

We got to the PCB part, and we figured which were ground and all that jazz, and started soldering. (My dad has lots of experience with this sort of thing, so he had lots of clever ideas, and stuff.) We kind of expected it not to work, mostly because I don't have a PS/PS2 at my dad's house, and I couldn't take the one from my house because it's my sister's and she happaned to be home all weekend and she had gotten a new game (Katamari Damacy or something).

Man, I can't put anything in order, sorry for the chaotic, jump-around post. Anyways, we used one of those "Project Enclosures" from RadioShack, we got one that was 6"x3" or something, I don't remember, but it's big enough for it.

The controller we used for the PCB was a really old, (PS1 I think), controller, one of those ones with like Turbo, and all the fancy features. I would liked to have used a plain old simple controller, but it's all I had, and we didn't want to purchase a new controller, because this one had a trashed casing. Most of the buttons were chewed up, thanks to my dog when she was a puppy. The controller DID work, last time I used it, which was over a year ago. Yeah, I know, kind of unprepared, didn't even check if the controller worked. We ended up taking it out of the casing and my dad snipped off most of the excess stuff (joysticks, trigger buttons, the like) and we started soldering wires to it. The wires we used were left over pieces of shredded up Cat5 cable we used for inside the pad itself. We put 2 switches (buttons) on the project enclosure for start and select, also, which used cat5 cable.

Anyways, back to where I was. I took it home, plugged it in, and bam, nothing happaned. Ok, fine, I pretty much expected it, because I just realized the arrows/buttons on the pad are probably too low as they are right now. So I push the start button with my toe. Again. and again, a few more times, to make sure. Ok, fine. I open up the project enclosure, and see that nothing was working. Hmm, not even the little tiny LED that was always on. I tested the buttons with a paperclip, (would this work?) and still nothing happaned. So, what I'm thinking of doing is getting my sister to take me to RadioShack tomorrow to get a soldering iron. (I don't have one with me, only my dad does, and it's at his house.) and then get another controller, probably buy a cheap one to use. I'm going to try that one.

But in the mean time, and possibly saving me some money: Does anyone know why this might be happening? If you need more details/info on something, let me know and I will gladly specify a little better.