My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

nicoga3000 · Trick Member Joined: 18 Jan 2005 Location: Illinois

The problem with soldering an xbox controller is that it's pressure sensitive...And, I don't know where to solder it either...But yeah. Any help?
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ropeadope · Trick Member Joined: 20 Jul 2004

Are the squares (with the arrows) really supposed to be 11x11 inches? That seems too big, my pad only responds within like a 8x6 area, or something small like that.

ch · Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 5:52 pm Post subject:

thats cause the softpads are stupid.

they have a small area of mesh where they operate, so you dont get the full area of operation. if you go to the arcade and measure a square, it will be almost 11" square.

thats y ppl make their own ddr pads.

p.s., nicoga, get an xbox ddr pad and solder to that.
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ddrhomepad · Trick Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

daitenshi · Trick Member Joined: 11 May 2004

lol wow lots happened since I posted.

thanks for the info cartoonhero!

RedXander · Basic Member Joined: 13 Feb 2005

Thanks DDRhomepad. I wasn't asking if it supported lighting, just if it was a good design and if it was better or worse than the others. The pads coming along nice, I'll post pics once its done. Just two more questions though.

1) How did you get the sheetmetal to do such a perfect 90 degree angle aound the wood?

2) Do you cut the corners off of the lucite to make it fit around the screws of the brackets? Do you just screw the top bracket screws into the supports?

ch · Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:56 pm Post subject:

you could take the metal off the wood and re-bent the edges to 90 degrees. or, if youre putting on a border, it doesnt matter.
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RedXander · Basic Member Joined: 13 Feb 2005

Haha, I edited my topic while you made a new one. Thats a good subject though. How do you make a boarder, im assuming that you just take a strip of sheet metal and screw it into the sides. Having the arrow layers exposed wouldn't be very neat.

SuRfReAk · Trick Member Joined: 19 Dec 2004

RedXander: to get the sheetmetal angled like that, you cut off the corners of it once it's screwed onto the plywood. If you drew straight lines, that run along the edge of the plywood, and to the edge of the sheet metal, you'd have a square of metal at every corner. Cut that out, then bend the metal. Or you can just score the metal along the edges of the plywood with a utility knife, then snap it off downwards. No, you don't cut the lucite corners, you leave them square and overdrill the holes, so the screws move freely up and down. To make a boarder you make a 33" by 33" frame of wood, then screw it onto your pad, pulling all the spaces to the correct size. Then you can cover that with metal, or paint it, whatever.
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eepiccolo · Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:33 am Post subject:

While we're on the subject of ddrhomepad's design...

Are there any issues with the arrow graphics sliding around between the two pieces of Lucite? The design doesn't mention any adhesive being used between the graphic or the Lucite, and it seems sliding could be an issue because the Lucite isn't firmly screwed into place.
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ch · Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:41 am Post subject:

if you use a sheet of paper, or the arrows off the top of a soft pad, it may slide around, so you could use a little tape or something to hold down the edges.

some people also use custom printed decals that adhesive ot the bottom piece of lucite. these, of course, do not slide around, and are also clear in some places so light can shine through, if necessary. see riptide's 4th or 5th video to see what im talking about.
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SunnyDdr · Basic Member Joined: 03 Feb 2005

For those of you making the FAQ, I'd recomend mentioning the mad catz beat pad for a pc board. After failing with a Sony and a Mad Catz controller, I got a dance pad and that worked great - it's got huge areas to drill/solder and looks a lot simpler and tougher. For people who've never soldered before (or, like me, haven't soldered anything in about a decade) the Beat Pad will mean a lot less frustration.

Thanks to those here who recomended it. I've soldered it up and it works great, now I just have to finish my arrow panels. I'm stoked.
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ch · Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:46 am Post subject:

yep, pc dance padz
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pang · Trick Member Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Location: Sydney

A couple of pages back I posted about having problems with some usb controllers, and the buttons getting stuck on. Well, problem solved. Instead of using a more expensive controller or a xbox controller or even a dance pad, we just used some cheap usb keyboards and they work fine. The actual PCB in the keyboard is also quite small, so you can easily hide it within your pad.

ch · Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 6:57 am Post subject:

wouldnt your computer detect two keyboards and freak out?
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pang · Trick Member Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Location: Sydney

nope. it detects the two keyboards but doesnt freak out

just dont overload it by pressing way too many keys at once and take care when deciding where to solder, because all keyboards have differen internals. E.g. with the keyboard im typing on now, it can register all 4 cursurs or all 4 keypad cursors at once, while the keyboard i took apart for my pad cant. So, i soldered it to the points for the numbers 1234 above the keypad.

When testing my keyboards before taking them apart, i managed to get all the keys from 0 - 9 to register, from both keyboards. Im thinking 10 keys should be enough. Just remember to test the keyboard beforehand and there should be no problems.

SuRfReAk · Trick Member Joined: 19 Dec 2004

I'm willing to bet that older computers will indeed "freak out," it depends on what software/hardware you have.
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pang · Trick Member Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Location: Sydney

As SuRfReAk says, it'll depend on your software/hardware configuration, but the using a keyboard pcb works just fine for the 4 pads that we've built. Just test it before taking anything apart. Ive got an old P3 866 running windows 98 with a ps/2 keyboard plugged in, and once i got the drivers installed for the usb keyboard, it worked fine. I was also playing some stepmania today on a friends 1yr old Dell laptop. We had 2 DDR pads plugged in via usb and there were no problems.

SpaceMan · Trick Member Joined: 03 Dec 2002

I'm using a PS2 Dual shock 2 controller for the wiring, and I have no idea where the solder points are for anything. Has anyone wired one of these, if so .. can anyone help me out? Would you need me to put a pic of the circuit board up?

ch · Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject:

it would help.

but people whove used dual shock 2's in the past have said that they were difficult to solder. you may want to get a cheapo soft pad and rip it's guts out.
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