My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

[devout]

in case it needs to be said, you'll want to wrap all the ground wires together and only solder one of them to the ground on the control... not try to solder all of them to the same spot on the control
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the world's most refined homepad: devout stealth

Almost-finished non-Stealth homepad for sale, just add sensors! see here: http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=8921579#8921579

[kev0]

I finally managed to cut the 27.8cm (10 7/8") Panels. The jigsaw was dodgy and I nearly ruined one panel. I have no proper workbench, so it was really wobbly, even with 2 F Clamps.

Here's a pic of my progress, but in reality, I've already made the solid panels. The metal was damn hard to drill. I broke one bit because I put too much pressure, so I had to drill a dent and poke it with a nail instead.

Then comes the cutting, it was near impossible to cut, without tin snips, so instead we used the bicycle chain cutter to make deep marks then bend it off with one of those clamp thingoes.



My solid is approximately 15.5mm high, and the stanley braces are 15mm. Should I put some thin cardboard underneath the solids to raise em a little? I really don't want uh arrows that pop-out. >:/

[DMS]

I finally got around to finishing my pad. Once it was built, I checked all my wiring and double-checked with a continuity tester, and all was well and voltage was correct. This got me pretty pumped, but to my dismay when I tried playing with the pad, it wouldn't work! All it does is act as if I am constantly holding down the right arrow, even if I take the solid panel out, and remove the ground/lead wires from the panels. I checked the continuity again, and made sure there was no problem with my ground soldering or anything, and it was fine, so I have no idea what the problem is.

[ChilliumBromide]

[kev0]

Update:

Yes! Today I finished attaching the 2' by 4's to the pad. The pad is a little bend so the middle of the 2nd and 3rd 2 by 4's are a bit. Uh raised.

As for the raised solid panels. I've heard people mentioning washers somewhere and I thought about putting washer underneath each screw to raise them a little? Like 2 washers each screw?

But I'm a bit worried about over a long time, those washers are going to dig into that wood.

Anyone ever used washers to raise their panels? Or do they use cardboard or anything else?

EDIT: Oh and I'll take pictures and post em up tomorrow
Double EDIT: Used cardboard instead, cut Acrylic panels. The 4 panels range between 26cm - 27.5cm. Been manually sawing the panels almost for 2 days. Also attached solid panels. The sides of the solids extrudes quite a bit. Oh well, the corner brackets will set them right D;

[MasterInuYasha]

Just an Update guys, For those of you who remember, I was going to use 3/4 thick panels, and stuff, I got it all cut, but since school stuff, family stuff, and health stuff got in the way, I never got a chance to finish it, nor will I get a chance to. so I am willing to sell the panels if anyone is interested.

[kev0]

I must've cut the acrylic 20+ times.

Now I gotta trim down each panel around 3-4 times again. After that, the hard parts over. My fingers has a few sores on them due to holding the saw for extended periods of time. Friction hurts.

Well. Now that I think about it. I tried my best to keep it perfect, but it's quite damn hard to do. My Acrylic panel is probably 2-3cm smaller than 28 cm. The steel sides are starting to protrude a bit. I tried hitting it back in, but it just won't stick. I'll have to trim down the acrylic even more now D:



Looks good from a distance eh? On closer inspection, most of the metal panels are off by a bit. Example is the top left one, all that is because of the metal edges. It becomes hard to align panels together

[kev0]

Finally, after roughly 2 weeks of working, I'm ALMOST. SO CLOSE to completing it.

I'm screwed the sensors thing (Unfortunately the screws are all wonky. My drill has no bubble thing) and I'm going to see if the industrial glue would stick metal to plastic. If it doesn't, I'm going to have to fork out the epoxy I was saving for a stealth pad I'm building for my brother.

The acrylic is probably 26cm or less now, after countless trimmings, but it fits. I sanded a bit more off the diags so they don't scrape against the wooden corners, but at the same time I made sure the corner brackets would still hold them down.

Well. I'll update pictures later, when I finish it

[StuartQF]

Use flooring tape to stick the metal to the plastic.,

[DMS]

Well, I found the problem was with my controller I was using, so I went out and bought a Madcatz Microcon to use, and I have no idea what the solder points are. Anyone got an idea?

[arisch]

[Ghettobarney]

[kev0]

I meant the length and width, lol.

Yeah, about that middle one, I noticed it a tad late, and I already screwed in the thingo.

Right now, I've done soldering everything. All of the buttons works, except for the start, select, left and down.

When I say the button works, I mean I'm 100% they work, and I just need a readjustment of height.

I've encountered a few problems with the mat so far.

1.) The left button. It's completely non-reponsive. I think I might needa recheck the soldering, I've grounded all my wires on the left ground, so is this affecting the button itself?

2.) The down button. For some reason it automatically triggers. Even without the panel itself (Meaning even without ANY contacts/The acrylic panel with the steel sheet). It just consistantly triggers. I've checked the connection and it was fine. Any suggestions to why this can be?

3.) Does it matter if a bit of solder touches the circuit board, or the circuit line itself? Or does it have to be absolutely clean. If it does matter, how would I get it off?

4.) Just found out. For some strange reason, the right panel, top sensor, the first two on the left, seems to have no connection at all. I adjusted it to the right height. (That I'm pretty sure as I've tested it a couple of times) with no avail. I have a nagging feeling I have to reconnect a new wire for one of those screws.

EDIT:



This is the busted left panel. Looks fine to me.





The circuitboard. And yes. I did realise that I soldered the start button in the wrong place. That was because I couldn't find that little circle. I know it's on the left now. Hopefully that bit of solder shouldn't break the start button thingo.



This is my finished result. In my eyes, I thought it looked wonderful, but everything looks good when you make it yourself.

I'd be WAY more happier if I didn't have any problems. The only real one are the start button, right panel and the complete dead left panel.

[devout]

I recommend installing some type of removable connector (like a dsub or cat5 connector) between the circuit board and the pad, so you can basically unplug the pad and just check whether or not the circuit board is working.

If the down button is always on, it's possible that some of the solder is touching the ground connection (assuming you soldered the directional pads in the same place you show for the x/o buttons). To fix that, just carefully scrape off the ground side of the copper circle connector thing with a sharp knife. (Since all the buttons are grounded to a single point, you can remove the other ground wiring on the circuit board.... just make sure you don't slip with the knife and slice through any important circuitry) You can also scrape out a little "trench" around where you soldered the start button in the wrong place if you're worried about that screwing things up.

also, are you using a circuit board that other people have had success with? some brands just plain don't work. the down button probably has the longest wire, since it's farthest from the circuit board. If the control isn't putting out enough power, the wire you soldered on might have enough mass to act as a ground, causing the button to occasionally fire off. I think this would be seen as the button rapidly giving repeated hits instead of being always on.
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the world's most refined homepad: devout stealth

Almost-finished non-Stealth homepad for sale, just add sensors! see here: http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=8921579#8921579

[kev0]

Oh crap. I just realised, I posted 2 of the same image. Here's the soldering of the directional pad. I grounded all my wires on the left button.

I'm pretty sure the controller's working (btw, it's a generic brand for the PSX, and it's pretty much junk so I made use of it), as the up, down, right and circle buttons are working.


Here's the D-pad soldering.

" scrape off the ground side of the copper circle connector thing with a sharp knife. "

By this, do you mean like, scrape off the gold bits on the ground?

If the control isn't putting out enough power, the wire you soldered on might have enough mass to act as a ground, causing the button to occasionally fire off. I think this would be seen as the button rapidly giving repeated hits instead of being always on.

And yes, that's pretty much what's happenening. I'll try scraping off bits of solder.

Thanks for the input devout


EDIT: Oh my god. I'm so pissed. The up panel, only half of the contacts are working. I tried adjusting everything here and there, but with no success. Here's a layout of which screws are working:

Double EDIT: Fixed MOST of the up panel screwed, except for two stubborn screws. Either none of them work, or 2 of the 3 possible connections work:

o = working connection
x = broken

x o o o OR
o o o x OR
x o o x OR
x x x x

Grr.. I'll eventually get it!!

2.) The left, upon inspection, it looks absolutely fine. I checked the circuit thing, using the electric current measurer thing. It's like a a needle with and lots of switches. You basically have these two metal needles with handles and if you can make a current between them, the needle will move. (The best I can explain it without knowing the technialities). I'll rework the soldering tomorrow :/

TRIPLLLEEE EDIT:

Those damn steel contacts. They keep falling off. Epoxy isn't the way to keep them on. I don't have any flooring tape, so I resorted to the good ol' double sided tape. Looks decent and doesn't seem to move alot. Let's hope it stays that way.

Now, another problem has occured, and this time. I am 99% sure it is from the crappy soldering.

While adjusting the up and down panels for sensitivity, the up and down panel all of a sudden started holding down. Even with the panel off. I suspect it's the same for the left panel, but you can't move left on the main screen so it doesn't move at all.

Am I adding too much solder or is the wire placement just inaccurate? :/

[devout]

On scraping: I mean you can scrape the gold half circle for the ground circuitry right off the circuit board, so instead of having two half circles with a wire soldered to one of them, you'll have one half circle with a wire soldered to it. (Or for the case of the start button, scrape off the gold fingery things on the ground side of the connection)

I'm less convinced now that my description of why the button keeps firing makes sense, (I didnt realize that the wires go to big steel plates, and compared to the size of the plate, the length of wire is inconsequential) but in any event, I once had the same problem when using a random old psx control, and basically I had to replace it with a better control to get it to work (I think i replaced it with the generic gamestop brand)

also I dont have any experience with matrix sensors (those are what these are, right?) but I can vouch for the awesomeness of carpet tape at holding anything to anything, so if you keep having problems, consider picking some up. any large hardware store should stock it in the tape aisle.
_________________

the world's most refined homepad: devout stealth

Almost-finished non-Stealth homepad for sale, just add sensors! see here: http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=8921579#8921579

[kev0]

It's RipTide, actually.

And thanks for the input. I'll try that out and post the results ;o

EDIT:

Well. My controller is stuffed. I took off most of the solder and it keeps holding down. So I'm using my softpad box now.
Good thing is. All the buttons EXCEPT THE LEFT is working.

NONE of the sensors seems to pick anything up in the game, but I'm positive they DO connect.
Now i gotta remove the mid panel and change the brown wire. damn

[android_04]

Has anybody seen a custom pad design that uses hinges to hold the 4 arrow buttons? I've been thinking of making my own and I drew up a picture in paint of kind of how it would be built. I did not draw the sensors or retaining pieces for the arrow panels. The center panel would have a hole in the middle to lift it up so that i could lift up the arrow panels for maintenance. Any ideas, suggestions, or criticisms?

[DMS]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/dragonmastersservant/DSC00393.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/dragonmastersservant/DSC00395.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/dragonmastersservant/DSC00396.jpg

Excuse the blurry pictures, but you might get the idea.

[kev0]

Well. I finished the pad.
Finally eh?

All that's left is the corner brackets, sensitivity adjustments (Top, down and right ALL have non-functioning sensors) and inserting the pictures between the panels!

I played some songs already and its pretty good. I can still complete a few, even though half of the sensors are dead. (Stepping in the middle registers it) ;o

I'll finish it tomorrow and fill you up with pictures!

And android. Does that mean, there's no sensors on the bottom of the pad? Underneath the hinges I mean.