My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

[ChilliumBromide]

[devout]

[slvrshdw]

i built my own SM setup, using only scrap stuff, so it wasnt that amazing or anything.

i went to fry's to get the cold cathodes for my pad, but the didnt have the 5" blue and red ones: only the 11 or 12 inch ones and those wouldnt fit


i've also never had lighting, although i really wanted to
_________________

[Szalkow]

[devosbi]

Cold Cathodes are very nice, and bright. For my lighting, im using 1W Star LED's, they are very very bright. But the are current eating little bastards. I was originally going to mount them underneath the arrows, but then i realized, oh crap, the bottom of this thing is going to be covered with sheet metal duhhhhhh. So they are now sitting horizontally in the corners, illuminating the perspex.
_________________

Bag makes my eyes feel like hurting *cries*
MAX 300 Super STFU Mix

[ChilliumBromide]

I'm going to play the "devout isn't really a rocket scientist [last I checked] but he does build guitars" card and say that wall power's a pretty cool guy, but not as convenient as batteries and doesn't afraid of anything.

8 lights, 4 inverters, 12 AA's. EVERYLASTING LIGHT.

I did some math, and it would take about 3.5 years running nonstop for a cold cathode to actually burn out.

I'm working on replacing all the lights on my bike with CCFL's, but I need to get a white one for the front of the bike. I currently only have a bunch of red and blue ones lol. POLICE RAVE BICYCLE COMIN' FOR YOU.


Devosbi, sorry to hear about that little predicament with the lights. One thing I've done with a couple of my designs is made it so that the lights sit on top of a panel that covers the sensor, and then you have the acrylic panel on top of that. If you're ever modding your pad out, you might want to try that.
_________________

I used to be active here lol

[devosbi]

Well, i wouldn't call it a predicament, quite funnily its actually worked out very nice, Ive used sandpaper to scratch the perspex underneath right on the arrow outlines, so when the perspex illuminates, the light reflects off the scratches, after a few tests, its working pretty awesome, looks like just the arrow itself is glowing.
_________________

Bag makes my eyes feel like hurting *cries*
MAX 300 Super STFU Mix

[devout]

[devosbi]

On tuesday, when i have engineering, i'l take some photos and upload them for you.
_________________

Bag makes my eyes feel like hurting *cries*
MAX 300 Super STFU Mix

[ChilliumBromide]

I was actually going to recommend you try something like that; looks like you got your back. It'll be cool to see how it turns out; way to roll with it and make it cool.
_________________

I used to be active here lol

[devosbi]

I got some photos of the pad and graphics and whatnot, the LED lighting i couldn't get working during the lesson (the teacher had the LED panel i was using locked in the cupboard and we had a substitute teacher >.<) But here's what i have so far:



Yes Someone put the drill there in a "pose" position at the last minute thinking it was pretty funny xD, also the pad when through 'Bens Durability test' Ben is a friend of mine who decided to test it my hitting the metal panels with a 70cm piece of box steel xD And it passed i guess xD

Two of the arrows have been set up, One of which the sensors is functional. The arrow resizing was fun, used the sander for quite some time and got a face full of MDF dust =P (YAY FOR CANCER)

This is the base of it without the graphics in there:



Basically Ive made the arrows more solid so rather than the arrows being; Acrylic, Graphic, Acrylic, Metal, Mine are; Acrylic, Graphic, MDF Panel, Metal. Ive also used a higher density weather stripping to support the weight, its very sensitive and i don't really feel it move at all when i step on it (no sliding around or vertical movement obvious)
_________________

Bag makes my eyes feel like hurting *cries*
MAX 300 Super STFU Mix

[AJAX the Insomniac]

Ok...the circuit board I have doesn't seem to work...

Before we were going to solder the wires, we decided to test it, by taking two wires (one touching the ground contact and the other one to another contact) and connecting them to see if it registered as a button being pressed on the PS2...

...nothing worked. (we even tried soldering, and it still didn't work)

I was wondering if I could solder to something else...like a keyboard, or some kind of pc controller. (that way I can just plug it into my computer and use that)

EDIT: Oh and I have another soft pad...a newer one (that is for ps2 and Gamecube) and without disconnecting it from the pad, I tested the circuit board (sliding the ground wire under the plastic and on top of the contact, and the other touching the other ones) and it worked.

[Szalkow]

[ChilliumBromide]

It might not be fried indefinitely; before you toss it, make sure the wires from the chip to the PS2 are firmly attached to the circuit board. If so, and it doesn't work even then, it's fried.

You can wire to some keyboards, but not all of them. Grab a dumpster grade keyboard and crack it open; worse case scenario, you can put it back in the dumpster.

PS3 controllers work as USB controllers. Try a 3rd party one.
_________________

I used to be active here lol

[EnvyX]

Hey guys, I recently built a homepad, and I have a couple of questions and some problems that I am looking to mitigate, but first, I should go over how I constructed my pad.

Information about my DDR Home Pad:

The base is 100% riptide style


33"x33"x1/4" plywood
10.875"x10.875"x1/4" plywood panels, covered with 22 awg 1'x1' steel
The plywood/metal panels sit on 2x4s which sit on the 33x33 plywood
The arrow panels are each 2 10.875"x10.875"x0.22" acrylic sheets stacked on one another with arrow graphics in between them.
The 4 corners of the arrows panels are cut out and wood triangles replace them.
Corner brackets are used to cover both the very edge of the arrow panel and the entire wooden triangle piece.


The sensors are matrix style


two 4" mending braces with 2 cutout mousepad squares in between, mounted to the plywood under the arrow panels.
4 sensors per arrow located on the sides of the arrow panels.

My problems that I am having are:

After playing a couple of songs I noticed that the arrow panels are squeaking/creaking rather loudly. They even started to squeak when I just put some pressure on them with my hands. I'm positive that the squeaking is mostly caused by the bending of the arrow panel, because there is so much space below the center of the arrow to move.

To mitigate this I have tried something

I tried putting blocks underneath the center of the arrow panel, just high enough for the sensors to work... This has eliminated a lot of the squeaking, but it still exists a little bit. I was wondering if anybody else has had this problem, and if anyone has any general advice to fix the squeaking. Also, if the pad also needs a general break-in period.

Also, since I am using acrylic sheets that bend, I was wondering if anybody had squeaking issues when they used Lexan, or polycarbonate sheets instead with riptide-style base?

Another problem that I am having

Is occassional pad-boos. I have narrowed it down to one arrow, and think that it sometimes gets stuck, or the mousepad doesn't raise it quick enough and it double-registers sometimes, ruining the integrity of the step.. What I plan on doing is refitting the arrow panel, and possibly adding more mousepad to one of the sensors I am suspicious about... Does anyone have any general advice about pad-boos or maintaining step integrity?[/b]

[devout]

[ChilliumBromide]

Lexan bends a little more easily (General Electric designed it to absorb shock and flex), but yeah; it just makes a higher-pitched squeaking sound when it bends.

You really don't need the plexiglas acrylic on the bottom unless you're putting lights in it; just replace the bottom piece of acrylic with a piece of wood; I recommend "hardboard" (basically just dark, super-dense cardboard); you'll be able to replace it if it cracks (it comes in 8'x4' sheets, which are only about $3 each) up to 28 times, and it will stop the flexing AND the squeaking.

If you do plan on adding lights eventually, do this anyway until you do.
_________________

I used to be active here lol

[AJAX the Insomniac]

Yea...the circuit board is fried...I tried what you said and still nothing. =/

Well...does anyone have any suggestions of usb controllers that could be easy to solder to? (if not, then maybe a cheap usb controller that I could find at a typical pc store of some sort...?)

[ChilliumBromide]

I got 2 on ebay for about $30 shipped about a year ago that were sold as "USB 2.0 Game Controllers". They were Hong Kong made and designed Dualshock-style controllers marketed as "Analog Controller 3". The chips are good, just make sure you use Resin Core solder not Acid Core solder or it will just come right off of them.

[url=http://cgi.ebay.com/New-CONTROLLER-Black-Control-for-Sony-PS3-Playstation-3_W0QQitemZ120291690849QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120291690849&_trkparms=72%3A1074|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1318]Here's one for $16 shipped[/url]

A google search will find you more fore similar prices. They're crap controllers, but the chips are good and plug into USB.
_________________

I used to be active here lol

[stuffmonger]

Make sure your soldering iron is esd safe. If your soldering iron is not esd safe, it can fry whatever electronics you are working on. Those cheapo $16 piece of crap soldering irons at radioshack are nice to learn how to solder with, but that's about it. Once you get more serious about soldering, a good esd safe soldering iron with adjustable heat is wonderful. I've had my HAKKO 936 iron station for about 5 years now, and have never fried a circuit board (and trust me, I've soldered a lot of sensitive electronics from cell phones to arcade motherboards).