My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

[ninjastyle777]

Hey Steinway

I'm a Graphic designer working at a print shop so I can help with your arrow images if you want.

I see you won't have to cut the corners off your arrow panels with how your brackets are set up. That's convenient.

Is that MDF you use for your base?

[CT_Warrior]

[Steinway]

[loulan]

Mmh... I was wondering... How comes people are using buttons for these homemade pads instead of using touch sensors? I mean, it would probably be possible to have two wires (ideally printed on a big PCB) on each pad forming some pattern (to cover the whole pad) but not touching each other, and when your foot touches the pattern i.e. both wires, conductance between the wires changes, and thanks to some electrical circuit behind that (I found a few schemas on the internet), we could close the usual circuit via a transistor. Or more simply we could have a grid of flat nails on a wooden board, each nail being connected altenatively to wire 1 or wire 2.

Of course, one would have to play barefoot but I usually play barefoot even on my metal pad (I hate playing with shoes).

So mmh... I was thinking about building that, but I'm really wondering, how comes nobody did it yet? Is that because you guys love playing with shoes? It would be *very* accurate and virtually unbreakable (no moving parts at all).

Hell, with the wires' patterns being arrow-shaped it could even be stylish.

Or maybe someone already did that but I haven't found anything about it yet.

[Steinway]

[loulan]

Well electrical engineering isn't really my thing, especially the analogic part, but I guess with the internet and some help from some electronics hobbyists' forums it could be done. I think the idea isn't that far-fetched, because when I was in high school, they made me build one of these circuits where when you touch two screws with your bare hands a LED lights up (altough I've forgotten everything about it since then hehe). I found the following schemas so far (well they're using a LED but they also say that we could use a MOSFET instead of a LED to use them as a switch, although I'm not too sure how to do it exactly) :

http://www.sonelec-musique.com/electronique_realisations_detecteur_toucher_001.html
http://www.sonelec-musique.com/electronique_realisations_detecteur_toucher_002.html
http://www.sonelec-musique.com/electronique_realisations_detecteur_toucher_003.html

(It's in French, sorry. But I'm pretty sure we can find similar pages in English.)

Another way would be to use metallic panels (no wire 1/wire 2 thing) and to detect the changes in capacitance (we wouldn't need two wires but I'm not sure about the sensitivity) :

http://www.sonelec-musique.com/electronique_realisations_detecteur_toucher_004.html

Okay so for now I'm not too sure how I would do it, and maybe it's a crappy idea because there's some problem I didn't think about I already started posting questions on some electronics forums, and if others are interested by this idea, maybe there are some electronics majors that could help us at ddrfreak (why did I choose CS ).

[dither]

i was thinking the same thing before, but it seemed the response time on such a circuit would be unsatisfactory. also dancing on a big PCB doesn't seem like it would be comfortable at all! you could easily do something like what you are saying with two NPN transistors in what they call "darlington pair" see:

[loulan]

Interesting... Did you estimate the response time? How much was it?

Oh and I don't see anything wrong with dancing on a PCB since it's just a plastic panel... but anyways, there are other ways, as long as you have some contact on the panel.

[dither]

i actually didn't do any testing of my own because i couldn't find a way to incorporate it into my design so i gave up on the idea and made some home made tapeswitches.

[Steinway]

Maybe something like this? http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Touch-Sensor/

[MasterSprtn117]

Has anyone created a hard pad for the Xbox 360? All I come up with is pads for Playstation...

[ChilliumBromide]

loulan, correct, the design is as you drew it (on the bottom). My biggest problem with it was the fact that some of the holes wound up between boards on my frames, so I decided to build them on bases. Well, when you're trying to mass-produce 64 sensors, it gets kind of exhausting, so I wound up never finishing those pads, but I've still got the frames rotting on my deck!
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I used to be active here lol

[Shuma Gorath]

Well guys this is my metal pad:



more info in this thread:

http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=8953887

[Rajjab]

lol nice bar, i never thought of that
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Groovestats <3 doubles

sup i play Gunbound also

[DRKREVOLT]

[NapstrPSX]

Hello! Old time member that has recently been dropping by the site. My love for DDR has been blossoming all over again lately.

Basically, I want to get a decent setup at home again. I've built my own home metal pad before following the original instructions and it turned out great... but it got ditched at one point. but, I at least have the confidence of knowing that it should turn out fine.

Has the cost of building a pad gone up much over the past 6+ years? I remember it costing roughly $120 then. From what I can see there's not a good metal pad that is pretty much guaranteed to last that is even close to being as inexpensive as building... except for maybe this one:

http://www.amazon.com/PS3-Tournament-Metal-Arcade-Dance-Playstation/dp/B000IBTSR2/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1238465254&sr=8-1

I'm not asking for reviews on it here, but there doesn't seem to be any threads/info on it yet on the site. Looks like it could be promising.

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EDIT: After doing a close double-check, it looks like the link above may be the same thing as the TX-1000 Metal Pad listed in the pad index. Seemingly identical control box, pretty much same everything except the positions of the red/blue arrows are switched. Needless to say I'd be a skeptical buyer as it has very mixed reception.
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Aaaanyway, the 2 questions I'm looking for answers on that I couldn't find from wading through pages of text is

1) rough estimate of modern cost of building
2) Are there any strongly recommended changes that should be made if following the original instructions. I know that building is very subjective, I'm not looking to deviate from the instructions I followed all those years ago.

Thanks to any input!

I am so happy to see this site still going.

[Shuma Gorath]

first you have to tell us how you want your pad. the cost may vary significantly according to the materials you are going to use. also, there are MANY ways of building a homepad. I dont know what are the "original" instructions, though.

[NapstrPSX]

Thank you for the response! Bah... this is where I was trying to avoid confusion. This is what I mean by the original instructions:

http://www.angelfire.com/d20/ddrhomepad/

Basically, I plan on following the directions as closely as possible, using the same materials. Price of bells and whistles not included.

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EDIT: Might as well give a link to what it looked like the first time I built it: http://www.angelfire.com/ks3/invader/ddr_pad.html
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I remember I got the lucite-like material from Lowe's and the sheet metal from a local factory-type place where it seemed to be reasonably priced. Basically, I'm just buying from run-of-the-mill dept. stores otherwise.

I just wondered if maybe there were any design issues or flaws in the original design that I could easily improve upon without incurring any real extra cost. Or, is that design pretty solid and reliable?

[dither]

one thing that i think most people have changed is the sensor design. most people use matrix sensor design now and from the looks of it, seems the best way to go. i personally made my own tape switches out of sheet metal and electrical tape, and i think they more closely resemble arcade sensors.

matrix: http://members.shaw.ca/lluk/ddrpad/

[slvrshdw]

first, the ebay+ddrgame = huge POS. don't even think about it

As for the cost, if you are just building 1, the cost is maybe $130-140, and you can easily build 2 pads for $150-200 because of the 4'x8' sheets instead of the 4'x4' ones.

Anyway, the most expensive things are the plex/lucite/lexan and the corner brackets.
the sensor design has been much improved by Matrix's sensor design as well. I would suggest that instead of Homepad's sensors.

Also, since you already have made a pad before, i would just make another one like that.
(there are a few different models too, modify them to your needs like I did ;D)
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