My home built metal DDR pad (Part IV)

Paramount X · Trick Member Joined: 15 Jun 2005

Also I want to do an Xbox version. Did anybody do one. Please if you did please give me the 411 on how you hooked it up to the Playstation. People may say its the same but I want comfirmation. Thanks.

Synaesthesia · Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:19 am Post subject:

I don't know about the strength of plexi, but I know Lexan is super-tough (they use it in airplane windows, bulletproof glass, etc.). I was concerned about weight-force factor myself (I'm ~195, for reference). I didn't have a set of shocks (I assume you mean ones that lift the pad from the floor), but I did use a 3/4" MDF baseboard which is *really* tough and sturdy. What I did is for reinforcement is use n+1 rails for support, where n is the number suggested by the various sites (I ended up with 4 supports on each arrow, 3 on non-arrows).

The wx-stripping is used to separate the 2 metal contacts from each other. Also, it helps to push the contacts apart once you take your foot off the arrow. As far as that goes, I've found that I rely on the Lexan's elasticity (tendency to return to original shape) to keep the contacts separated. (My Lexan is cut to fit *exactly* in each arrow spot.) It also gives a nice "bounce-back" effect (similar to what is described by ITG2 pads) which feels a lot better on your feet and helps save some energy (similar to the spring effect of running on grass instead of concrete, for example).

If you use an Xbox controller as your soldered controller, I'd just get a generic adapter to hook it to the PS2.

PS: I'd run a Google search to try to determine the comparative strengths of differenct polycarbonate materials (acrylic, plexiglass, Lexan, etc.)
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actjksn · Basic Member Joined: 24 Jul 2005

deM' · Trick Member Joined: 10 Apr 2005 Location: Southington CT

use your imagination, if you think its possible with any tool try it. Just remember that the goal is to cut a path out of the wood, using a radial saw with the blade set to 1/2 of the thickness of the wood will work fine, or whatever depth you want it to be

geckoinc99 · Trick Member Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Location: Chattanooga, TN

Paramount X,
My pad can withstand someone that weighs 400 lbs. That includes jumping. Here's how mine is made:

I followed Riptide's pad design except that I did not use corner brackets. My Plexiglass squares actually just float on the pad. You can pick them right up and get to the back without detaching anything. The panel is made (from top to bottom) 0.093" plexiglass - graphic - 0.22" plexiglass. This is all held together with nuts and bolts. The sheetmetal is glued to the bottom.

The contact system is the raised 2" mending brackets. Now, plexiglass will almost never break (at least that I'm aware of) as long as it can't bend too much. Since I wanted to have lights, I needed space to be under the pad. In order to avoid having the plexiglass bend too much, I added a small post in the middle that was the same height as the 2" mending brackets. The picture shows an overhead view of the pad well without the panel in place. The light gray rectangles are the contacts. The dark gray square in the middle is the post (sorry for the crudeness of the drawing. It was done in a hurry). That post keeps the plexiglass from bending and the contacts support in on all four sides. This design can take a lot of abuse and still gives you room for lights.

As far as making it for XBox, just do what others have done and buy a softpad (unless you already have one) and pull the board out, then solder your wires to it. Presto! It's XBox ready.

actjksn,
The general concept that others are giving you is to use what you have on hand. The only reason to buy a tool is if you will have several uses for it. A table saw or hand circular saw will do the channel cutting (which is what I think you're after). You just make several passes and chip out (or make enough passes that you cut it all out). The only cuts that have to be straight are the outside ones, which a clamped straightedge for the saw to slide against (if using a circular saw) will work fine. If you're after rounding over corners, a planer will do the same thing, though it takes a little longer. Just take a hand planer and go over the edge several times at different angles (but going straight down the edge each time) till you get the curve you're after.

I hope this information helps.

David
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geckoinc99 · Trick Member Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Location: Chattanooga, TN

I've got a question myself,
I'm trying the method of gluing down sheetmetal with the 3M 77 spray and ran into a problem. When I wrap it around the sides the glue won't hold it because the sheet metal wants to pull away from the edges. Does anyone know a way to deal with this (I'm trying to stay away from using any type of fastener to keep the surface smooth and free of screws or similar things). Thanks for any help.

David
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Aflac · Trick Member Joined: 28 Mar 2005

Synaesthesia · Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:43 pm Post subject:

I went with Liquid Nails for all my adhesive needs. I also tightly duct-taped the perimeters of the sheet metal contacts, on the notion that if they ever did pull themselves a little apart from their respective adjoining material, the duct tape would prevent them from making inadvertant contact.
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stoli · Trick Member Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Location: Southern NH

Paramount X · Trick Member Joined: 15 Jun 2005

Also if I take apart I draft pad.(cheap one) Like the gamestop pad. ANd do the circuittry to connect to the HM pad, will it show up as a pad or a controller. If it does show as a controller how do i fix that

stupidbarber · Trick Member Joined: 28 Feb 2005

I thought I would share what I've done to mod one of my new wood/metal pads to make it into a rubber/wood/metal monstrosity. Once I finally got these pads made, I discovered a big problem with a hard pad: it really hurts to do when you have bare feet! At least on fast songs. Shoes help, but then it's hard to know where the buttons are. So I used some spare exercise mat (moderately firm rubber, about 1/2 inch thick) cut out four 11 X 11 inch squares, and used 3M removable wall double sided foam tape pieces to stick them right on top of the lexan panels. I also ended up gouging out some rough holes above the four corner screws for when I need to adjust the tension of the lexan.

OK, so it looks like crap. But, on the good side, the response of the arrows is great, certainly not worse and possible better then the arrows alone (not sure how that could work); the cushioning feels much better on bare feet, so I can do up to 7 footers without shoes; I still need shoes for 8 and 9 footers, but with this mod I can feel where the arrows are even with shoes because they stick up above the stationary panels.

The downside is I don't get to see my nice arrow graphics. But it's removable, so I guess if I get better, it's easy to take them off. So far, the tape is holding them very tightly - no slipping.

tolookah · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:45 pm Post subject:

MyDancePad · Basic Member Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Location: bloomington, mn

marcan · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jul 2005

I've been thinking about building my own pad but there's one thing I just hate about the usual pads: the switches. I hate things that move around, that fail, etc, you get the picture

Soo I had an idea of using strain gages. Or, in plain Engligh, bathroom scales, or rather, what's inside of them. It basically is a metal bar with an element stuck onto it, so when the bar bends (very very little) due to pressure (someone stepping on it), the element changes resistance (extremely slightly). My scale had 4 gages, perfect for a DDR pad. It turns out it isn't difficult to measure, if you use the proper circuit. Google for "wheatstone bridge". To put it simply, my scale had three cables on each bar, and two gauges on each bar connected like:

marcan · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jul 2005

The strain gage:

My circuit, with no pressure (LED ON)

My circuit, pressing the sensor (LED OFF)

The circuit is carelessly wired on a prototype board, and looks much messier than it really is

tolookah · Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:30 am Post subject:

that a 741 op-amp? (cheap kind) I had considered strain gauges, but they seemed too tempramental to use, and required too much supporting hardware (you will need a total of four op amps, one per gauge)

I was looking to put them as analogs into a microprocessor, but well, that would need a diff amp, and I didn't want to build all that circuitry just to play DDR (though it is tempting)

nonetheless, good luck, and post schematics when you are set on the parts, I'm curious how it turns out.
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marcan · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jul 2005

Yeah, it's an MC1458, which is basically 2x741. Very cheap. I use one opamp as a comparator, and another one after that with a fixed 1/2 supply reference to have a more definite response (with one opamp only you can see a period of uncertainty where the output is neither high nor low but in the middle, but with two you clear that up)

I'd been thinking about using an MCU too (If I do it, it'll probably be a PIC16F873), which would basically require adding some feedback to the opamps to turn them into controlled amplifiers, and feed that into the A/D pin. For now I'll see how simple comparators works out, and afterwards I may add in the PIC (which would even make it possible to simulate a normal PSX pad, if the PIC goes fast enough to emulate the protocol).

For the simple version you'd need one MC1458 = 2 opamps, plus 2 reference resistors (which I'll probably mount directly on the gauge and send the output as two twisted pairs in CAT5 cabling, to reduce interference) (I'm using 10K 1%), plus two reference resistors for the second opamp (practically anything, and precision doesn't matter much, 10K is fine), plus a pot and resistor for the offset (I use a 100K resistor and a 10K pot), plus whatever you'd use for the output (since the opamp isn't rail-to-rail it might not work fine for TTL because the output is too high in the low state probably, but maybe add in a small divider or even a simple diode to cause a voltage drop), times 4 (one for each button).

This is my current schematic:

AGAUGE is the active pressure gauge, DGAUGE is the dummy one (I haven't actually checked which is which on mine, but it doesn't really matter. Both look the same and are covered by a black compound on my stuff, but presumably one is dummy and the other is active, else nothing would work)

tolookah · Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:41 am Post subject:

neat stuff... I am actually working on emulating the protocol on a pic (2455) and having a whole controller with lights and such, posted about it two pages back. I hope to have it so that I can also connect to the xbox and a computer via USB, with the board it will cost a meek $40 for 'controller' and lights, essentially a control box (my target price) The expencive part is the boards

how much did the scale cost? (just trying to estimate the price)
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NaraShikamaru · Basic Member Joined: 28 Jul 2005

Hey, I'm sorry I dont have the time to recap all 230 pages of this thread (I did look at like the first and last ten). So there is a basic question I would like to ask...

Which pad is the most durable (Being that I am a 240 lbs player)?

Secondly Mad-Catz retro controller (Does it work, it looks cool, but somepeople said its a bad controller to use)

Also is there anywhere with links to MOST of the known dance-pad building instructions? (I currently have like 6 or 7 different websites, some are original designs, others are modified designs).

marcan · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jul 2005

Neat... For a start I'll just hook it up to the PC via parallel port and the linux gamecon driver (settings for "dumb" pads basically translate incoming bits into button presses, and should work fine).

You mean PIC 18F2455 I guess. I haven't touched the 18xx series yet, but I'll have to do so soon anyway (it's similar to the 16xx anyway, just some new powerful features). I've done absolutely no peripheral USB coding (and very little host, for that matter), just parallel/serial/i2c/spi/bitbang stuff.