Pad tilt rumor and repair question.

[sodaboy581]

A long time ago, I heard from a friend that you're not supposed to store metal pads upright... I never knew if this was true or not.

I bought 2 metal pads from eBay YEARS AND YEARS ago for $249.95 (the price included both)

Here are pictures of them:

http://www.vengefulsoda.com/metalpad.jpg

Anyway, one of them, the right button went out a couple of days after using it.. the second one I only used for some months, and now years later, I dragged it out of the closest to use it again. It was fine for about four days and now the down arrow only works when you press the very top of it.. and you have to REAAAAAALLY press it.

I was wondering, could the damage to these pads be caused by storing them up right? Or are they just cheaply designed. (I figured cheaply designed for the price I got them.. $249.95 for 2 pads comes out to like $125 per pad.. and you guys are showing off metal ones here that range between $299-$399 each..)

And, I don't know if anyone is familiar with these pads that I bought, but how hard are they to repair..? I know nothing about repairing them ... but is it easy to explain or should I just chuck them?

Yesterday, I had to quickly buy a cheap ReAct Universal Dance Pad with the 1" foam from Best Buy for like $35 just to keep my daily DDR routine up until I can either repair these pads or save up some money for a really good metal pad.

Well, any answer to the question and repair advice is appreciated.

Thank you all for reading my post.

[Devon]

It's because of how cheap the pads are. And If I must say, you got ripped off for paying that much for both of them.

[ChilliumBromide]

Yes. It shifts the wires and sensors around. Replace the foil on the bottom of the each of the arrows (take one off and you'll know what I'm talking about), right after you take the shipping plastic off all the panels.

If that doesn't fix the problem on both pads, it's 'cause the wiring's damaged.

EDIT: And don't listen to devon. A pair of these will work fine if you actually maintain them, at least until you strip the screws.
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[sodaboy581]

[sodaboy581]

Okay, here's the result of my investigation of the two pads!

Firstly, the pad which had the right arrow break within about 2 days of using it.



The white wire came off of the sauter or connector point. When I opened it, there was no wire exposed from the white side, so I used a lighter to burn off some of the rubber to expose the wire then touch it to the connector...



I also noticed they installed the sensor lopsided and tilted. You can see the indentation the sensor left into the foil on the same arrow.

I had already corrected it's orientation in the first picture there.

After correcting the orientation and pressing the wire against the contact point, I connected the pad to the PS2 and pressed the sensor manually. Just as a test.

Woop, LED lights up on the pad showing it works.

Anyway, onto the second pad.

The white wire was also disconnected on the down arrow, even though it was working fine a few days ago. (I'm guessing it slipped off?)



A closer picture.



I'm guessing that for both of these to be fixed permanently, all I need to do is sauter the white wires to the connectors, correct?

Or should I *not* sauter and try some other approach.

Anyone else have any recommendations to modify these pads so that they're better? I showed them to someone else and they said they thought the foam would wear out fast from use. Also, if you notice, the foil in the right arrow broken pad got cracked from the wire.. haha.

Just wanted to say thanks to DT for letting me know about opening these and the possible problems. I guess I could have looked myself but I was always afraid that something unholy would be underneath the panel or they'd be hard to access.

Well, I guess what was under there was unholy but not as bad as I thought it'd be.

[ChilliumBromide]

I'd say just go to Officemax or some other hardware store and purchase a cheap soldering (it's spelled soldering, pronounced sautering. I have no idea why) "pen" or "gun". Bring it home, and plug it in. Let it get hot (don't leave it on the carpet or anything; if it doesn't come with a stand, get a saucer or something to put it on while it heats up) for about 3-5 minutes, then touch it against the wire. Press the wire into the solder while the soldering pen/gun is touching it, and after 30 to 60 seconds, it should kind of melt into the blob of solder. You can alternatively just touch the iron to the blob of solder and stick the wire into it before it cools, but that will get the soldering iron soldery, which doesn't really do anything damaging to the soldering iron.

Or, you can just stick a piece of electrical tape on there, but it'll probably come off after a while. (that's how I initially fixed my pads when this happened)

btw, those pads actually look pretty well made. Much better than the ones I got made of cheap rotten plywood and decayed foam and a poorly welded frame. Those should do just fine for quite some time, at least until the panels crack, but that can be fixed by just getting some lexan/polycarbonate panels to replace them. (they'll last longer than the plexiglas panels that come with)

Also, make sure to get the covering stuff off of them! They'll look so much better!

And in the future, stow them under a bed or a couch or something.
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I used to be active here lol