Custom DDR Pads

Fri Jan 28 13:16:11 2005 by Eric Hokanson
Modified Mon Jul 2 04:31:25 2012

Introduction


Unless you've been in a coma for the past few years, you've probably played or at least seen someone play the wildly popular arcade game Dance Dance Revolution. Now that it's available on Playstation and Playstation 2, and many clones such as Step Mania that are available for PC you can bring this game to your living room. I bought two soft DDR style pads on eBay a while back for something like under $20 for the pair. While they do work remarkable well for as cheap and flimsy as they are, they just don't compare to the real metal style of the arcade. The metal pads on eBay sell for anywhere from $100 to $600 each and shipping those things cost almost as much. A friend and I decided this was too much and that we could build two of our own for about $50. Using just the items that my friend had lying around his dad's shop plus a few additional purchases, we built what we felt were the best looking custom built pads on the Internet.

Materials


  • 2 8' 2x4s
  • 1 Sheet of 5/8" plywood
  • 2 rolls of steel
  • 8 sq feet worth of 1/4" Plexiglass
  • High density closed cell weather stripping
  • 2 cheap Playstation controllers
  • 8 SPDT microswitches with lever
  • 16 Ulrabright LEDs

Construction


First we need to measure off the 2x4s. The arcade style pads are 33" on each side, so you need to cut 2 33" sections and then 4 30" sections. Now we need to split each 2x4 section into a 2x2 section providing us with two identical frames. For this next part we realized a much better method after we already made all the cuts. When you construct the frame you should notch the two inner support beams by cutting about 0.75" out of each one where they cross and putting them together like Lincoln Logs. The frame will be stronger and much easier to put together.

Wood Frames

Now we need to cut our wood squares from the plywood. Each square should measure about 10.75". Next cut the steel roll into 11" squares, it's better to be a little on the short side so that there is no chance of the metal extending beyond the bottom of the wood when you fold it over. We ran into this problem a few times but it was nothing our belt sander couldn't handle. Tin-snips can be a life saver for this part.
Although probably not necessary, we decided to glue our metal to the boards. This made them really solid, flat, and quiet.

Metal Glued to Wood Squares

Once the wood squares were ready to go, we started on the Plexiglass squares. We used 1/4" Plexiglass and I don't think it would be safe to use anything thinner. It tends to flex considerably in the middle but didn't show any signs of cracking or breaking even with 200+ lbs of weight jumping on it. Again we cut them into 11" squares. With the Plexiglass squares cut we placed them and our wood squares down on the frame and spaced them appropriately. Make sure the Plexiglass squares aren't too tight and can move freely up and down. Once in place we screwed down our wood squares. To hold the Plexiglass squares in place most other sites recommended using 2" Stanley corner braces. While they look nice, at $3 per pair (needing 16 pairs) this was too deep for our pockets. We cut some custom steel into octagons and picked up a bunch of right angle brackets for about $0.15 each.

Frame With SquaresOurCustom Brackets

In order for our Plexiglass squares to become buttons we need to add a spring back mechanism. Foam seems to be the most durable and reliable without spending a lot of money. We tried several types of foam and came up with one that performed the best. You need to look for a closed-cell style foam. This type of foam is hard and provides a lot of resistance when squished. Other typed of foam were too squishy and would not spring back fast enough for a fast paced game. We picked up our foam at Home Depot or a dollar or two a roll. Trimmed the foam until it fit perfectly and hot glued it down to the frame.

Best Foam We Could Find

That about does it for construction, read on to find out how to wire the pads for PSX and PC play.

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