Custom DDR PadsIntroductionUnless 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
ConstructionFirst 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.
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.
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.
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.
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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