The DDR homepad building and softpad modding thread! (HUGE TOPIC)

Is there a place to order the acrylic arrow buttons from? and currently im using a ddrgame pad with a 1 inch high density foam insert and am loving it, but im lacking the hand bar. any ideas are welcomed. thanks

All right, I got the bar business under control. My brother-in-law was kind enough to offer his help with bending the pipes. Haven't got them yet but they should be about 45x100cm when installed. After looking at a bunch of pictures I guess that should be about right.
The project has slowed down for another reason too, tho. I couldn't find proper corner braces from anywhere so I'm making them myself and they're awfully slow to do with my tools. .__.
Also, I only could get materials for one pad so far. The place ran out of the lexan. Thankfully they had enough for 4 arrows. xP

Aaaaand I can't decide wether to use self made arrow decals or the classic arcade ones. I sort of want to get as authentic feeling as possible but honestly the arcade decals are really boring. On the other hand it doesn't really matter as they can be changed when need be (for a price tho) so I might go with my own design. :3

// might as well put the images here:

Would I be able to use an a/v pad (the one that plugs into a tv) for modding?

A bit of a late response, but I built a pad with pretty much no experience. I just made sure to do a good bit of research and planning before buying the stuff.

There's a few pages of notes on my photo album about things like panel and sensor layout, measurements, etc. Just threw some concepts around, altered them a bit as time went on, and got a final product :p

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How would you use it? It only connects to your TV and has all the software in the control box, there's not much you could do with that pad.

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Hopefully this is the right place, but I'm looking for non-invasive mods for my Cobalt Flux.

Namely, arcade panel adjustment, a guide on making a decent back bar, and a way to connect to the XBox 360.

I do hope one day that the perfect pad will be out there, but with Blueshark, Red Octane, and Cobalt Flux gone, it's looking more like I'll have to try building my own or pay someone to do it. My main needs are arcade recessed panels, solo-mode support, and good sensitivity. (I'm too worried to break open the Cobalt to mod it).

Right place.

CF made arcade mods by adding brackets and extra plastic. You could add extra plastic over the non-arrow parts of the pad easily enough just go to Home Depot and get some lexan or acryllic sheets at least 11"x11" and a cutting blade. Measure out so all your panels become 11"x11" you will want five per pad, you will also possibly need some longer wood screws. Then just drill the holes for the screws and place these on top of the five non-arrow panels. This gives the four arrows the sensation of being recessed.

To make your own X360 control box you MUST get the Mad Catz Beat Pad soft pad first, other X360 dance pads would require re-building your CF pad for multiple and separate commons under the buttons only this Beat Pad will work without modifying your CF pad. Then you'll need a d-sub 15-pin or 9-pin based on your CF dance pad. You will have to solder wires into the d-sub and align them with your control box properly by getting the pinout of the CF pad and following the path of the leads from the beat pad.

You can find guides for fairly easy bar kits on our website, I represent PrecisionDancePads on our front page there is a FORUMS link, and in the forums I've shared guides from people that have built base/bars for their Omega dance pads. To modify these base/bars for the CF pad just know the CF pads are smaller than Omega dance pads so there will be a small amount of modification required to make them work flush without excess space around the pad, plus the CF pads may have corner brackets if you are building a cradle type base you'll have to either remove those or consider them.

By the way check out our pads, reviews, videos, we are doing our best to make high quality dance pads that surpass anything ever built before and at a reasonable price (we can't compete with chinese pads but we are able to make pads cheaper than the three you mentioned, we've just past 2-years of building dance pads and have no plans to quit).

Additionally, if any of these mods seem difficult we also sell Cobalt Flux replacement control boxes, and YES we can build one for X360 but you will have to choose the USB control box NO Start / Back (actually I could possibly add these buttons but I'd rather not try), and in comments write in that you need X360 control box. I can also provide tons of 11"x11" sheets, I have no use for lexan that small and I end up tossing out hundreds of pounds of lexan for recycling each month, I could cut five sheets out really easily.

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What I was thinking of doing was detaching the control box and wiring the pad part to a usb game controller.

Sorry about the bump, I world have responded sooner if I had time.

Theoretically it's possible, but it would be difficult to do.

Dance pads usually have strip sensors that are coated with some conductive paint. IF it's made like that you would have to use a knife to cut some of the top of the plastic thing that goes to the pad, then sand down the top part of the strip to expose metal, then solder wires on the top of those things, then solder the other end of the wires to your USB game controller and make sure that you can still press L/R and U/D and all the other inputs at the same time.

It would be really hard to do for most people IMHO.

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That was my plan, actually. I was going to use this controller and wire the arrows to the 1, 2, 3, and 4 buttons to make sure that they can be simultaneously pressed.
I do have some general questions though: what voltage should the soldering iron that I use be? Is 15V too little?
Also, what type of solder should I use?

You mean Wattage, 15Watts will work will just take a little longer to get to temperature and just use the solder it comes with otherwise stick with a thin guage solder for this job.

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What size? Is 60/40 good?
Also, does the type (rosin-core, clear flux, etc.) matter? This is the first time I am doing a soldering job (i know, I should probably choose something easier before attempting this), so I'm trying to get as specific as possible so that I don't flub up.

Ha, I don't even know what size I get, but the thinner one is easier to work with for small wires. The type matters a bit, you should honestly watch a video on soldering, although make sure you remove the plastic with the wires that go to the pad, the heat from the solder will probably melt it if it's connected when you solder the wires.

This video shows and explains a bit about everything to do a good job at soldering.

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Okay, so I watched the video and read your posts, and I'm pretty confident in all but two things. The first is the actual soldering (it IS my first job) and the second getting the actual solder. Based on what you have said, it seems that the thinner the solder, the better. Is this thin enough?

Yeah that's exactly what I use alot of. But with your soldering iron there is usually a small amount, honestly the thickness isn't that big of a deal but the smaller one will be easier to melt and work with.

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OK, I know this is sort of a huge bump (I don't think the thread's old enough to be a necro yet), but I jst got a DDRgame Energy softpad a while back (the 4-in-1). I have a few questions:

1. The corners have started to curl - if i'm not using the pad for DDR Solo or PIU, does this matter?

2. If it does, is it possible to stop the corners from curling?

I;ve been having a very interesting/annoying problem with a pad I've been on/off building. Basically, my pad is wood, with metal panels and brackets from a crappy "metal" pad, using MyMYBox sensors, sensor holders, and sensor brackets.

For the corner bracket, I have a triangular piece of wood glued w/ wood glue, AND nailed down in two places, with a properly threaded hole for the screw that holds the metal corner bracket down/in place roughly in the middle... problem is, after a while of playing with the pad/testing, these pieces become very loose, and pop up. What can I do to better design this piece so it doesn't keep popping up? After working on this pad on/off for a few years, I just want it to be finished so I can keep playing. >_<

I would like to use my Konami Wii pads on any system I want (at least PC, GC, Wii, PS1/2, and Xbox, and I'd like 360 compatibility as well but PS3 support isn't a huge deal for obvious reasons). They are the most durable pads I have, even though all of my pads except one are official. The Wii ones are just better quality than the others for some reason.

I have a shitty PS2/Xbox/GC (Wii?) pad (I must have needed a pad at some point) that I wouldn't mind sacrificing. Anyone have any idea on how to do this? Is it even possible?

I'd like to get hard pads, but I'd prefer to save my money for a machine. And as long as you're buying good pads, they can get close to the price of or are even more expensive than some machines (granted, they're good deals in that case, or they need work... but I think it would be fun to fix up and maintain a machine).

That may not be too hard to do. Open up both control boxes at the top of the pad with a screwdriver, do the black leads line up with the other circuit board? They very well may. If so then just put the other circuit board under the leads of your wii pad, you'll want to use the same enclosure from the other dance pad because it will have supports specifically for that circuit board and the plastic enclosure usually has a piece of foam designed to press against the enclosure to keep pressure on the leads and the circuit board (the foam may break apart so be careful when removing it or be prepared to replace it with new foam). Screw it back together (you may cause a few extra holes in your wii pad but that should be okay).

If they don't line-up you can still do it but it will be much more difficult. You'll probably want to scrape the carbon fiber off the wii circuit board and trim a little bit of the black leads from the dance pad with scissors, make enough room so you can solder wires above the leads on the wii board when you sand the carbon fiber from the circuit board there will be metal under it that you can solder to. You'll want to also scrape off the carbon on the other circuit board and solder the other end of the wires onto that circuit board so both circuit boards are active at the same time. Then you will just have a really weird looking dance pad that has wires going from the one box into another box, anyways put the foam and leads back on the wii board and secure it. The other board you should protect from getting stepped on somehow but it won't need foam or the enclosure it came with because soldered wires don't need compression like the cheap carbon that soft pads use. You could do that method to connect your wii pad to any circuit board you want.

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Thanks for the response. I'll try that sometime. First though I'll need to check the pad to make sure it actually works on the Wii games (rather than just Mario Mix) and I'll need to get another similar pad. USB could be done with a PS2->USB converter (need to get one for my USKOC anyway) or maybe there's a way to get it and 360 compatibility as well.