Help with Cobalt Flux :(

I seriously need help fixing this. Ever since I got it, all the panels doesn't work well at all. It's chaotic because it can either unrespond, respond late, gets stuck, e.t.c. I already got another control box but the same problem occured. This was back in October and the warranty is over. I had a few personal problems that I had to deal with the pad now after all that time. I took off all the top panels and I need to know what to do with the wires.

Please help . Thank you

P.S: Yes, I've tried calling them today, but they haven't picked up. Both the office and the support...

did you try cleaning off the contact panels? i noticed i would always get gunk in there that would prevent the pad from responding correctly. It may require some scraping.

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Is the pad well plugged to the console? A friend's cobalt will behave weirdly if it's plugged ALL the way, it will work normally if left a bit unplugged. Also, check out if you have your "Dance Play" settings right. If you are allowing the pad to accept input from the shape buttons (X, O, Triangle, Square) while you're playing, then you could be getting lots of pads errors because of that.

I cleaned the F out of it to see if it is just dirty, but it's hardly used! Only wood crumbs and a bit of dirt. CoreyBlaze, that might help. I never thought of not plugging it all the way. I'll try the Dance Play setting too. Thanks I'll update soon.

Make sure the screws aren't too loose or too tight.
If the plastic bows, that's bad (loosen the screws to fix it).
make sure the vibration setting is off in the options

Also, e-mail cobalt flux instead of calling.

It might just be because you got a bad pad. I've heard that the recent cobalt flux (for the last 2 years or so) have been pretty bad. I bought my CF used (it's oooooooooooooold) and I've only had it for like 2 weeks, so I might not be able to help very much other than general help.

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oh yeah dance play options.

sucks if youre trying to play extreme us. get a hacked gamesave

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Plug the controller into a USB port, and load something that lets you test the input.

Unscrew a panel, and use the metal head of the screwdriver to touch the underside of the panel. It should register as if the panel is being pressed down. If nothing happens, it's probably a control box error, or a wiring error. Does it work with some, all or none of the panels?

Try unplugging the control box from the PC/PS2, then holding down the Select and Start buttons, and plugging it back in. Is that any different?

So are Cobalt Fluxes still top tier, or are there better/more cost effective hard pad options available now? If someone said "what's the best pad to buy now", what would the best answer be?
~Uiru

How can I stop a Cobalt flux from double tapping?

It's really noticeable in menu's and while doing fast 16th streams.

I tried everything,
I've cleaned it. Still double taps
I did a penny mod. Did nothing but bend the metal
I've stuck foil to the sensors. Made it more sensitive and made it double tap even more
I've stuck lots of cellotape to the whole of the sensor but 1 part.
Still double tapped.
Removed the foil I added.
Made it really insensitive and somehow still double tapped.

By double-tapping I might guess that it could be your control box, or it could be that the wires were accidentally severed during play. Maybe taping the wires where there are any gaps showing or the former option.

Sorry to revive, but I have a question. D:

My Cobalt FLux, of two years, plays perfectly fine on my PS2 with the occassional almost, boo, or good once on every maybe 5 to 10 songs. But I recently have been playing the new DDR X2 simfiles on my SM and I've noticed that I'm getting a lot more of those negative scores than I should be, even when I know I'm pressing the panel right. (downloaded songs from older games and tested that my scores came out with SDGs on PS2 while have at least 5 good/boo/almost on SM) Also, I notice that the carpet in the room where I play on the PS2 is a thin, hard carpet while the carpet in my computer room is almost shag and is really the opposite, which even at times makes me pad move like crazy unlike in the other room.

Is it because of the adapter that came with the control box?

Am I getting lag at some parts or something?

Or is it because of the new surface?

The most that a surface can do to affect gameplay is increase the pad's sliding capabilities, so you can eliminate the carpet from affecting the hardware. Do you clean your pad on a daily basis? Maybe it just needs a little cleaning .

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To reduce the "ghost stepping" or double tapping as you call it, you need to bend the metal.

Remove the 4 screws, remove the lexan (plastic), remove the laminated plastic, now press the metal down over and over again. If you can see the metal sticking and clicking back up that is BAD, this is causing your problem. Bend the metal FLATTER, put it back down and press it again, if it still sticks take it up and keep bending until you get a nice firm bounce back on the metal (press the button and it instantly releases, the metal may seem very flat and that's okay, a little bend is okay as well as long as it functions well.

If your pad ever sticks as in press the button and it stays held down even after you move your foot, you will need to bend the metal more to fix that. It's likely that the metal is sticking along one of the edges, you can add some tape two edges (when you bend your pad you want to bend two opposite sides to get a small bump in the middle, if the bend is to much these two edges will touch the ground sheet and remain in contact after you step off, thus tape can fix this as well as bending those edges up.

In the end, don't be afraid to bend your metal panels, just make sure you get the bend just right before you put everything back together, otherwise you'll need to take it all apart again. Right now I'm considering using wire-ties instead of screws to keep the top sheet metal to the laminated image to the lexan, my goal is a screwless dance pad since my wife likes to play barefoot.

You also shouldn't mess with the wires at all, they should last 5 years of intense play. If you get to the point where you need to replace wires I STRONGLY recommend refurbishing your dance pad completely.

Take EVERYTHING apart, get to the bare wood. Flip the board over and drill holes through 3 (or so) sections of the wireway for the new wires to go through. Buy a 7foot internet cable for your new wiring, cut it in half, run wires to the buttons you want to keep active (make sure you write down which color wire goes to each button especially GROUND), put the ground plate back down, cut and install new industrial strength velcro, put down all the buttons, consider using my screwless option (wire ties instead of screws, otherwise you'll need to re-drill screw holes, I've always had a problem with how inconsistent the screw holes are in Cobalt Flux pads / metal plates / and especially lexan panels). Now connect a male-male internet cable connector, connect the other half of the 7' cable, and solder the wires to a new control box (I personally HIGHLY recommend getting an official PIU dance pad, those are easy to solder to and let you play PIU / DDR even DDR Extreme US without problems, but you'll need more than the 8 wires from an ethernet cable, so you may need to run two sets through your pad if you want a PIU/DDR capable pad). Make sure you protect the wires that are now exposed on the bottom of your dance pad (either tape or something, perhaps an extra wood base if your serious), but having the wires run through the bottom of your dance pads will let you replace the wires much MUCH easier than having to remove the entire pad to get to the wires).

In other words your CF should last you 5 years, and it's entirely possible to refurbish your own dance pad and it will be as good as NEW. Don't give up on your CF dance pad!!

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I usually clean it once a month, but I had recently cleaned it a lot ever since I tried fixing the stripped holes with woodglue and toothpicks. I don't think it can be that. Maybe it is just an issue with the USB adapter?

Woodglue is okay for stripped holes, but eventually that will fail as well, consider buying larger or longer screws, or try a screwless mod (wire-ties). The screw really only needs to hold the lexan, laminated image, and sheet metal together, it doesn't need to go all the way through the dance pad.

Also once a month is ALOT, don't let people eat on your pads, if you are taking them apart once a month to clean, that's intense, I usually clean mine every 6 months or 12 months, other than vacuuming between the panels once a week, and I can still get 10,000 combos on old Cobalt Flux pads. I'm thinking of putting down a very thin layer of plastic between the lexan and laminated image, to prevent sweat/food/crap from getting into the pads, then the only holes will be around the wire ties where only a little bit of sweat should be able to enter.

You can tell I understand the design of CF style dance pads alot, I've built a few from scratch and the ones I've built myself have worked better than the officials (I like to put a start/exit button at the top of the pad as buttons and embed the control box in the wood so it can't be stepped on just like on soft pads but more solid), and I'm always thinking of ways to make the pads easier to maintain and high functioning. Some of my ideas have failed (putting a single layer of plastic over the top of the whole pad caused alot of other buttons to trigger when I stepped on one no matter what material I used), but I'm still trying.

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I'm just afraid to use longer screws, so should there be any reason why? I would also want to know where I can buy the same exact screws that are on the flux, though.

Eventually the wood glue will just quit working. Different CF's used different screws and if you bought the ITG AC mod (extra lexan) you got different screws there as well, not sure if you can find the same exact, did you get round tip screws or flat screws? Just take one of the screws out, go to a hardware store, match the length, width, and thread. If you decide to go longer make sure it doesn't go through the entire pad. I prefer to go with a flat tip, I think 8 1/2 at 3/4" length.

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Round and what happens when that just strips? >>

Round and what happens when that just strips? >>

I find the round screws to be annoying, when they strip you replace them, find a screw you like and buy a big box of them, otherwise figure out a way to ditch the screws entirely.

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What type of screws do you use then?

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