Comments | smilr: DDR Pad finished!

smilr

DDR Pad finished!

Jun 15, 2006 11:07

Okay, so I claimed about a week ago in my IM away message that I had built a DDR pad. This wasn't quite accurate, as the pad lacked artwork, and hadn't been tested playing DDR. Now, we've got artwork, and finally found a copy of DDR Extreme 2 ( Read more... )

Comments 12

queensuzy June 15 2006, 19:15:49 UTC

Wow. That's pretty awesome, Tyler. How much did it cost altogether?

smilr June 15 2006, 19:32:36 UTC

Lets see:

2 used PS2 controllers - one of them useless, $15 at local game trader.
Wood and acrylic for 2 pads, enough metal for 2 to 3 pads, weather stripping, screws, tubing etc. for another 4+ pads, tin snips (infinite more pads) and a couple of drill bits all together cost $165 at Home Depot.
Spare cat-5 for wire, solder + iron, duct tape etc. that we had on hand $0.
Fancy printing of the button graphics at Staples $25 >.< That price is for six , 12 inch square prints, we blew the images up a bit large and then trimmed them to 11 inches so as to have full bleed ( ... )

smilr June 15 2006, 19:36:30 UTC

Scratch that - I forgot the 9-pin D-Sub (serial) connectors from Radio Shack, that adds about $6 per pad, though they are completely optional, and better quality, cheaper connectors can be ordered from other stores. (mouser and digikey come to mind - though I haven't checked their prices)

So closer to $90 for raw parts per pad.

irishelf June 15 2006, 20:20:51 UTC

That is pretty badass. Nice work!

zombie_dog June 15 2006, 20:35:03 UTC

So! Awesome!

sabrecat June 15 2006, 22:17:23 UTC

I am in awe. How does it perform, accuracy-wise?

smilr June 16 2006, 00:35:26 UTC

Fairly well - we had some trouble early on with static build up between the metal non-buttons and the acrylic. This made for some very funky "rapid fire" responses from the buttons when you held them down. Or one would finish a song, and be looking around for the right song, only to step on one of the back metal panels and an arrow at the same time - discharging SOME weird static charge, and causing the X or the O to trigger and pick the wrong song for you >.Connecting all the blank slots to each other, and then the common wire shared by all the buttons cleared it up completely ( ... )

sabrecat June 16 2006, 13:35:59 UTC

I deal with a similar delay due to the TV I play on. Mostly, I unconsciously adjust, though I wonder if I'd score better with a properly synced setup. You may be able to adjust the step timing in the options to compensate, if it's consistent.

A couple of fingers, huh? Wow. That'd make "hands" in In the Groove much easier to deal with...

pleasepinchme June 15 2006, 23:45:37 UTC

That's really cool!