I made this, I don't know, four years ago? Today I decided, that we outgrew it, so it time to build a new one. I started googleing for tutorials, and what comes up? The very same video, that helped me to build our old one :) Thanks again, my family loves this!
Thanks for watching! 😄 I'm actually in a similar situation as well and am currently in the process of building a new pad! This project is a bit more involved than the old one, so I have been documenting my progress via UA-cam Shorts until I release the full episode. The current playlist of my progress can be found at the following link. Stay tuned! ua-cam.com/play/PLZtsEimHCFkJZeqKqxmGUpDML9EhFMFjj.html&feature=shared
Three years ago I saw this video and thought: "man... This is way too complicated for me. First of all, who the heck even has a 3D printer?" Nowadays I'm coming back to this having 2 3d printers and having made projects at least 100x more electronically complex than this. This video still impresses me by the sheer attention to detail of Mr. Super Make Something.
estou fazendo uma plataforma também, mas estou usando materiais improvisado no lugar do contato (impressora), e irei colocar led nas setas, a parte mais cara foi chapa de policabornato que fiz questao de inclui, pq é mlehor que o acrilico, mais flexivel e resistente ao mesmo tempo. acredito que em 2 meses termino =)
@Rodman maty-taneczne (dot) pl, i dont have one but ive seen many opinions and they seem to be overall a v good entry level choice, the sensors might be a bit inadequate for high level play but there are mods you can do. there shouldnt be any issues with durability though, just make sure to choose the pro version as they have polycarbonate panels instead of acrylic (which are mone prone to cracking)
@Rodman again, i have no experiences but these are pretty popular pads even in america. i'd suggest not taking my word for it and looking at what other people have to say :) you should be able to find many experiences on reddit or whatever if you search for "polish pads" or "l-tek"
Hi Alex! Yesterday I finished making a dancepad based primarily on this design, and wanted to say thanks for the instruction and inspiration. My daughter and friend are playing it right now and having a blast. Thanks so much!
I was REALLY impressed with the manufacturing and assembly of the dance pad. I was also extremely impressed by your knowledge and expertise in this project. My hats off to you! 👍👍👍👍
If you don't want to get an Arduino and code, I'd recommend getting a cheap soft pad and utilizing the board and enclosure that comes with it. I'm trying a build this weekend with a soft pad I recently purchased. Most of the time with soft pads, the part that goes out in them or causes them not to work are the contacts and not the board. In the one that I purchased from Amazon for example, the contacts for everything are just two layers of crinkly plastic with conductive material printed on them with some very low quality and thin foam in between them. I bought two of these pads and neither made it past day 1 of use without pads not firing. I can't speak to all PCB boards on these soft pads, but with multiple companies selling these 10 button pads with a pink/blue theme and the "Stay Cool!" In the middle pads, I imagine most of them are the same product. The board in these pads is very simple with one ground contact in the middle that all the pads connect to. There are then 5 smaller contacts on either side of the ground contact that correspond to the 10 buttons: (The pads I bought have 4 arrows (up, down, left, right), a triangle, square, circle, and 'X' button in the corners, and a start and select button at the top of the pad)
This is exactly what I’ll be doing this weekend! I bought a soft pad years ago. It’s never worked very well and, 90% of the time it, doesn’t register my up or down steps. I’ve been playing with the option to fail songs turned off and just accepted that all my scores are stuck at D at best. But I am soooo looking forward to repurposing the board for a quality hard pad! Now I’ll finally know what my REAL scores are!
Great video. I also suggest you place the conductive pannels closer to the center square, that way you don't require to press so far out with your feet, instead you can just touch the edge of the arrow to trigger it
This is a great design and thanks for sharing it with us. My one big objection to this design is the method used for connecting the wires to the dance pad combs. My suggestion would be to extend the ends of the foil contacts over the edges of the riser panels, such that the wires can be connected out of the way of the pad movement. By having them on top of the risers as they are installed in this video, that could impede pad movement and thus connection. If soldering/welding to the foil is not an option, I would also suggest something like hot glue or even duct tape to complete it. Electrical tape does not stay adhered to wood very well in high-vibration applications.
Mark Dickson Hi Mark! Thanks for your comments and I’m glad that you like the video! The ideas you suggest are definitely good. The main limitation for this design was foil comb size, which was a result of my craft cutters’ working area - the one in this video is a “mini” version with an 8.5in cut width, whereas other cutters can cut material up to 12in wide. Your suggestion about wire adhesive is a good idea, too - I think that if I were to build the pad again, I would attach a piece of copper foil tape to the aluminum foil, since this would allow me to solder a wire to the comb directly. (A pad made entirely of copper tape would be ideal, but this would probably be too expensive.) That being said, it is still holding up well and I have not had any issues, so if you are planning to build your own pad, I think this is a good base design to get you started. Cheers!
I've used your code and implemented in my PIU machine that i've built. It worked just fine for me. I used a completely different material, had to make some adjustments on your code, but it was really nice have a starting point that you gave me. Thank you.
So let me get this straight. I can either: A) Spend $350 + shipping to get a fully functional DDR pad with a warranty. or... B) Become an engineer / designer / 3D printer operator / programmer / electrician / carpenter and build one myself for probably under $100, as well as a week's worth of hard work? B sounds a lot cooler to me, but A is all I'm currently capable of. And awesome video BTW. It was really cool to watch you doing all of this.
He includes a setup file for that control box. He just opted to 3D print a control box for his pad. The materials for his pad probably ran roughly $150 or so. And btw, the $350 "fully functional" pads with warranty are cheap, made in china, are prone to failure within 6 months, and have to be shipped back to China if you intend to use the warranty
You don't have to be electrician, designer, 3D printer operator or engineer. In the way of programming, u can DL ready sketch but do have to know how to load it in microcontroller. Those connectors with foil is just one of the many ways. All u need that anything that will short the contacts when u step on it, from pressure sensor to banal buttons. All u need is just a straight hands and imagination. DIY pad has one advantage that ready pad in the shop doesn't have - you made it.
I played a bunch as a teenager and now that I'm an adult and have money, most of the good pads have since gone out of business. I will be starting this project asap, thanks for the video, it answered some of the questions I had in my head while I was planning this out.
Super Make Something so I finished mine and I did a couple thing different. One being I didn’t clean it, it’s just wood. I also used copper tape instead of aluminum foil which allowed me to solder to the tape. However I noticed some sensitivity issues, especially with holds, which I’m assuming is too thick insulation tape which is forcing the active step area closer to the center. I’ll make some modifications to see if that works. Also another problem is my lack of skill as I haven’t played in years lol.
But I suppose that the sensitivity could be maybe a non consistent circuit because of weak connectivity of the copper tape adhesive. But I’m not sure yet.
I used a xin-mo to make mine. Pads are more reliable and uniformly sensitive (can't have pad misses for flat-footing) if you only need one contact (ie. detection of 0 or inf resistance). A xin-mo just detects the closed circuit upon contact and it's cheap; shabam. Good job regardless.
Thanks for the guide on how to make the dancepad! That is where I was caught up on, trying to make my own Pump It Up pad. I plan to use the Texas Instruments MSP430 Launchpad (F5529) as the controller instead of the Arduino, due to it's ability to call an interrupt from a pin input, as well as having built in pull-up resistors if needed for output. It also can be made to act as a HID-compliant game controller, so I think it will be perfect for the job.
The arduino is capable of this as well, depending on the board. The Leonardo in particular supports interrupts for enough of the digital pins to make this exact project interrupt driven. See attachInterrupt(). The loop function could just sleep endlessly if it really wanted to.
@@zkull9982 Because not everyone has the skills or tools to build their own dancepad, and would prefer to just buy a ready made one. But, all the decent pads start at $300, up to +$3k. Way out of budget for many people and the soft pad foam ones are getting old and falling apart.
@@zkull9982 Well people have an interest in a favorite activity, like playing ddr for fun and nostalgia sake. Simply put, it's their favorite game to play and they want to continue, even if the hype for it has died off long ago.
@@Lively_1185 yeah I just mean.. I understand man I was just treating it litterally intentionally lmao, I don't play ddr only because I don't have the means
Was about to comment on the electrical tape right as you gave your comments on the design lol, I would say maybe use a spring to hold them down, as frequent movement will wear out a solid connect like a screw. Definitely also agree that acrylic is too brittle. I will likely be using Lexan, which is very durable. I also would recommend putting in connectors at each button to make swapping parts easier.
Very nice prototype and further suggestions at the end. Not sure if I would use the Arduino when a USB to joystick board could function similarly to a raspberry pi, but all in all, very creative and hats off to you.
Stepmania is NOT a DDR emulator for PC! The first image of dancepads that are up for sale from PrecisionDancePads you showed were actually MDF, not metal. DDR cabinets can still be found. It's not dying. DDRA is out. If you still want an authentic dancing arcade experience but can't find DDR, Pump It Up is out there. :)
While I agree, I played DDR for over a decade and my local machine unfortunately got scrapped for a PIU machine. I feel It's actually quite fun to somewhat relearn a game you've been playing for years. That's just me though
I bought a cheap metal pad and modified it the same way. Came with a smaller sensor similar to the one you made, replicating the idea for the entire pad area. My first shody solders snapped, but after a couple o fiterations, it still works to this day and this was 10 years ago. Props on the info, will come in handy mang.
I'll definitely consider it! Currently the pad seems to work pretty well, even for more advanced songs -- I can A/full-combo Max 300 consistently without noticing any misses due to the buttons. If the pads do need replacement sometime in the future, I'll be sure to look into the sensors further and post a follow-up if I do.
Does max combo with perfects/excellent? If so, then the accuracy on this thing is insane!! But if you do have some more about arcade sensors definitely. I know you can find pressure sensors from aliexpress so if you happen to do one from the ones you find there - Awesome. That or I think pennyarcade.com had some.
Thanks so much for this video, I made my own DDR mat using this as a guide and it works brilliantly. It hasn't endured much use yet, one key difference is that I kept the 2mm acrylic as one big sheet, so I'll see how that compares over longer use. The only other major differences are that I used an old Arduino UNO (Revision 2), which does not have the keyboard module available, so instead flashed it to be recognised as a HID Gamepad, and mapped the buttons to the cross, circle, triangle and square, and it works a treat! Keep on making things! I love your work!
Hi Stephen! Thanks for your comment and congrats on the build! I’m happy to hear that you built this project and that it is working well for you. I did not know that the Uno could be flashed to be recognized as an HID device. Could you post a link to the code? That sounds super awesome and useful! Cheers!
@@SuperMakeSomething Thanks so much! I can't take credit for the code, however, but I used UnoJoy, found here with guide code.google.com/archive/p/unojoy/ hope this comes in handy!
in college my friend and I just attached a usb filmsy pad to a giant piece of wood from home depo with duck tape. Probably not as good quality as this but got the job done just as well. Saved us a lot of time compared to this, but this is a cool idea too. We just wanted a hard surface and that seemed to do the job.
A couple of weeks ago I was searching for a clear explanation of how pull up and down resistors work. I wish so badly that I had seen this video then. ~min mark 2:30 is such a good explanation of pull up resistors. Fantastic.
Thank you so much! Sorry that you didn't find this in time for your project, but I'm glad that you liked the explanation! Hopefully it will help others in the future as well!
I miss my cobalt flux set sooooo bad. Oh I was so awesome when I had two of them and a 50 inch television in 2008. I was married to a rich butthead for five years. I miss that DDR set up, my spin bike and my variax lefty guitar as well as my hot bod from that relationship more than the dude who hooked me up and still writes me constantly telling me he made a mistake running away from his entire life, not just me. Such is life. Now that I am moderately stable on my own and able to consider replacing these things on my own I can’t find them! Thanks for the venting opportunity, I’m glad for all my ex’s but I suck at DIY. Know any hot chicks who know how to make a cobalt flux for me? I’m willing to bat for the home team if the girl has skills like this guy.
Thank you for watching! I am currently making a v2 of this project to make it more arcade-like. You can check out my current progress in the UA-cam Shorts tab of my channel!
Howdy! I used your arduino base code and explanation to build a little control box for my two old PS1 dance pads to convert them to PC USB pads. It's been amazing to play again, now with my nephew. This is something I've tried many times, but hadn't ever looked into arduinos before, and I learned a ton.
The Quality of your Videos is great! I am always happy to see new Vids from u, because theey are so informative and entertaining. I wish you would get more attention, but hey keep it up, I appreciate your work^^ Greets from Germany :)
I realize this is an old video, but you might get away with using extruded acrylic instead of cast acrylic. Extruded acrylic is a fair bit more flexible, albeit slightly less clear than the glass-like cast acrylic. Polycarbonate is still a good option, of course.
Was very excited to build this at home. And nearly able to replicate everything here with your instructions, but cannot seem to find a case for the Arduino like yours in the video. Do you think you would you be able to post the stl file on your site?
Whoops good catch - I never added the link to the video description. Thanks for the heads up! You can find the enclosure here: www.thingiverse.com/thing:2136049
Did you know? In kkclue's DDR foot pad tier list, the space between an A-tier DDR cabinet and a D-tier thickpad are HOMEBREW PADS. They're made by fans, with no intervention from Konami, but because they're homebrew, they're made to be tweaked, so you have to be prepared to DIY when something goes wrong. The Cobalt Flux is B-tier, and the L-TEK pad is C-tier. Cobalt Flux: - Very well liked by the DDR community - Constantly out of stock - Hard to find (I mean used ones are hard to find) L-TEK: - Always in stock - Manufactured in Poland - High shipping costs (for USA)
this is a good starting point for me, though id probably change a few things, first off I will likely use a larger baseboard to incorporate handles to make it easier to move for storage etc., secondly ill likely include an "A" and "B" button in both top right and top left panels, lastly id probably use a serial cable connection to bridge between the pad and control box as I would likely not want the control box screwed down as I would be trying to make a DIY DDR Arcade Cabinet which means being able to have a detachable control box from the pad would be handy
Out of curiosity why would you not use the Arcade Sensors? You'd pay a third of the price of one of the metal dance pads, and yet have arcade accurate circuitry. However, fantastic video explanation, thoroughly enjoyed it!
+Enigmiah To be honest, I did not know these existed, haha. Looking into them after your comment, I see that they are available online, but cannot find information on the working principle behind them. Do you have any more information on how the sensors work? Since the input for a button pad is just a binary (on/off) signal, implementing a simple switch seemed to be the most straightforward approach to me. Aluminum foil was an easy way to make the button be able to sense input across the entire panel. Thanks also for the compliment! Happy you liked the video!
There's a lot in information on sensors (including inner workings and where to find them) on this page: rhythmarcade.com/wiki/arcade_machines/dance_sensors
How would you recommend increasing the sensitivity specifically around the edges and corners of the steps without having to replace the aluminum foil sensors system? I glued a sheet of craft foam(2mm thickness) of the same size as the whole pad below the base under it to prevent it from sliding, it works really great. I used a whole sheet instead of individual strips to have consistency across the whole base area and for extra grip, also it was really cheap so why not. Now on the sensitivity, I've been thinking of covering a few craft foam strips with aluminum foil tape and and placing them in the corners of the steps to increase the thickness of that contact area which is used more in harder songs(since you don't have time to step right on the center) thus increasing sensibility to give it a more arcade feel. What do you think?
I think that could work. In this specific setup, it's essentially a trade-off between how "wide" and how "tall" the foam strip is, and how little foam you can get away with. "Narrower" and "shorter" strips would allow you to increase the area of the aluminum pad sensor, but less foam results in a less stiff "spring" on the panel.
I wanted to say, you really should consider making these for sale. There is a good market out there for manufactured pads for those of us not comfortable dealing with electrical stuff. Not everybody can afford to buy and restore an old arcade cab and your pad design is great
After making the changes that you'd mentioned at the tail end of the video, how is this holding up? I'm considering building something of this nature myself (albeit without the 3D printed arduino box) but I'm interested to see how much mileage you've gotten out of the pad overall.
SharktopusAttack The pad has held up really well! Since replacing the acrylic with Lexan, I’ve had no cracks in the panels. Sandwiching the wire leads to the metal contacts with a screw instead of using tape has also increased the amount of time between maintenance significantly. The only downside is that I find that the pad is still not heavy enough - when the pad is on carpet, it has a tendency to move around while playing heavier songs, though I’ve solved this problem by putting weights in the corners while I am playing. That being said, I recently found a website that sells after-market arcade sensors. I might have a follow-up build planned in the future to build a full size arcade platform replica... ;)
I've been wanting to do this for years but with a metal frame since I work in metal fabrication now and have a huge supply of scrap steel and aluminum plate and channel, and also do a lot of DIY electronics wiring and soldering
hey i got that issue resolved with my pad i ended up going with open cell weatherstripping stacked muiltiple times works good so far though keep DDRing baby
KalebDoesThings The black wires are attached to the other foil combs in the base for each button on one end, and connect to the Arduino’s ground pins on the other.
KalebDoesThings All of the buttons are connected to the same ground, so you can link them together and then only have one wire going into the Arduino ground.
1x 35"x35" baseboard (made out of .5" MDF) 4x 1"x35" border pieces (cut from the same sheet of .5" MDF) 5x 11"x11" stationary riser panels (also from the same sheet of 5" MDF) 4x 9"x9" arrow risers (made from .25" hardboard) 16x .5" x 5/8" foam strips, 8" long 12x Aluminum Foil sensor contacts (roughly 8x 11"x11" sheets, or about 7.5') 9x 11"x11" pieces Acrylic or PolyCarbonate 1x Arduino Leonardo microcontroller An indeterminate amount of wire. :/
I'm about 90% done with a dance pad and have been testing it. It seems to be working decently with 7-8 step songs currently but the buttons are sitting a little higher than the stationary boards and I'm not sure if I want to trim more foam or maybe stick some magnets on the foam pads to lock the pads in place. I'm also not sure if my board can handle gallop steps or if I just still can't do them (I haven't played in 10 years and can't seem to do afronova anymore). I made a few mistakes along the way. I let the boarder boards' glue dry before putting down the stationary panels so I didn't create prefect 90 degree angles and no way were those coming up. The buttons I cut from 12X12 pre-cut boards and for some reason they kept coming out at a weird angle from the saw we used so I had to sand or trim those a lot. The foam pads you listed in the video just didn't seem to exist so the bigger ones I used are probably a lot of the reason my buttons are slightly too high but I'm a little hesitant to trim off more foam than I did. I also haven't figured out a case for the Arduino as I don't have a 3D printer so I'm probably going to have to keep it in the box it came in and just drill little holes in that for the wires. Sometimes, things just go wrong and I have to problem solve why that button isn't working anymore. For example the copper wiring into the Arduino was getting loose and touching other wires so when I'd hit a step it'd be like I hit three steps. Overall I learned a lot about how these controllers work but oh boy, is lumber expensive right now. If I can get this board to a point that I can do 14 step+ songs again I'll probably build a second board.
Thoughts after a few weeks of usage after completing them: I actually ended up using foamed PVC sheets for the tops of the buttons because it was cheap and came in a lot of different colors and was also pretty durable. The plastic shop that I went to was also able to cut them to size for me. As for the pads, I ended up using copper tape to create the circuits in a comb like pattern and soldiered the edges together, along with the wires onto the circuits. This has been pretty durable so far! For one of the pads (the main pad), I also added two more buttons - an escape and enter button, so that I could navigate the menus by using only the pad. I modified your code to add these buttons, and they work great! Overall great video! Through the course of the project I ended up changing a couple things or modifying them after talking with people or seeing the cost, but it worked out really well and I'm happy with my pads right now. The only issue I have right now with them is that sometimes they become too sensitive (originally they weren't sensitive enough so I trimmed down the foam A LOT) after a lot of usage (3-4 hours), so I'm planning on getting some denser foam so they'll hopefully be more responsive and I'll be able to hit more notes in quick succession. The pads have been a lot of fun to play with a partner at the same time.
GTN Thanks for reporting back and sharing your mods to the project! Nice work! Happy to hear that your pads are working well for you and I am sure that others who watch this video will find this info useful!
@@GTN_ Hey I was interested in making this pad and was wondering what edges you soldiered together and what you mean by soldiering the wires into the circuits? Also how did you add the escape and start buttons because i would like to add those as well. I am new at this so please in simple terms :)
I used copper tape to lay out the comb-like circuits, so I had to soldier the places where one piece of tape met another (since the adhesive was non-conductive). For the wires to the circuits, you can see in the video that he uses a washer and electrical tape. Instead, I put the wires directly on the circuit (same place as the video) and soldiered them down so they were secure. The general method for adding escape and start buttons was just like the other buttons, except attach two more different wires to them (as well as ground, just like the rest). Connect the escape wire to pin 8 and the enter wire to pin 9. I have the modified ardiuno code here: github.com/benank/DDR-6-button Let me know if you need any more help. Good luck!
I am so serious too. I love DDR and it was the only thing that helped me feel confident in my own body. It's nearly impossible to find a pad nowadays... this USB option would be amazing. If you are willing to sale, please please please let me know.
When I did my dancepad I just bought the cheapest USB generic controller I could possibly find, cracked it open, and used the PCB from that lol. Then just soldered wires from its buttons to the dance pad and effectively the pad steps just act like giant buttons.
Arcade cabinets cost thousands of dollars. The only ITG cabinet I can find on ebay right now is listed at $2500. $500 will get you a good quality USB pad, somewhat similar to what he made in this video.
Being locked at home during COVID first wave I made my own Dance controller, but I replace "Step" - style with "Twist" style. So game mechanic will be also different.
I'll try this. It's hard to get DDr panels in my country, and the ones made and sold by individuals here are a matter of luck: Some people just suck at making them (or simply make them to look good at first and last for a few days), and some other make a great job. But since we lack a way to review them I have no idea who would sell a good one. I got a couple weeks of vacations in November. I guess I'll buy an arduino now and start with it. Once I know it works I'll start getting the rest of materials to build the body of the pad.
Excellent Thank you! Although I did wonder about the budget in the end of how much it costs to put together I've tried to put a list together based on the video. but I wonder if you actually had one that you could share Base Board 88.9 cm x 88.9 cm, 12.7 mm thick MDF Dance Pad Borders: 4 pieces, 2.54 cm x 88.9 cm, 12.7 mm thick MDF Stationary Panels: 5 pieces, 27.94 cm x 27.94 cm, 12.7 mm thick MDF Modifications: 1 panel with chamfers on all four sides (center panel) 4 panels with chamfers on two adjacent sides (outer panels) Riser Panels: 4 pieces, 22.86 cm x 22.86 cm, 6.35 mm thick MDF Button Pads: 4 pieces, 27.94 cm x 27.94 cm, 6.35 mm thick MDF Modifications: Drill pilot holes and clearance holes for #8 screws (align with polycarbonate panels) Clear Panels: 9 pieces, 27.94 cm x 27.94 cm, 3 mm thick polycarbonate (279.4 millimeters.) Modifications: Drill pilot holes and clearance holes for #8 screws (align with button pads) Foam and Tape: Foam Insulation Tape: 16 strips, 20.32 cm long, 12.7 mm x 15.875 mm Electrical Tape: 1 roll Metall / Metal: Copper Foil (Kupferfolie): 1 roll or Aluminum Foil (Aluminiumfolie): 1 roll Elektronik / Electronics: Arduino Leonardo Microcontroller Wiring: I wasn't sure which gauge 3D Printed Electronics Enclosure (3D-gedrucktes Elektronikgehäuse) Modifications: Drill wire routing hole in the front border of the dance pad Drill a large hole for the wire bundle in the 3D printed enclosure Create a slot for the microUSB cable in the 3D printed enclosure Additional for Assembly: Paint Primer Laminated Graphics Wood Screws (for attaching polycarbonate panels) - Ensure screws are suitable for polycarbonate Washers Screws (for securing washers to contacts) Braided Tubing (Geflochtener Kabelschlauch) - Choose size to match wire bundle Cable Glands or Strain Reliefs (Kabelverschraubungen oder Zugentlastungen) (for securing wires at enclosure exit) - Optional, alternative to zip ties Tools: Miter Box Jig Saw Bandsaw Belt Sander Craft Cutter(or Exacto Knife) Drill 3D Printer courier costs
Unfortunately I do not remember as this build was a while ago, but I believe at the time it was ~$100 in materials (excluding the tools). I am currently building a new version of this project and will publish the final build costs along with the project video, so stay tuned for that!
Awesome video, I was sad to see that it’s impossible to find a metal pad for my old ps2 at this point - DDR is basically unplayable with the foam pads on the difficulty settings I’m on so I’ve been trying to find a solution. Might be able to rig a ps2 controller in place of arduino to make it compatible, I’ll have to do more research
This project is so much fun. Thank you so much for sharing your project on here. I'm in the middle of making one. I have been following your video. The detail is great. The video is really useful!
Greetings from Indonesia🇲🇨, Southeast Asian. I like Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) by Konami. This is one of the BEST Japanese🇯🇵 Arcade Games. But, I Play this Game on PlayStation 2😁👍
My oh my, this channel is great. I may not be able to follow all the Arduino stuff but I can say that your instructions and video is so informative. I was wondering if you are selling your stuff. I was looking at plug and play emulators but was wondering if I can use the dance pad or the Wii accessories to it. This channel popped! SUB!
Thank you so much for watching! I am currently building a new version of this project and am hoping to release a kit version that comes with everything you will need to build a dance pad yourself. I am not sure if this would work with a Wii, since it emulates a keyboard, but that is a cool idea! You can check out progress on the new build here: ua-cam.com/video/DoOBpWROi9Q/v-deo.html
Thing is, us ddr players would gladly just pay you to make one. I really wish I could because I don't have tools available yo me, but I desperately want a solid pad with a bar.
Don't take this the wrong way, but as soon as you mentioned the glass material and using electrical tape, I immediately knew your design wasn't going to last long. But you probably wanted to get it all done cheap and quickly and in the end you made much more robust.
Gabrielle Legrand Yes, my undergrad background is in mechanical engineering, with additional specialization in robotics during grad school. IMHO the great thing about the MechE core curriculum is that it prepares you well for a variety of engineering specializations! If you are considering MechE yourself, I’d say you can’t go wrong! ☺️
I actually built a similar pad using an Xbox controller for the connectivity to the PC and used copper tape for the contacts as it conducts 65% better. Also you can solder the wires to the copper tape making contact from the wires awesome and a lot stronger. For the wiring i used and old Lan cable since the wires are solid but thin.
About the final assembly. Those #8 wood screws. How long are those? You mentioned they go through the acrylic, through the graphics and into the wood panels below. I assume you meant just into the button panels and not the bottom baseboard as well, correct? If so, then these button panel assemblies aren't affixed to the frame. The only thing holding the button assemblies in place is friction from the neighboring stationary panels. This thing looks great so far! I need to make the contacts and paint but the frame is nearly done. Great video!
Iamthe bd Thanks! Your statement about the wood screws is correct. They do not go all the way down to the baseboard and the button panels are held in place by the neighboring panels.
Thanks! I would recommend installing retaining clips. I found ones that came with self tapping screws. They are used to retain screen door panels, pack of 8 each. So 4 boxes gets each button 8 clips (place 2 on each corner). Just serves as an additional fortification. They would anchor onto the stationary portions and frame.
I'am currently doing this project for a school project! This video has proven to be very helpful. Would you please share the 3D-model for de Arduino case with us? This would be amazing and save me some time :).
This is why i instantly subscribed when i first saw a video from you. Great project, nice presentation of the process and cool results. Thanks for another great video! Keep em coming ;) Greetings from Germany
Hello, enjoyed your video. You have lots of cool tools and are precise and patience. I, however, doubt I have the patience to build my own as you did. That said, I went out and hired someone with experience building metal pads. The metal pads came in earlier this week and they're super nice. The pads connect to a controllers and each has a USB connector that connects to my laptop. They installed Stepmania on the laptop and the laptop is connected to the TV for a bigger display and use of the TV's sound bar. Before the dance pads came in, we played DDR on the Wii and used the soft Wii dance pads. We actually like the Wii play with DDR, DDR 2 and Hottest Dance Party 3 even though the songs are limited. Now I'm wondering how I can get these new pads to work with the Wii. Intuitively, I thought perhaps it was easiest to connect the USB to some kind of adapter or converter that can plug into the Wii port but I can't find any. Can such an adapter be built? My second question is, Is it possible to install Stepmania to an Android TV and if so, how?
Thanks for watching! Unfortunately I do not have much experience with USB/Wii adapters, but believe something like this should be possible to create. I have not heard of an Android TV solution, since Stepmania requires local storage for the songs, but if you have an old computer available that you can hook up to your TV, it will likely be able to run it without issue!
@@SuperMakeSomething, thanks for responding. Any guidance on how to create such an adaptor or a route I might follow to learn would be greatly appreciated. If I have to take apart a soft Wii mat to figure it out, I will...
@@Loveko399 Unfortunately I am not aware of a USB-to-Wii adapter, but the issue with this for your current pad is that your pad would need to follow the standard button mapping defined in Nintendo's communication protocol. However, pads like the one in this video simply send keyboard commands, which works because StepMania can map any keyboard button to an arrow. The best path forward for your situation would be to use the internals of a Wii soft pad and then turn it into a hard pad so that you could plug it into a Wii directly, but then you would again be building your own pad. It might be worth a shot though! If you end up trying this, please let me know how it works out!
So for the wiring, I was a little confused about how the ground wires are set up. Do you need 4 wire to connect to each panel and then another longer wire to connect to the Arduino? I think a print visual would help with the wire setup. Thanks for the great video, I'm considering trying the build myself.
+Louis JaCooper Still, the oxide could be an issue. Perhaps it would be better to just use copper contacts that will properly take to electrical solder, but I think his solution to just screw them down would be the easiest. It wouldn't require additional materials or removing the foil.
I made this, I don't know, four years ago? Today I decided, that we outgrew it, so it time to build a new one.
I started googleing for tutorials, and what comes up? The very same video, that helped me to build our old one :)
Thanks again, my family loves this!
Thanks for watching! 😄 I'm actually in a similar situation as well and am currently in the process of building a new pad! This project is a bit more involved than the old one, so I have been documenting my progress via UA-cam Shorts until I release the full episode. The current playlist of my progress can be found at the following link. Stay tuned!
ua-cam.com/play/PLZtsEimHCFkJZeqKqxmGUpDML9EhFMFjj.html&feature=shared
Can’t wait to see what the updated pad look’s like
Three years ago I saw this video and thought: "man... This is way too complicated for me. First of all, who the heck even has a 3D printer?" Nowadays I'm coming back to this having 2 3d printers and having made projects at least 100x more electronically complex than this. This video still impresses me by the sheer attention to detail of Mr. Super Make Something.
Thank you!
I’m excited to try this as a quarantine project! 😂 Super glad you have this tutorial up- thank you so much!
Awesome! Good luck with your build! Please let me know how it turns out!
I will, though it will probably be slow-going 😂
estou fazendo uma plataforma também, mas estou usando materiais improvisado no lugar do contato (impressora), e irei colocar led nas setas, a parte mais cara foi chapa de policabornato que fiz questao de inclui, pq é mlehor que o acrilico, mais flexivel e resistente ao mesmo tempo. acredito que em 2 meses termino =)
@@celloafterdark4173 We are 1 year later CelloAfterDark. Covid is still here, and we all hope you have avanced in your task :D
@@pulicu Eae mano, terminou o projeto ? Como ficou ?
Used material summary:
*1/2" MDF:*
1x 35"x35" baseboard
4x 1"x35" borders
5x 11"x11" stationary panels
*1/4" MDF:*
4x 11"x11" button pads
*1/4" cardboard:*
4x 9"x9"x1/4" raiser panels
*1/4"x5/8" foam insulation tape:*
16x 8" strips
*2mm acrylic:* _(or polycarbonate)_
9x 11"x11" panels
Aluminum foil
1x Arduino Leonardo
36x #8 screws
13x (?) washers + electrical tape _(or screws)_
Wires
Glue
Spray glue
_(Optional, but required for a cleaner result :)_
(3D printed) Arduino Enclosure
(with screws for closing)
Paint
Graphics
Braided tubing
Zip ties
You forgot "pizzazz"
@Rodman im pretty sure you can buy an l-tek pad for about that much (maybe a bit more?), including shipping to us
@Rodman maty-taneczne (dot) pl, i dont have one but ive seen many opinions and they seem to be overall a v good entry level choice, the sensors might be a bit inadequate for high level play but there are mods you can do. there shouldnt be any issues with durability though, just make sure to choose the pro version as they have polycarbonate panels instead of acrylic (which are mone prone to cracking)
@Rodman again, i have no experiences but these are pretty popular pads even in america. i'd suggest not taking my word for it and looking at what other people have to say :) you should be able to find many experiences on reddit or whatever if you search for "polish pads" or "l-tek"
Rodman is this offer still up lol I’m gonna be making one
Hi Alex! Yesterday I finished making a dancepad based primarily on this design, and wanted to say thanks for the instruction and inspiration. My daughter and friend are playing it right now and having a blast. Thanks so much!
That’s awesome! Thank you so much for sharing this with me - happy to hear that your build works and that your daughter and her friend are having fun!
Hello, could you tell me or send me a link of what wire you used for your pad?
Bro, actually giving out the code was a hero move. Bless you man
I’m currently working on a version 2 of this project, so stay tuned!
I was REALLY impressed with the manufacturing and assembly of the dance pad. I was also extremely impressed by your knowledge and expertise in this project. My hats off to you! 👍👍👍👍
Thank you!
If you don't want to get an Arduino and code, I'd recommend getting a cheap soft pad and utilizing the board and enclosure that comes with it. I'm trying a build this weekend with a soft pad I recently purchased. Most of the time with soft pads, the part that goes out in them or causes them not to work are the contacts and not the board.
In the one that I purchased from Amazon for example, the contacts for everything are just two layers of crinkly plastic with conductive material printed on them with some very low quality and thin foam in between them. I bought two of these pads and neither made it past day 1 of use without pads not firing.
I can't speak to all PCB boards on these soft pads, but with multiple companies selling these 10 button pads with a pink/blue theme and the "Stay Cool!" In the middle pads, I imagine most of them are the same product. The board in these pads is very simple with one ground contact in the middle that all the pads connect to. There are then 5 smaller contacts on either side of the ground contact that correspond to the 10 buttons: (The pads I bought have 4 arrows (up, down, left, right), a triangle, square, circle, and 'X' button in the corners, and a start and select button at the top of the pad)
This is exactly what I’ll be doing this weekend! I bought a soft pad years ago. It’s never worked very well and, 90% of the time it, doesn’t register my up or down steps. I’ve been playing with the option to fail songs turned off and just accepted that all my scores are stuck at D at best. But I am soooo looking forward to repurposing the board for a quality hard pad! Now I’ll finally know what my REAL scores are!
This was really awesome and interesting to watch, good work man.
Thanks!
Lmao what are you doing here +bakerXderek . Was it your channel that I watched you buy a DDR pad off of craigslist awhile ago? lol
Dude... your a wizard, I can't even begin to describe how cool this is.
Thank you!
Your channel is hands down the best DIY channel I have watched.
Thank you!
Saw you at Maker faire today! Friend of mine are going to make a couple of these for his family picnics! Thanks for all the ideas.
JOE TRZASKA Thanks for stopping by! I had a lot of fun meeting everyone and talking about my latest project! Can’t wait until next year! 😄
Great video. I also suggest you place the conductive pannels closer to the center square, that way you don't require to press so far out with your feet, instead you can just touch the edge of the arrow to trigger it
Michael Lesko Good idea! The more sensing area there is the better!
Just discovered this channel! I am a Software Engineer but I like Computer Engineering (hardware) stuff as a hobby. This is awesome!
Latias9 Thank you!
This is a great design and thanks for sharing it with us. My one big objection to this design is the method used for connecting the wires to the dance pad combs. My suggestion would be to extend the ends of the foil contacts over the edges of the riser panels, such that the wires can be connected out of the way of the pad movement. By having them on top of the risers as they are installed in this video, that could impede pad movement and thus connection. If soldering/welding to the foil is not an option, I would also suggest something like hot glue or even duct tape to complete it. Electrical tape does not stay adhered to wood very well in high-vibration applications.
Mark Dickson Hi Mark! Thanks for your comments and I’m glad that you like the video! The ideas you suggest are definitely good. The main limitation for this design was foil comb size, which was a result of my craft cutters’ working area - the one in this video is a “mini” version with an 8.5in cut width, whereas other cutters can cut material up to 12in wide. Your suggestion about wire adhesive is a good idea, too - I think that if I were to build the pad again, I would attach a piece of copper foil tape to the aluminum foil, since this would allow me to solder a wire to the comb directly. (A pad made entirely of copper tape would be ideal, but this would probably be too expensive.) That being said, it is still holding up well and I have not had any issues, so if you are planning to build your own pad, I think this is a good base design to get you started. Cheers!
@@SuperMakeSomething I hadn't thought about using copper tape to connect to the foil. That's a good idea too. Still a great pad design overall!
I've used your code and implemented in my PIU machine that i've built. It worked just fine for me.
I used a completely different material, had to make some adjustments on your code, but it was really nice have a starting point that you gave me.
Thank you.
That's awesome! I'm glad that my code helped! Thank you for letting me know!
So let me get this straight. I can either:
A) Spend $350 + shipping to get a fully functional DDR pad with a warranty.
or...
B) Become an engineer / designer / 3D printer operator / programmer / electrician / carpenter and build one myself for probably under $100, as well as a week's worth of hard work?
B sounds a lot cooler to me, but A is all I'm currently capable of.
And awesome video BTW. It was really cool to watch you doing all of this.
He includes a setup file for that control box. He just opted to 3D print a control box for his pad. The materials for his pad probably ran roughly $150 or so.
And btw, the $350 "fully functional" pads with warranty are cheap, made in china, are prone to failure within 6 months, and have to be shipped back to China if you intend to use the warranty
I was going to spend 50$ on a soft pad
Pikmeir, You forgot the equipments you need in order to execute Option B :)
@@KCEBGaming Who says? i have the metal dance pad which is made in china, functioning for almost 3 years without error.
You don't have to be electrician, designer, 3D printer operator or engineer. In the way of programming, u can DL ready sketch but do have to know how to load it in microcontroller. Those connectors with foil is just one of the many ways. All u need that anything that will short the contacts when u step on it, from pressure sensor to banal buttons. All u need is just a straight hands and imagination. DIY pad has one advantage that ready pad in the shop doesn't have - you made it.
I just finished building my own Pump It Up pad, and your video has given me some ways to improve it in a second version. Thanks!
Matterialize That's awesome! Glad the video helped!
I wanna build my own PIU pad. Do you think this video would help ?
you are awesome. keep it up, i know you;ll get huge one day.
Thanks!
This was awesome I might try this with FSR sensors
Thanks! That would be a great upgrade! Please let me know how it goes!
dude this project is amazing, this would be my first project with an arduino for sure
Thanks! If you give it a shot, please let me know how it goes!
I played a bunch as a teenager and now that I'm an adult and have money, most of the good pads have since gone out of business. I will be starting this project asap, thanks for the video, it answered some of the questions I had in my head while I was planning this out.
Jay Martinez That’s awesome! Please keep me updated about how your build turns out!
Super Make Something so I finished mine and I did a couple thing different. One being I didn’t clean it, it’s just wood. I also used copper tape instead of aluminum foil which allowed me to solder to the tape. However I noticed some sensitivity issues, especially with holds, which I’m assuming is too thick insulation tape which is forcing the active step area closer to the center. I’ll make some modifications to see if that works. Also another problem is my lack of skill as I haven’t played in years lol.
But I suppose that the sensitivity could be maybe a non consistent circuit because of weak connectivity of the copper tape adhesive. But I’m not sure yet.
I used a xin-mo to make mine. Pads are more reliable and uniformly sensitive (can't have pad misses for flat-footing) if you only need one contact (ie. detection of 0 or inf resistance). A xin-mo just detects the closed circuit upon contact and it's cheap; shabam.
Good job regardless.
could you explain further on how you would do the wiring for that?
Flippusmn what buttons or sensors did you use with the xin-mo?
Lol, ya, you gots my attention, thankyou for the heads up!
Thanks for the guide on how to make the dancepad! That is where I was caught up on, trying to make my own Pump It Up pad. I plan to use the Texas Instruments MSP430 Launchpad (F5529) as the controller instead of the Arduino, due to it's ability to call an interrupt from a pin input, as well as having built in pull-up resistors if needed for output. It also can be made to act as a HID-compliant game controller, so I think it will be perfect for the job.
Awesome! Glad you found the video helpful! Please share your build with me after you are done - I would love to see the final results!
Did you do it? Trying to research!
I am also checking to see if you made it and how well it worked.
The arduino is capable of this as well, depending on the board. The Leonardo in particular supports interrupts for enough of the digital pins to make this exact project interrupt driven. See attachInterrupt(). The loop function could just sleep endlessly if it really wanted to.
If you made multiples of this, I'll definitely buy one of them from you no matter how expensive it is!
why tho
@@zkull9982 Because not everyone has the skills or tools to build their own dancepad, and would prefer to just buy a ready made one.
But, all the decent pads start at $300, up to +$3k. Way out of budget for many people and the soft pad foam ones are getting old and falling apart.
@@Lively_1185 yes it's very expensive but why would anyone like this one thing so much lmao, just what I meant
@@zkull9982 Well people have an interest in a favorite activity, like playing ddr for fun and nostalgia sake.
Simply put, it's their favorite game to play and they want to continue, even if the hype for it has died off long ago.
@@Lively_1185 yeah I just mean..
I understand man I was just treating it litterally intentionally lmao, I don't play ddr only because I don't have the means
Was about to comment on the electrical tape right as you gave your comments on the design lol, I would say maybe use a spring to hold them down, as frequent movement will wear out a solid connect like a screw.
Definitely also agree that acrylic is too brittle. I will likely be using Lexan, which is very durable.
I also would recommend putting in connectors at each button to make swapping parts easier.
Very nice prototype and further suggestions at the end. Not sure if I would use the Arduino when a USB to joystick board could function similarly to a raspberry pi, but all in all, very creative and hats off to you.
Stepmania is NOT a DDR emulator for PC!
The first image of dancepads that are up for sale from PrecisionDancePads you showed were actually MDF, not metal.
DDR cabinets can still be found. It's not dying. DDRA is out.
If you still want an authentic dancing arcade experience but can't find DDR, Pump It Up is out there. :)
Piu is not like ddr
Too bad konami killed ITG, we could still have a healthy scene with quality games.
While I agree, I played DDR for over a decade and my local machine unfortunately got scrapped for a PIU machine. I feel It's actually quite fun to somewhat relearn a game you've been playing for years. That's just me though
PIU is trashed and now some Dave and Busters have the new DDR Ace machine
AliceDBCooper pump it up =/= ddr... not by a long shot
The attention to detail in your video is perfect. Instant sub from me keep up the good work.
Thank you!
I bought a cheap metal pad and modified it the same way. Came with a smaller sensor similar to the one you made, replicating the idea for the entire pad area. My first shody solders snapped, but after a couple o fiterations, it still works to this day and this was 10 years ago. Props on the info, will come in handy mang.
Great video. Personally, I think for expert players piezoelectric or piezoresistive sensors are a must! Just like the arcade pads.
You could make a follow up video to this using arcade sensors? That would be awesome! They're pretty affordable too!
I'll definitely consider it! Currently the pad seems to work pretty well, even for more advanced songs -- I can A/full-combo Max 300 consistently without noticing any misses due to the buttons. If the pads do need replacement sometime in the future, I'll be sure to look into the sensors further and post a follow-up if I do.
Does max combo with perfects/excellent? If so, then the accuracy on this thing is insane!! But if you do have some more about arcade sensors definitely. I know you can find pressure sensors from aliexpress so if you happen to do one from the ones you find there - Awesome. That or I think pennyarcade.com had some.
Thanks so much for this video, I made my own DDR mat using this as a guide and it works brilliantly.
It hasn't endured much use yet, one key difference is that I kept the 2mm acrylic as one big sheet, so I'll see how that compares over longer use.
The only other major differences are that I used an old Arduino UNO (Revision 2), which does not have the keyboard module available, so instead flashed it to be recognised as a HID Gamepad, and mapped the buttons to the cross, circle, triangle and square, and it works a treat!
Keep on making things! I love your work!
Hi Stephen! Thanks for your comment and congrats on the build! I’m happy to hear that you built this project and that it is working well for you. I did not know that the Uno could be flashed to be recognized as an HID device. Could you post a link to the code? That sounds super awesome and useful! Cheers!
@@SuperMakeSomething Thanks so much! I can't take credit for the code, however, but I used UnoJoy, found here with guide code.google.com/archive/p/unojoy/ hope this comes in handy!
Stephen Forrest Awesome! I will take a look. Thanks!
this makes me think about modifying this to make a Frets On Fire guitar!
Sounds awesome! If you do, please share a link!
in college my friend and I just attached a usb filmsy pad to a giant piece of wood from home depo with duck tape. Probably not as good quality as this but got the job done just as well. Saved us a lot of time compared to this, but this is a cool idea too. We just wanted a hard surface and that seemed to do the job.
this is so cool, im excited to build one for myself.Great video
Thanks! Good luck with your build!
A couple of weeks ago I was searching for a clear explanation of how pull up and down resistors work. I wish so badly that I had seen this video then. ~min mark 2:30 is such a good explanation of pull up resistors. Fantastic.
Thank you so much! Sorry that you didn't find this in time for your project, but I'm glad that you liked the explanation! Hopefully it will help others in the future as well!
Reminds me of the Cobalt Flux pad I bought about 10 years ago.
+ShaneyElderberry Cobalt Flux pads were the best!
I miss my cobalt flux set sooooo bad. Oh I was so awesome when I had two of them and a 50 inch television in 2008. I was married to a rich butthead for five years. I miss that DDR set up, my spin bike and my variax lefty guitar as well as my hot bod from that relationship more than the dude who hooked me up and still writes me constantly telling me he made a mistake running away from his entire life, not just me. Such is life. Now that I am moderately stable on my own and able to consider replacing these things on my own I can’t find them! Thanks for the venting opportunity, I’m glad for all my ex’s but I suck at DIY. Know any hot chicks who know how to make a cobalt flux for me? I’m willing to bat for the home team if the girl has skills like this guy.
THATS GENIUS i want to make this sooo bad
Thank you for watching! I am currently making a v2 of this project to make it more arcade-like. You can check out my current progress in the UA-cam Shorts tab of my channel!
Howdy! I used your arduino base code and explanation to build a little control box for my two old PS1 dance pads to convert them to PC USB pads. It's been amazing to play again, now with my nephew. This is something I've tried many times, but hadn't ever looked into arduinos before, and I learned a ton.
That’s super awesome to hear! Thank you so much for watching and I hope you enjoy the dance pad (plus your upcoming Arduino projects 🙂)!
The Quality of your Videos is great! I am always happy to see new Vids from u, because theey are so informative and entertaining. I wish you would get more attention, but hey keep it up, I appreciate your work^^
Greets from Germany :)
Thank you so much! I'm happy you like the videos!
I realize this is an old video, but you might get away with using extruded acrylic instead of cast acrylic. Extruded acrylic is a fair bit more flexible, albeit slightly less clear than the glass-like cast acrylic.
Polycarbonate is still a good option, of course.
Was very excited to build this at home. And nearly able to replicate everything here with your instructions, but cannot seem to find a case for the Arduino like yours in the video. Do you think you would you be able to post the stl file on your site?
Whoops good catch - I never added the link to the video description. Thanks for the heads up! You can find the enclosure here: www.thingiverse.com/thing:2136049
Did you know? In kkclue's DDR foot pad tier list, the space between an A-tier DDR cabinet and a D-tier thickpad are HOMEBREW PADS. They're made by fans, with no intervention from Konami, but because they're homebrew, they're made to be tweaked, so you have to be prepared to DIY when something goes wrong. The Cobalt Flux is B-tier, and the L-TEK pad is C-tier.
Cobalt Flux:
- Very well liked by the DDR community
- Constantly out of stock
- Hard to find (I mean used ones are hard to find)
L-TEK:
- Always in stock
- Manufactured in Poland
- High shipping costs (for USA)
have you ever made a sound voltex controller before? that would be an amazing thing to see and attempt to make
Making a sound voltex controller is easy to make
Def trying this on my Mega 2560, once I manage to emulate a HID on it.
My friend and I are considering replacing the foam with actual springs to help with the longevity of the pad. Any thoughts on that?
That is an awesome idea! If you end up modifying the design for springs, please let me know! I would be excited to see how it turns out!
this is a good starting point for me, though id probably change a few things, first off I will likely use a larger baseboard to incorporate handles to make it easier to move for storage etc., secondly ill likely include an "A" and "B" button in both top right and top left panels, lastly id probably use a serial cable connection to bridge between the pad and control box as I would likely not want the control box screwed down as I would be trying to make a DIY DDR Arcade Cabinet which means being able to have a detachable control box from the pad would be handy
You just gained a subscriber : D
Just got the ddr fever again, time to get my m16 and go get materials to build this
Awesome! Good luck with your build!
@@SuperMakeSomething hiiii can you make one for me i messaged you on fb and instagram i have been searching for this my whole life
How much did all the materials cost in total? I've been thinking of making one of these.
I'm thinking of modding a PS2 DDR Game Metal Pad using Arduino and some of the tips in this video
That's awesome! Please let me know how it turns out!
Out of curiosity why would you not use the Arcade Sensors? You'd pay a third of the price of one of the metal dance pads, and yet have arcade accurate circuitry. However, fantastic video explanation, thoroughly enjoyed it!
+Enigmiah To be honest, I did not know these existed, haha. Looking into them after your comment, I see that they are available online, but cannot find information on the working principle behind them. Do you have any more information on how the sensors work?
Since the input for a button pad is just a binary (on/off) signal, implementing a simple switch seemed to be the most straightforward approach to me. Aluminum foil was an easy way to make the button be able to sense input across the entire panel.
Thanks also for the compliment! Happy you liked the video!
I read somewhere they are piezoresistive or piezoelectric.
There's a lot in information on sensors (including inner workings and where to find them) on this page: rhythmarcade.com/wiki/arcade_machines/dance_sensors
Yeah, I can see why these dance pads are $300+. So much effort and so many materials go into making these
For sure! Plus shipping is also a huge additional cost. Definitely more cost effective to make your own with locally available material!
Do you have a Pump It Up version of this?
same
Same
Little confused on some of the wiring
Would have liked to see some more images/footage once it's all wired together.
How would you recommend increasing the sensitivity specifically around the edges and corners of the steps without having to replace the aluminum foil sensors system?
I glued a sheet of craft foam(2mm thickness) of the same size as the whole pad below the base under it to prevent it from sliding, it works really great. I used a whole sheet instead of individual strips to have consistency across the whole base area and for extra grip, also it was really cheap so why not.
Now on the sensitivity, I've been thinking of covering a few craft foam strips with aluminum foil tape and and placing them in the corners of the steps to increase the thickness of that contact area which is used more in harder songs(since you don't have time to step right on the center) thus increasing sensibility to give it a more arcade feel.
What do you think?
I think that could work. In this specific setup, it's essentially a trade-off between how "wide" and how "tall" the foam strip is, and how little foam you can get away with. "Narrower" and "shorter" strips would allow you to increase the area of the aluminum pad sensor, but less foam results in a less stiff "spring" on the panel.
I wanted to say, you really should consider making these for sale. There is a good market out there for manufactured pads for those of us not comfortable dealing with electrical stuff. Not everybody can afford to buy and restore an old arcade cab and your pad design is great
After making the changes that you'd mentioned at the tail end of the video, how is this holding up? I'm considering building something of this nature myself (albeit without the 3D printed arduino box) but I'm interested to see how much mileage you've gotten out of the pad overall.
SharktopusAttack The pad has held up really well! Since replacing the acrylic with Lexan, I’ve had no cracks in the panels. Sandwiching the wire leads to the metal contacts with a screw instead of using tape has also increased the amount of time between maintenance significantly. The only downside is that I find that the pad is still not heavy enough - when the pad is on carpet, it has a tendency to move around while playing heavier songs, though I’ve solved this problem by putting weights in the corners while I am playing.
That being said, I recently found a website that sells after-market arcade sensors. I might have a follow-up build planned in the future to build a full size arcade platform replica... ;)
@@SuperMakeSomething Hey, how is it going? :)
I've been wanting to do this for years but with a metal frame since I work in metal fabrication now and have a huge supply of scrap steel and aluminum plate and channel, and also do a lot of DIY electronics wiring and soldering
Would this design work with a ps2 controller?
hey i got that issue resolved with my pad i ended up going with open cell weatherstripping stacked muiltiple times works good so far though keep DDRing baby
Do you have a picture showing how you did the wires?
KalebDoesThings Check the following time stamps: 4:00 11:00 11:50
@@SuperMakeSomething so connect one red wire to one connector strip per button but how does the black ground wire go?
KalebDoesThings The black wires are attached to the other foil combs in the base for each button on one end, and connect to the Arduino’s ground pins on the other.
@@SuperMakeSomething is it one ground wire or do you connect multiple to one because in the video it looks like you only had 1 go in the arduino
KalebDoesThings All of the buttons are connected to the same ground, so you can link them together and then only have one wire going into the Arduino ground.
Awesome!!
I've been wondering why I just didn't make a dancing pad for my wife - isn't it simple?
Thanks, now I KNOW why I should not.
Sorry but I don't fully understand the components list, could you (or someone) write it?
1x 35"x35" baseboard (made out of .5" MDF)
4x 1"x35" border pieces (cut from the same sheet of .5" MDF)
5x 11"x11" stationary riser panels (also from the same sheet of 5" MDF)
4x 9"x9" arrow risers (made from .25" hardboard)
16x .5" x 5/8" foam strips, 8" long
12x Aluminum Foil sensor contacts (roughly 8x 11"x11" sheets, or about 7.5')
9x 11"x11" pieces Acrylic or PolyCarbonate
1x Arduino Leonardo microcontroller
An indeterminate amount of wire. :/
Thank you very much! :-)
These measurements are in centimeters?
Laerte Honorato it says " so therefore inches
Thanks guy ^^
I definitely plan on attempting this project!
Show!!!
muito bom!!!!!
I'm about 90% done with a dance pad and have been testing it. It seems to be working decently with 7-8 step songs currently but the buttons are sitting a little higher than the stationary boards and I'm not sure if I want to trim more foam or maybe stick some magnets on the foam pads to lock the pads in place. I'm also not sure if my board can handle gallop steps or if I just still can't do them (I haven't played in 10 years and can't seem to do afronova anymore).
I made a few mistakes along the way. I let the boarder boards' glue dry before putting down the stationary panels so I didn't create prefect 90 degree angles and no way were those coming up. The buttons I cut from 12X12 pre-cut boards and for some reason they kept coming out at a weird angle from the saw we used so I had to sand or trim those a lot. The foam pads you listed in the video just didn't seem to exist so the bigger ones I used are probably a lot of the reason my buttons are slightly too high but I'm a little hesitant to trim off more foam than I did.
I also haven't figured out a case for the Arduino as I don't have a 3D printer so I'm probably going to have to keep it in the box it came in and just drill little holes in that for the wires.
Sometimes, things just go wrong and I have to problem solve why that button isn't working anymore. For example the copper wiring into the Arduino was getting loose and touching other wires so when I'd hit a step it'd be like I hit three steps.
Overall I learned a lot about how these controllers work but oh boy, is lumber expensive right now. If I can get this board to a point that I can do 14 step+ songs again I'll probably build a second board.
I am going to start making two of these today! I have one question: would high impact polystyrene work as a substitute for the acrylic/polycarbonate?
GTN Awesome! Sorry I’m really not sure but if you try it, please report back and let me know if this works!
Thoughts after a few weeks of usage after completing them: I actually ended up using foamed PVC sheets for the tops of the buttons because it was cheap and came in a lot of different colors and was also pretty durable. The plastic shop that I went to was also able to cut them to size for me.
As for the pads, I ended up using copper tape to create the circuits in a comb like pattern and soldiered the edges together, along with the wires onto the circuits. This has been pretty durable so far! For one of the pads (the main pad), I also added two more buttons - an escape and enter button, so that I could navigate the menus by using only the pad. I modified your code to add these buttons, and they work great!
Overall great video! Through the course of the project I ended up changing a couple things or modifying them after talking with people or seeing the cost, but it worked out really well and I'm happy with my pads right now. The only issue I have right now with them is that sometimes they become too sensitive (originally they weren't sensitive enough so I trimmed down the foam A LOT) after a lot of usage (3-4 hours), so I'm planning on getting some denser foam so they'll hopefully be more responsive and I'll be able to hit more notes in quick succession. The pads have been a lot of fun to play with a partner at the same time.
GTN Thanks for reporting back and sharing your mods to the project! Nice work! Happy to hear that your pads are working well for you and I am sure that others who watch this video will find this info useful!
@@GTN_ Hey I was interested in making this pad and was wondering what edges you soldiered together and what you mean by soldiering the wires into the circuits? Also how did you add the escape and start buttons because i would like to add those as well. I am new at this so please in simple terms :)
I used copper tape to lay out the comb-like circuits, so I had to soldier the places where one piece of tape met another (since the adhesive was non-conductive). For the wires to the circuits, you can see in the video that he uses a washer and electrical tape. Instead, I put the wires directly on the circuit (same place as the video) and soldiered them down so they were secure.
The general method for adding escape and start buttons was just like the other buttons, except attach two more different wires to them (as well as ground, just like the rest). Connect the escape wire to pin 8 and the enter wire to pin 9. I have the modified ardiuno code here: github.com/benank/DDR-6-button
Let me know if you need any more help. Good luck!
I am so serious too. I love DDR and it was the only thing that helped me feel confident in my own body. It's nearly impossible to find a pad nowadays... this USB option would be amazing. If you are willing to sale, please please please let me know.
I just bought a DDR machine instead.
they are like 2-3K
+Floco most ddr cabs go under a grand, itg cabs on the other hand are way up there
i built an iidx controller
it's called a keyboard
Which version was it?
uneliasmarsu Where do you usually go for finding pads at that price? Most of what I’ve found has been in the thousands.
When I did my dancepad I just bought the cheapest USB generic controller I could possibly find, cracked it open, and used the PCB from that lol. Then just soldered wires from its buttons to the dance pad and effectively the pad steps just act like giant buttons.
Awesome! That’s a great way to go if you have a spare controller laying around! Nice!
or just buy a cabinet for $500
Arcade cabinets cost thousands of dollars. The only ITG cabinet I can find on ebay right now is listed at $2500.
$500 will get you a good quality USB pad, somewhat similar to what he made in this video.
+kered13 you've been looking in the wrong places lol
Where can you buy a decent quality arcade cabinet for less than $1k?
kered13 local arcades, auctions. my friend has gotten a cabinet for 600 at an auction, another 500 locally.
Those are not the norm. Where you live has a lot to do with what kind of deals you can find.
Being locked at home during COVID first wave I made my own Dance controller, but I replace "Step" - style with "Twist" style. So game mechanic will be also different.
Starting this project today. I´ll let you know the advance! This video rocks.
Awesome! Thank you! Good luck with your build!
I'll try this. It's hard to get DDr panels in my country, and the ones made and sold by individuals here are a matter of luck: Some people just suck at making them (or simply make them to look good at first and last for a few days), and some other make a great job. But since we lack a way to review them I have no idea who would sell a good one.
I got a couple weeks of vacations in November. I guess I'll buy an arduino now and start with it. Once I know it works I'll start getting the rest of materials to build the body of the pad.
Excellent Thank you! Although I did wonder about the budget in the end of how much it costs to put together I've tried to put a list together based on the video. but I wonder if you actually had one that you could share
Base Board
88.9 cm x 88.9 cm, 12.7 mm thick MDF
Dance Pad Borders:
4 pieces, 2.54 cm x 88.9 cm, 12.7 mm thick MDF
Stationary Panels:
5 pieces, 27.94 cm x 27.94 cm, 12.7 mm thick MDF
Modifications:
1 panel with chamfers on all four sides (center panel)
4 panels with chamfers on two adjacent sides (outer panels)
Riser Panels:
4 pieces, 22.86 cm x 22.86 cm, 6.35 mm thick MDF
Button Pads:
4 pieces, 27.94 cm x 27.94 cm, 6.35 mm thick MDF
Modifications:
Drill pilot holes and clearance holes for #8 screws (align with polycarbonate panels)
Clear Panels:
9 pieces, 27.94 cm x 27.94 cm, 3 mm thick polycarbonate (279.4 millimeters.)
Modifications:
Drill pilot holes and clearance holes for #8 screws (align with button pads)
Foam and Tape:
Foam Insulation Tape: 16 strips, 20.32 cm long, 12.7 mm x 15.875 mm
Electrical Tape: 1 roll
Metall / Metal:
Copper Foil (Kupferfolie): 1 roll
or Aluminum Foil (Aluminiumfolie): 1 roll
Elektronik / Electronics:
Arduino Leonardo Microcontroller
Wiring: I wasn't sure which gauge
3D Printed Electronics Enclosure (3D-gedrucktes Elektronikgehäuse)
Modifications:
Drill wire routing hole in the front border of the dance pad
Drill a large hole for the wire bundle in the 3D printed enclosure
Create a slot for the microUSB cable in the 3D printed enclosure
Additional for Assembly:
Paint
Primer
Laminated Graphics
Wood Screws (for attaching polycarbonate panels) - Ensure screws are suitable for polycarbonate
Washers
Screws (for securing washers to contacts)
Braided Tubing (Geflochtener Kabelschlauch) - Choose size to match wire bundle
Cable Glands or Strain Reliefs (Kabelverschraubungen oder Zugentlastungen) (for securing wires at enclosure exit) -
Optional, alternative to zip ties
Tools:
Miter Box
Jig Saw
Bandsaw
Belt Sander
Craft Cutter(or Exacto Knife)
Drill
3D Printer
courier costs
Unfortunately I do not remember as this build was a while ago, but I believe at the time it was ~$100 in materials (excluding the tools). I am currently building a new version of this project and will publish the final build costs along with the project video, so stay tuned for that!
Awesome video, I was sad to see that it’s impossible to find a metal pad for my old ps2 at this point - DDR is basically unplayable with the foam pads on the difficulty settings I’m on so I’ve been trying to find a solution. Might be able to rig a ps2 controller in place of arduino to make it compatible, I’ll have to do more research
Thanks! I think a soft pad mod could definitely work! Good luck with your project!
This project is so much fun. Thank you so much for sharing your project on here. I'm in the middle of making one. I have been following your video. The detail is great. The video is really useful!
Kieran Mason Thank you so much for your kind comments and I am happy that you like the video! Good luck with your build!
This video was incredible and inspired me to make my own! Super super thankyou to Super Make Something!
Hey, love the video, I'm about to attempt doing this for jumprope fitness mat lol let's go. Thank you so much Alex for the great video!
Awesome! Good luck with your build! Please let me know how it turns out!
Great video. This is exactly what I'm looking for. Too bad I don't have the resources to make this.
Greetings from Indonesia🇲🇨, Southeast Asian.
I like Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) by Konami. This is one of the BEST Japanese🇯🇵 Arcade Games. But, I Play this Game on PlayStation 2😁👍
Hello! It is a very fun game for sure! I wish that arcade machines would be easier to find where I live! 😅
My oh my, this channel is great. I may not be able to follow all the Arduino stuff but I can say that your instructions and video is so informative. I was wondering if you are selling your stuff. I was looking at plug and play emulators but was wondering if I can use the dance pad or the Wii accessories to it. This channel popped! SUB!
Thank you so much for watching! I am currently building a new version of this project and am hoping to release a kit version that comes with everything you will need to build a dance pad yourself. I am not sure if this would work with a Wii, since it emulates a keyboard, but that is a cool idea! You can check out progress on the new build here: ua-cam.com/video/DoOBpWROi9Q/v-deo.html
Thing is, us ddr players would gladly just pay you to make one. I really wish I could because I don't have tools available yo me, but I desperately want a solid pad with a bar.
Don't take this the wrong way, but as soon as you mentioned the glass material and using electrical tape, I immediately knew your design wasn't going to last long. But you probably wanted to get it all done cheap and quickly and in the end you made much more robust.
Yoshi0 he addresses both of those at the end and talks about alternatives
dude you make a pro job,well done.
Filipe Maciel Thanks!
Great video, very clear steps. Thanks for sharing your project!
+90sKid1998 Thanks!
you rock!
thanks for the tutorial, doing it right now but for a pump it up machine
your video was of great help
Awesome! Glad you like the video! Good luck with your Pump It Up Build!
skills over 9000
What did you go to college for? What main classes did you take, and are you a mechanical engineer? Tell me. Plz.
Gabrielle Legrand Yes, my undergrad background is in mechanical engineering, with additional specialization in robotics during grad school. IMHO the great thing about the MechE core curriculum is that it prepares you well for a variety of engineering specializations! If you are considering MechE yourself, I’d say you can’t go wrong! ☺️
I actually built a similar pad using an Xbox controller for the connectivity to the PC and used copper tape for the contacts as it conducts 65% better. Also you can solder the wires to the copper tape making contact from the wires awesome and a lot stronger. For the wiring i used and old Lan cable since the wires are solid but thin.
About the final assembly. Those #8 wood screws. How long are those? You mentioned they go through the acrylic, through the graphics and into the wood panels below. I assume you meant just into the button panels and not the bottom baseboard as well, correct? If so, then these button panel assemblies aren't affixed to the frame. The only thing holding the button assemblies in place is friction from the neighboring stationary panels.
This thing looks great so far! I need to make the contacts and paint but the frame is nearly done.
Great video!
Iamthe bd Thanks! Your statement about the wood screws is correct. They do not go all the way down to the baseboard and the button panels are held in place by the neighboring panels.
Thanks! I would recommend installing retaining clips. I found ones that came with self tapping screws. They are used to retain screen door panels, pack of 8 each. So 4 boxes gets each button 8 clips (place 2 on each corner). Just serves as an additional fortification. They would anchor onto the stationary portions and frame.
@@R_110 Nice! This is an awesome idea -- thanks for the tip!
@@SuperMakeSomething Sure thing! Great build!
Man, this looks awesome. If only I knew what it all meant XD
I'am currently doing this project for a school project! This video has proven to be very helpful. Would you please share the 3D-model for de Arduino case with us? This would be amazing and save me some time :).
This is why i instantly subscribed when i first saw a video from you.
Great project, nice presentation of the process and cool results.
Thanks for another great video! Keep em coming ;)
Greetings from Germany
+Pascal Villemin Thank you so much! Another video is currently in the works! :)
try using some painters tape and glue or hairspray on your printbed, it would stop the warping
Warping is definitely a problem for larger prints like this one. I'm looking to upgrade to a heated bed soon!
+Super Make Something good idea! great video btw!
+Louis JaCooper Thanks!
Hello, enjoyed your video. You have lots of cool tools and are precise and patience. I, however, doubt I have the patience to build my own as you did. That said, I went out and hired someone with experience building metal pads. The metal pads came in earlier this week and they're super nice. The pads connect to a controllers and each has a USB connector that connects to my laptop. They installed Stepmania on the laptop and the laptop is connected to the TV for a bigger display and use of the TV's sound bar. Before the dance pads came in, we played DDR on the Wii and used the soft Wii dance pads. We actually like the Wii play with DDR, DDR 2 and Hottest Dance Party 3 even though the songs are limited. Now I'm wondering how I can get these new pads to work with the Wii. Intuitively, I thought perhaps it was easiest to connect the USB to some kind of adapter or converter that can plug into the Wii port but I can't find any. Can such an adapter be built?
My second question is, Is it possible to install Stepmania to an Android TV and if so, how?
Thanks for watching! Unfortunately I do not have much experience with USB/Wii adapters, but believe something like this should be possible to create. I have not heard of an Android TV solution, since Stepmania requires local storage for the songs, but if you have an old computer available that you can hook up to your TV, it will likely be able to run it without issue!
@@SuperMakeSomething, thanks for responding. Any guidance on how to create such an adaptor or a route I might follow to learn would be greatly appreciated. If I have to take apart a soft Wii mat to figure it out, I will...
@@Loveko399 Unfortunately I am not aware of a USB-to-Wii adapter, but the issue with this for your current pad is that your pad would need to follow the standard button mapping defined in Nintendo's communication protocol. However, pads like the one in this video simply send keyboard commands, which works because StepMania can map any keyboard button to an arrow. The best path forward for your situation would be to use the internals of a Wii soft pad and then turn it into a hard pad so that you could plug it into a Wii directly, but then you would again be building your own pad. It might be worth a shot though! If you end up trying this, please let me know how it works out!
So for the wiring, I was a little confused about how the ground wires are set up. Do you need 4 wire to connect to each panel and then another longer wire to connect to the Arduino? I think a print visual would help with the wire setup. Thanks for the great video, I'm considering trying the build myself.
also, maybe solder those washers onto the aluminium, you can use an aluminium beading rod and a blowtorch
the heat would probably ruin the adhesive and form a non conductive oxide layer on the aluminum
***** Possibly do it before you glue it down, maybe?
+Louis JaCooper Still, the oxide could be an issue. Perhaps it would be better to just use copper contacts that will properly take to electrical solder, but I think his solution to just screw them down would be the easiest. It wouldn't require additional materials or removing the foil.
yeah, lexan is tough stuff but scratches really easy. Scratches don't really matter but it will def get scratched.