Stoli's Home Built Dance Pad
This pad was very much inspired by DDRHomePad as well as some of the other DDR pads that are linked from his site. I built this pad because the soft pad that I bought my daughter for her birthday stopped working after the first day. It was supposed to be one of the better ones too (Red Octane Ignition 2.0). So, after looking around at the price (and lack of warranty) of the hard pads, I decided to have a go at a home built. I wasn't too crazy about the corner brackets that most of the home builts out there seem to have and I wanted X and O buttons so I customized a bit. I found the sheet metal at a local shop. They called it Mirror Finish Stainless Steel Sheet Metal (26 gauge). It looks pretty slick but dirt and fingerprints show a bit. I used the galvy sheet metal for the switches because solder would not stick to the shiny stuff.
Keep in mind, steel sheet metal prices have soared since I built these, so plan on spending alot more for the metal than I did. My total cost (in May of 2005) for 2 of these pads was $215 - that breaks down to $175 for the first pad and an additional $40 for the second. This is because the amount of sheet metal and plywood that I bought for the original pad was enough to make 2. The wood and metal I used were top end, so you could save a few bucks by using less expensive materials. The biggest savings on this design is the absence of the corner brackets. All material is available at Home Depot and/or your local hardware store except the mirror finish sheet metal which you could obviously replace with the galvy. I purchased all the sheet metal at a local fabricator for about $1 per sq. ft. (I think the price has tripled since then) The shiny stuff was sold in 4'x8' sheets and the galvy sold by the foot from a 5' roll. I understand you can find the galvy in 2' x 4' sheets at Home Depot and Lowes. To see a list of materials, click here. For a rough estimate of the sheet metal pieces required for the pad, click here. If you have any questions, you can reach me at stoli16atcomcastdotnet.
Note: When two of these pads are placed side by side,
the distance between the right arrow of the left pad and the left arrow of the
right pad is about 3". If I have the dimensions right, that is 1 3/16"
more than an official dual pad. To see my suggestion for making a double pad
with this design, click here.
* Update (12/15/2005): The last 4 pics below are my latest pads with the Mad Catz Beatpad Controller instead of the Retro. There is also a wiring pic of the Beatpad Controller in the Final Steps section.
Click a picture to see a larger view.
Construction Details
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