DDR dance pad / carpet in wood

How to make a good ddr pad with some wood, copper foil, paint and a dead USB pad/keyboard

Step 1 Tools and materials that you need

As tools you need a saw, pen, meter , soldering iron and some good tape
As materials you need 80*90*1.3cm Agglomerated for the foundation, a 80 * 110*0.3cm wood use for the back of closet (it's a flexible wood)
- some screws and nails
- a broken USB pad or keyboard (with the electronic in working condition)
- some wires
- copper foils

Comments

[racer_x124]

Great tutorial! I built one last night and the down arrow doesn't work :( Tonight I'll be playing DDR though!

[akz-p]

the wires you have running, say for the down arrow button, do I have to solder both the wires, from both sides of the wood on to the button?

[crazytiti]

No, you have one for all and one for the button (except you have a strange pad) look at the PCB : each button have 2 wire but one is usualy connected to teh ground (sometimes to the plus) and the other go to the IC. you have to do teh same with the dance-pad, for me it's the upper part of the buttons thaht have been together and each down part is individually wired to the pad-controller.

[akz-p]

have you done yours via a keyboard? if so could you upload images, sorry this is my first time im creating anything for my pc, and to be honest im am totally confussed about the wiring, if you could it would be a great help

[crazytiti]

lol, my advice is to always make a diagram on a paper first and THEN make it with wire ;)
unfortunately meine isn't on a keyboard it's on an IC specifically program to be a windows-usb-hid pad.
but i'm sure you will find tone of howto with you friend google because it's where i find this idea tested & approuved.

you could lokk here too : http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-Another-Stupid-Dance-Pad/?ALLSTEPS
the main idea is to follow teh trace to four keys and then solder your wire on the keyboard PCB instead of the keyboard layer.

[Rustate]

Hey there I wanted to ask you if you could explain the keyboard wiring part cause I can't seem to get it

[crazytiti]

take a look here : http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-Another-Stupid-Dance-Pad/
you could do exactly what he did but you have to follow the line on the menbrane of your keyboard to find wich does arrows keys.

[super_r_85]

Im Building up this pad for a festival, within 2 weeks, the pad will be used all day long with all sort of people jumping and playing on it, Do you think it will withstand the weights? another question, how did u soldure the wires into the keyboard? Thanks and u did a gr8 job :)

[crazytiti]

I don't know if it's enought reliable to handle such "hardcore gaming" maybe you better have to replace my homemade switch by some "true" switch like this : http://www.conrad.fr/wcsstore/ConradImages/PRODUITS/1119964_p_g.jpg
and drill holl under the pad.
For the keyboard you have to follow the tracks on the flexible layer and then solder on the PCB connector where the flexible layer is connect :
http://martybugs.net/electronics/images/leds_keyboard3.jpg

[super_r_85]

Thank You for the quick Reply! I might make this pad to be used only in the "Happy Hour" not all day long after All! Cheers!

[barri_kid]

This is not very clear. Having clear written instructions is very important. I can sorta understand what you are doing in the pictures. I have no idea how you are wiring it up to a USB keyboard. I tried doing that once, but the solder didn't stick. Also don't put the instructions in the yellow tag things in the pictures

[crazytiti]

ok thank for the comment

[GorillazMiko]

Woah... nice job! Cool Instructable.

[crazytiti]

thank, it's the first DIY that I put on Instructables ;)