My DDR dance pad project

[Zerodash]

I love DDR. I love it to death.

Those PSX DDR pads slip around all over the damn place though. I may have to splurge for metal pads, but in the meantime, I have an idea.

The concept
I will mount my DDR pads to a padded, heavy surface to keep them from slipping around. I also want to add padding underneath to reduce impact on the knees.

The materials
2 DDR pads
1 roll of carpet tape
foam padding
1 fiberboard
8+ carpet grippers (possibly)
nails, screws, and bolts

Building
I will first use some broad base nails and/or bolts with glue to attach the foam padding to the fiberboard.

Then, I am gonna use carpet tape or glue to mount the DDR pads to the foam. I may then use some Duct Tape around the edges for added anchorage.

To the bottom of the fiberboard, I may use carpet gripper "teeth" to keep it from sliding. However, fiberboard is very heavy, so that may not be a problem...





Thoughts?

[Cheebs]

Try it this way:

Keep the fiberboard/plywood the same.
Keep the foam the same.

Instead of taping the dance pad to the board, cover the top of it with kitchen floor linolium. Bend the linolium around the sides of the pad and nail it into the edges of the board making a pocket between the board and linolium for the pad to rest in. That way, the surface of the pad is protected from wear. You can expect much longer life. You can see my pad in the bottom left of this picture. I did the same thing without the foam.

[Zerodash]

Chibi, I assume that there is no problems with the pad's responsiveness?

[Cheebs]

None at all. It works much better than the hard pad on the right, actually.

[lithium]

short of spending an arm on a nice metal pad or building your own, the next best thing is the mod that is detailed over at ddrfreak. Which is what Chibbi has done it looks like, although I'd recommend the transparent covering just as a slight improvement.

If you've got access to the tools, building your own pad isn't that difficult. I built a really nice one for less than $100. Granted, my Dad's really into woodworking so that helped a lot, but it's still a viable option regardless.

[Cheebs]

Yup, DDRfreak is where I got the idea. I would have used a clear cover, but my friend was redoing his kitchen the exact same week I got the idea.

free material > clear material

Besides, who has time to look at thier feet durring a 7 foot song anyway?

[Stibbons]

Go to ddrfreak.com and do their mod. It's really cheap and perfect for what you're looking for.

While you're there, watch the video of Sl1p dancing his ass off. Funny as hell.