I sat next to the sander and test fitted a button piece and sanded the sides until it slid into it's "well" easily and didn't stick. Once the construction adhesive holding all of the base pieces is cured, it is time to test the fit of the buttons. Be careful when stacking weight on top or moving the pads while the glue is wet, because the pieces will slide and shift. I stacked the pads and put weight on top until the glue was set (24 hours). I also sanded down the underside corners of the center step pad to use as wire channels later (see close-up picture above).Īfter drawing the placement of the border and step pieces onto the bases to use as a guide, I glued down the borders and five solid steps using the construction adhesive. Everything was pretty close to perfect, so i just sanded down the step pads to get smooth edges.
Having the extra sheet of 1/2 inch MDF was ok too, because I screwed up a few cuts.īefore gluing anything, I dry assembled to check the fit.
I over purchased on 1/2 inch MDF because 4x4ft sheets were not much more expensive than 4x2ft sheets, and I could not find anything smaller than that. On the "blueprints" you will notice that almost every piece can be cut from two 4x4 ft panels, however, there are two more 11x11 inch squares which would need to come from some other panel. The "blueprints" for cutting all the panels is attached (the grid in the picture 1 inch scale). The 1/8 inch Hardboard was cut into the following pieces:Ĩx - 9x9 inch button pads (you can see these stacked in the picture on the previous step) The 1/4 inch Hardboard was cut into the following pieces:Ĩx - 11x11 inch button pads (you can see these stacked in the picture on the previous step) (You can see all of these pieces dry assembled in the picture above) The 1/2 inch thick MDF was cut into the following pieces:Ģx - 35x39 inch base panels 4x - 35x3 inch top and bottom borders 4x - 33x1 inch side borders 10x - 11x11 square "non-button" step pads. The button assembly will be explained later, but could be modified for different designs or materials. The measurements are the same as a DDR arcade pad except that a real arcade pad has only 1.5 inches between the right arrow of the player one pad and the left button of the player two pad, and my design has 2 inches between (not a big deal I think). These pads are designed to be 4 button pads with a solid base, solid border, and solid non-button step areas.
#STEPMANIA DDR A PC#
To connect these pads (with their Playstation connectors) to a PC for playing Stepmania, I use the "EMS USB 2" adapter which you can grab for cheap on amazon. Rotary hand saw Mounted Belt Sander (borrowed) Drywall Square (Big Ruler) or Tape Measure Soldering Iron Solder Wire Stripper Small phillips head screwdriver Hot Glue Gun and Glue Caulking Gun I already had the following materials and tools available for use: Total purchased was ~$97 (not bad for two hard pads) ~$13x3=$39 1x - 1/4 inch thick 4 ft by 2 ft MDF panel ~$6 1x - 1/8 inch thick 4 ft by 2 ft hardboard panel ~$2.50 1x - "Joist Panning" (This was the name of the galvanized steel sheet that I found in the duct work section of the store, I think it was about 33 inches by 24 inches.) ~$8 1x - Can of Loctite brand medium strength spray adhesive (they were out of Super 77) ~$7 1x - Tube of contruction adhesive (for use with caulking gun) ~$4 2x - Used Original Sony PSX controllers ~$4x2=$8 2x - Used Ethernet Cables ~$3x2=$6 1x - Straight Tin Snips ~$8 3x - Insulation foam tape, high density, 1/4 inch thick, 1/4 inch wide, 10 ft roll. I will list the materials in the quantity I purchased with a estimate of cost of each material.ģx - 1/2 inch thick 4 ft by 4 ft MDF panels. I live in the US so my measurements are non-metric (sorry almost everyone), prices are in USD, and the names of materials match my locale. The hardware store seems to call it MDF when thicker than than 1/4 inch, and hardboard if 1/4 inch thick or less. I decided to build these pads from Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF)/Hardboard as it was the cheapest panel material with good compression strength (and a bit of flex which comes in later). I build two pads so that 2 could play or 1 could play "doubles", so the materials list and cost below is for 2 pads.
0 kommentar(er)
