Building completely arcade accurate DDR/ITG pads?

loyx · Basic Member Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Location: New Jersey

I wanted to make a new thread since this forum doesn't seem to get that much traffic anymore, let alone the home built metal pad thread, and I figured it's unique enough to warrant it's own thread.

Has anyone had any experience with building arcade accurate ddr/itg pads (:cough: paging goatee_guy :cough:

)? I'm looking to do this over the summer, but I'm missing a lot of info about the arcade pads. I MIGHT be able to decipher the measurements from the ddr arcade manuals (and if you have these measurements it would be much appreciated), but I honestly have no idea where to start when it comes to the materials. I remember hearing that the DDR and ITG arcade machine pads don't use wood in their design, but that's honestly.. all I know about it

.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I will document the construction of the stage completely, and all the information I gather about this will be uploaded

I'll upload some rough sketches tomorrow. Thanks.

goatee_guy · Trick Member Joined: 05 Feb 2002 Location: Edmonton, AB

Howdy...

As for measurements... the 'squares' are 11x11 inches.
(the measurements are all in the manuals)

As for materials. I'll be honest. Building an entire frame out of metal? Unless you have a friend that can hook you up with all that... (and do all the welding, etc for you) It would be crazy expensive.

My frame is made out of wood, however unlike most pads, I wasn't going for 'cheap', I was going for 'durable'. So despite being wood, it's very sturdy... (I used the frame for my old 'ghetto' DDR pad (as I called it lol), for several years) and then just gutted the frame and used it for this.

As for the metal panels. Someone messaged me on YouTube saying they could get the square metal panels for 90 bucks each, which isn't too bad...

I paid 1200 bucks CDN for ALL my metalwork. (All 14 guage, custom laser cut stainless steel). Since well, good luck even thinking about trying to bend 14 guage steel yourself. (and doing it accurately)

How much do you plan on spending for this project? As well, do you have woodworking experience, etc?

mikieson · Trick Member Joined: 14 Nov 2003

Good luck getting help as this site and the games have been dead for about 5 years now. Its sad but true. Have fun building..

goatee_guy · Trick Member Joined: 05 Feb 2002 Location: Edmonton, AB

mikieson · Trick Member Joined: 14 Nov 2003

goatee_guy · Trick Member Joined: 05 Feb 2002 Location: Edmonton, AB

loyx · Basic Member Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Location: New Jersey

Holy poopy these are the slowest forums i've ever used - maybe the acoustic coupler in their datacenter is going bad

Anyway, I pretty much have a good idea for the frame, the biggest hurdle for me are the small "specialty" parts, especially the frame of the active panel and all the parts that are attached to it, like the panel "support" bracket that often bleeds through the decals of old machines, and the slotted bracket that presses into the sensor. I'd probably have to get them custom made in a metal shop, but does anyone have any tips for these parts? Maybe there is a distributor that sells these parts somewhere that I'm missing (I hope D

Thanks.

P.S.
Do you have aim, goatee_guy?