GUIDE: The Correct Way to Light Your Homepad

Frosty555 · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2003

I really hope someone finds it in their heart to sticky this, haha

The Correct Way to Light Your Homepad

I had a few people asking me how I did the lighting for my girlfriend's birthday pad (here), so I thought I'd make a thread and explain exactly how it works. Maybe some of you up-and-coming ddr pad builders will find this useful

This guide assumes you have a basic understanding of electronics, you can read simple circuit diagrams, and you already understand the design of the ddr pad you're building.

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What You'll Need

- An almost complete home built pad. The pad must have sensors which are, in the end, basically switches (two leads that connect together when you step on the arrows)
- 16 Rectifier Diodes
- Light bulbs or LEDs
- DC Power Adapter
- Optional: Electronic Breadboard for holding all the components in place.

Choosing between LEDs and Lamps

However you decide to light your pad, you have to use a DC source of light. By that I mean that you cannot use a regular 120 volt AC light bulb that you'd screw into your kitchen's overhead light. DC lamps run off of DC power sources like batteries, or power adapters. There are two popular types of DC lighting that you can use in your pad. DC Lamps, or LEDs:

DC Lamps(picture)

Incandescent DC lamps are small light bulbs you can buy from Radio Shack. They run on DC current, *not* AC. They are usually very small bulbs but burn fairly bright. I try and aim for bulbs that say they draw about 250milliamps (0.250 amps) of current.

Mounting a lamp into a pad couldn't be easier. All you need is the right kind of Lamp Base for your lamp. There are two types: Bayonet, and Screw-in, and they are for Bayonet and Screw-in lamps respectively. There isn't any functional difference between the two, but make sure you get the right holder for the right lamp

.

Type of bases: (screw-in) (bayonet):

LEDs (Picture)

LEDs are bright, focused lights that run on DC current. There's probably a green one on the front of your monitor glowing right now.

LEDs are popular for DDR pad lights because they light instantaniously. A lamp, in contrast, takes 1/10th of a second or so for the wire inside them to start glowing and actually release light. Another reason why LEDs are used is because they require far less power than a typical DC bulb. Where a DC Bulb may draw 250 milliamps, an LED will draw more like 1 milliamp.

LED stands for (L)ight (E)mitting (D)iode. As you'll read later in the guide, diodes only pass electricity in one direction. Therefore you have to take care not to mix up the + and - leads on an LED when you put it in the circuit. LEDs have one leg longer than the other, and the longer leg is the positive one.

LEDs are very focused. You will probably find that if you only use one, your arrow will have a small bright spot of light on it, and not be lit entirely. You will need to arrange several LEDs inside your arrow to light the whole thing.

I have not found an easy way to mount LEDs. LED holders are expensive and I've only found them for sale in packs of 1 or 2, but again I recommend using an LED holder and not trying to make your own make-shift light holder.

AC Light bulbs, neon tubes, any other source of AC lighting

DON'T use any of these methods to light your pad. They are incompatible with my circuit design and there is the possibility of electrocution if you accidentally come in contact with live wires from your wall outlet.

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Traditional Wiring Method and their Drawbacks

The traditional way of lighting your pad is to use a "double circuit". The "double circuit" is the simplest way of lighting your DDR Pad, but has some drawbacks. Simply put, you can wire a completely separate sensor and circuit for your lights as you do for your arrow and the two have nothing to do with each other.

Analyzing riptide's pad design, he uses 16 screws laid in a circle inside the arrow well for his sensor. If you were to make a double circuit, you would dedicate half of those screws only for the lights, and the other half for the sensor, or sink additional screws in solely for the lights.

This method is not desirable for two reasons. The first is that it compromises your sensor and makes it less effective. Half the screws means half the sensitivity and accuracy of your arrow. If you're building a DDRHomepad design, you have to split the metal underneith the pad into two parts. If you're using official arcade sensors... well then you're just screwed or you get to buy twice as many sensors

. Secondly, the light is not a true indicator of if your pad is down! Since the lighting sensor is separate from the pad sensor, it is very possible for the light to be on, and the pad is not, or vice versa. The light cannot be used as a way to test or calibrate your pad.

The Diode Method of Wiring your Pad

This is my method of lighting the pad. It uses four diodes per arrow to isolate the lights from the playstation controller while still running both lights and pad on the same sensor. This means you design and build one sensor for your ddr pad, and it controls both the playstation button, and the lights.

Diodes are an electrical component which only allows electricity to flow in one direction. They come in a wide range of types, but the one you want is "Rectifier Diode". Radio Shack has them for sale in a 25 pack. You will need at least 16 diodes.

I assume that - whatever sensor design you are using - it eventually simplifies down to a switch. When you push the panel down, the switch closes, otherwise it is open.

The simplest way to make a DDR pad - e.g. one without any lights at all - is to connect this switch directly to the contacts of a playstation controller's button. That way when you close the switch, the playstation button gets activated.

The simplest DDR pad circuit for one arrow would look like this:

Edible Bondage Tape · Trick Member Joined: 26 Jan 2002 Location: Kerri

Frosty555 · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2003

Good point. (and sometimes the legs are disfigured and you can't tell anyhow). I didn't want to overcomplicate things but it is always a good idea to *test* the polarity with a meter or a battery just so that you're certain you got it right.
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Team D5R - DDR team of Newmarket/Aurora

pui-puni · Basic Member Joined: 15 Dec 2004 Location: Montreal

I love my pad! <3
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<3 <3 <3

LightningXCE · Trick Member Joined: 17 Aug 2006

=D

Same ASCII as that PM, I see.

Another way that you can tell which "leg" is which on LED's are the little notch on the top. You'll see a flat side of the base of the LED that detonates which side is Cathode. The other, obviously, is Anode.

Thanks again for this, it helped greatly with my setup!
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=o!

Edible Bondage Tape · Trick Member Joined: 26 Jan 2002 Location: Kerri

and for those who dont know cathode is negative
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ChilliumBromide · Trick Member Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: Beaverton, OR

I think I understand it now. =)
Thanks for taking time to help us simple folk. xD
You wouldn't happen to know how to hook it up to a power outlet via DC adapter, would you?

I have prejudices against batteries.

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I used to be active here lol

Discoman · Maniac Member Joined: 23 Nov 2002

Ok, since there's been a big hubbub of lighting issues lately and people making their own threads, this one will be stickied on a trial basis (as it has some meaty info) for discussion and questions and adding of information to the topic and discouraging folk from making topic after topic about lighting. However, there may be a point where compilation of information such as this and lexan/acrylic comparison, etc will need to be merged into one thread.

Frosty555 · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2003

Hooray! Thanks for the sticky

ChilliumBromide · Trick Member Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: Beaverton, OR

Okay, cool. I have about 30 old useless AC/DC adaptors lying around, and I thought that it would be nice to actually use one.

I've got them anywhere from 1.5 to 9 volts DC; what would be the best to use? (or would it all be based on how many lights i have and what voltage they run on?)
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I used to be active here lol

Frosty555 · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2003

It allll depends on the lights my friend, however there are a few things you can do.

If (under a single arrow well) you connect all the LEDs in parallel, they will all each get the same voltage as your power supply. For every additional LED you put, it will simply draw more power from the adapter. This is the simplest and most intuitive way of connecting lights so I put it like that in the guide.

If, however, you instead were to connect your LEDs in series, they will divide the voltage evenly amongst themselves, and draw the same amount of current as one light. Of course, lower voltage = less light output so you'll discover three lights in series each shine about 1/3 as bright as one.

This is useful if you have an adapter that has too high a voltage rating.. Lets say you have a 9v DC adapter capable of 500mA of current, and LEDs that required 3 volts and used 100mA each.

You could connect three LEDs in series, so each would draw 3v and the set as a whole would only draw 100mA. Then, connect three "sets" of these together in parallel. The result is nine LEDs, each getting 3v and the entire thing consuming 300mA.

One arrow down would then draw 300mA, two arrows draw 600mA, and three draw 900mA.

I'll try and draw series vs. parallel with my makeshift ascii art

:

Frosty555 · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2003

I edited the guide and posted a section on DC adapters as well as some pictures that would be useful.
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Team D5R - DDR team of Newmarket/Aurora

ChilliumBromide · Trick Member Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: Beaverton, OR

Well, what I'm looking to do is build a full stepmania cabinet, with a power strip built into it to power the pad, screen, speakers, computer, and cab lights.
And, of course, DTG's customers will probably appreciate having proper lighting for their pads. xD

One more (hopefully last) question though:
How would you make it work on either batteries or DC adaptor?
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I used to be active here lol

Edible Bondage Tape · Trick Member Joined: 26 Jan 2002 Location: Kerri

Ghettobarney · Trick Member Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Location: Failing Pandy

This should be super useful for when I get around to lighting my pad. All we need now is adding a trick bar guide. Also, do they sell those lights in color? I'd like to get red&blue lights.
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OMG I BEETS MACKS 300!

Frosty555 · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2003

Haha, well, I'm certainly no bar expert. That bar I put on my pad was my first time ever doing it.

I'm sure that the lights come in color. I know for sure that LEDs come in every color imaginable, though red, green and blue (-- edit -- and White, oh yeah. haha, ha) are probably the most common.

Ooh, for the DC Adapter vs. Batteries thing DancingTofu posted... my suggestion if you want to keep it simple is just put a double-throw switch somewhere convenient. Have the pad's +ve lead go to the common pin, and the +ve leads of the Battery and the DC Adapter respectively go to the left and right pin respectively. Throw it left and it is running on batteries, throw it the other way and it is running on the DC adapter.

But if you want to get fancy, you can use a single-poll-double-throw DC relay (named SPDT Relay). A relay is a device that is a tiny switch placed close to a wire coil. When you run current through the coil, the switch is closed by the magnetic field generated by the coil. When current stops flowing through the coil, the switch opens.

Connecting your DC adapter to the coil will cause the switch to be closed any time the DC adapter is plugged in. So you make it so that side of the switch connects the DC adapter to the rest of your lights. Otherwise, the switch is in the open position and the battery is connected to your lights. Basically, it's that same switch you'd use, except it throws itself automatically

.

The downside to this, is that the relay constantly needs power from the DC Adapter, so whether the pad is in use or not, you will be constantly using a small amount of power (in the ballpark of 10-30mA) just for the relay at all times.

I made a circuit, but I never tested it. I think it'd look something like this:

Where that stripy bar is the relay's coil, and the switch right beside the bar is the NO (normally open) and NC (normally closed) leads on the relay.
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Team D5R - DDR team of Newmarket/Aurora

ChilliumBromide · Trick Member Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: Beaverton, OR

I think I'll just use manual switches; I generally try to believe that DDR players aren't quite as lazy as most gamers, and can flip their own damned switches. ;D
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I used to be active here lol

Frosty555 · Trick Member Joined: 14 Jun 2003

Okay, in that case just take the coil out of that diagram and the circuit still applies. I think just about any switch will do fine for you provided it is double-throw. I think even regular household light switches will work perfect. They're quite heavy duty which I think you probably want if you're selling pads commercially.
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Team D5R - DDR team of Newmarket/Aurora

ChilliumBromide · Trick Member Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: Beaverton, OR

daikenkai =[ · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:26 pm Post subject:

ive gotta try that!