Devout Stealth homepad

[devout]

Hi all, I finally finished writing a first draft of a tutorial for the pad I just finished. It is available here:

Devout Stealth Pad

The idea was to make an extremely durable, reliable pad as simply as possible. It uses a sensor design that I came up with 5 years ago to add x/o buttons to a ddrhomepad... and after years of them being the most relable buttons on the pad I decided to make a whole pad around them.

What makes this different from every other pad i've seen is that you step directly on the steel that forms the ground half of the circuit, and it just bends down and hits another piece of metal below, completing the circuit. The two are separated by a thin strip of cardboard. The steel provides both the conductive properties, and springiness needed to make this work... there are no foams/mousepads/whatever. The result is a very reliable, very solid feeling step. Also, since the max distance the steel can travel is regulated by the thickness of the cardboard, there is no weight limit of any kind for this pad.

If you need to buy everything, it will cost about $80 for a single pad or $100 for doubles, which is below anything i've ever heard before (from people who have actually kept track of how much they spend). I spent about $40 to make a single pad since I already had some of the materials around. Again, this price is the maximum I would recommend spending for this pad, and does not involve cutting any corners. If you decide to use cheaper materials you can get the price to come down quite a bit.

Construction time is about 6-8 hours for a first timer. You could build one in about 4 hours if you have someone to help you. Again I think this is well below any other pad out there.

So... I hope some people will find this useful. The look inst that of a conventional ddr pad, but I think it makes up for it in reliability and step accuracy. (Im also at that age where having a ddr pad in your living room stops being cool, and something a little more subtle is nice. )

I'll be updating the tutorial with new/clearer info over the next few weeks. It's a bit of a jumbled mess right now, and all the pictures are on one page, so dial-uppers beware.

Enjoy.

ps. If you have suggestions for what I should add/clarify in the tutorial, please post them here. I'll get around to spiffying it up eventually.

(posted here under addendum 1 of cardinal rule #3: I will make exceptions to individuals or groups that have posted outside of the thread if they have made significant innovations, an entirely new design )

[kochinwu]

wow, it looks really nice. !!!
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Hey ! I live in Austin Texas

[ChilliumBromide]

Similar design philosophy to the DT600. =)

Steel Panels, wood base, cheap yet effective sensors. . .

The difference being that you use a different actual design for your sensors and the DT600 has adjustable-height panels. (you use regular sized 8.5"x11" paper for it too!)

Looks good. I didn't read through it all though. xP
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I used to be active here lol

[Flound3r]

Looks nice, but how's the performance?
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Wow my sig got messed up.

[devout]

[ChilliumBromide]

[Ghettobarney]

This pad gets an honorary thumbs up! The only thing I don't like is raised arrows rather than depressed arrows, though you could just stick 2 pieces of cardboard under the stationary panels. If you've got a video camera, post some vids!

-O.J.A.
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OMG I BEETS MACKS 300!

[DarkCore]

[ChilliumBromide]

I should make pads with Oppressed arrows. That would sell hard.

Depressed actually is a legit term, but not a commonly used one. A depression can be defined as a geographic plane that is of lesser altitude than it's surroundings. Also, the term is recessed (like a recession) anyway. I believe repress means "to hold back".
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I used to be active here lol

[Ghettobarney]

Okay, how about slightly lowered step panels?

-O.J.A.
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OMG I BEETS MACKS 300!

[ChilliumBromide]

[Ghettobarney]

Why are you yelling? Anyways, maybe putting a penny at all four corners would fix the dead spot. If that's whats already done, then ignore my stupid post, there's just to much to read.

-OJA
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OMG I BEETS MACKS 300!

[Discoman]

[psisarah]

Looks really nice... it must be really sensitive if the whole panel is the sensor, no?
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[ChilliumBromide]

[Ghettobarney]

BUMP!
I say you sticky this like you said you would.
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OMG I BEETS MACKS 300!

[Discoman]

I said I'd put a link to it in an appropriate sticky (which I will need to make to include some of the more important threads that don't quite deserve sticky compared to the other stuff). Let me compile some threads I think ought to be mentioned for design/etc and I will see what I can do.

EDIT: Also, sup OJA. what's with the name?

[Weston]

Nice! That design is really unique. Also looks pretty.

[RespectJSB]

Hey, this is a neat little design here.

But what am I missing?

How do the steps "spring" if they are screwed down to the base??
and how does the circuit complete... there tinfoil flat on the bottom and sheet metal wrapped on top but where/how do they contact each other??

I don't think I'm a moron.....I've built two riptide pads and then re-did them with matrix sensors and even added cold cathode lights to one, but I'm confused here...

KO

[ChilliumBromide]

The cardboard provides a <1/16" rebound, which is enough to break the circuit when there is no pressure on the panel.

Because this is an awesome design, I'll probably make one of these and test it up against the DT600.
If the Stealth turns out to be an all-around better pad, devout and I will have to talk.
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I used to be active here lol