Build Your Own DDR Pad for Cheap

So about five years ago I built two DDR pads for myself. I spent quite a bit of time on them and never really had any good photos to appreciate either build. The first pad I built, which is pictured below, has now almost completely rusted over. It was also expensive, uncomfortable to play on, and had bad sensing spots on the arrows. Needless to say I wanted - no needed, a better pad.

 I went back and decided to design my own pad to be more portable and comfortable. This was my 'baby' when I played at the time and I decided it was time to deconstruct it and show its creation. This pad can be built using a variety of materials and so as cheap as you allow. I will give a list of materials and some of the options you have to save some money.

Materials

• You need a 4x8ft sheet of 3/4" wood. I used plywood but you can use any sheet of wood that is 3/4" thick , which can include mdf, particle board, OSB, or whatever (this will also determine the weight). It is not going to matter as you will be always standing on two layers. The thickness is the only importance.
• A sheet of 3/8" to 1/4" thick plexiglass. This is where the pad will shoot up in price big time. It will have to be big enough to cut at least eight 11"x11" pieces. You can also substitute the plexi for wood instead. The wood will have to be 3/8" to 1/2" thick and you only need to cut four pieces. Of course you will have to either draw or carve the arrows onto the wooden top.
• A piece of sheet metal. It will have to big enough to cut out five 12.5"x12.5" pieces (the squares), a 37.75"x4.5" piece (the back footrest), two 4.5"x40" pieces (the side covers - optional), and a 36"x7" piece (the top cover - optional). I would not used galvanized as it will rust and get hazy after a while. You do not even need to add the sheet metal really.... as long as you sand the whole thing heavily, you could have an entire wooden pad..... just sayin.
• Hardware - I used  1 1/4" fine thead screws all around. The top screws of the pad were round tops while the arrows had flat tops to not hurt your feet. I would suggest to not use the round tops because when you tend to miss an arrow they hurt like hell if your not wearing shoes. Just get a box of these babies.
• You need around 10ft of ethernet or cat5 cable. This stuff is incredibly cheap per foot - and you can even just use some that you have laying around. Make sure the cable you buy has eight or more wires inside.
• A soft, cheap, and disposable DDR pad. USE A USB BASED DDR PAD FOR CONSTRUCTION! I can not stress that enough. Most adapters, such as mine for the PS2, do not register both the left and right arrows being hit at the same time - since it is impossible on a joystick to do so. This will make you have to use difficult software programs to control it.
• Cut the four arrows out from the old pad or print new arrows. 
•  A roll of closed cell foam about 1" wide. This makes the arrows pop back sup
• Four pieces of black foamie sheets from the arts and crafts section. They run like 20 cents.
• A roll of wide tin tape, which is also called metal duct tape or dryer tape. You could also use aluminum foil and a spray adhesive if need be.
• A handle on top is optional.

List of Wood Cuts

• a 33"x37" piece for the base
• five 11"x11" pieces
• a 4"x33" for the foot rest
• two 37"x1.5" for side covers (optional)
• one 35"x1.5" for top cover (optional)

Since I already have built the pad the pictures will show mostly completed pieces and not many in process references, sorry everybody :(

You will want to cover the five 11"x11" pieces of wood with the metal for the nice finish. Each piece will need a 12.5"x12.5" cut of sheet metal. The easiest way to attach this to the wood is by first pre-drilling with a metal   cutting drill bit and putting one screw into each corner about 3/4" away from the edges on both sides. Then you cut a square piece from each corner so that the steel can bend down and cover each side (sorry no pics here of that, but you will get the idea). Be very careful cutting and handling the metal, it will cut you if your not careful! The next step is to take a rubber mallet and bash the metal down onto the sides of the wood. You don't have to be careful, just beat the crap out of it.

One finished piece of the total five.

The next step is to cut your plexiglass. Unlike the wood, the plexi will have to be smaller than 11"x11" in order to move up and down easily when your stomping on the arrows. The goal here is to first line up and secure all five of your metal covered pieces on your base. Then you will have the four empty squares where the plexi will go. Each square will be slightly different so each piece may have to be altered. The goal is to cut both pieces of each square exactly identical. Each of my eight plexi sqaures were cut between 10-3/4" and 10-7/8" on each side. You can cut plexi with a number of tools, just make sure to use a test piece first. To ensure it does not crack or chip -make sure it is properly secured to the cutting surface. I have used both a jigsaw and a circular saw with a wood blade. I have to say that the jigsaw caused much more vibration - so try a circular saw first. Just make sure to account for the thickness of the blade and the material that will be removed. 

The top piece. Yeah the bottom is very dirty, I mean it has been sitting for years now. I actually painted the arrows on by hand for the bottom piece of acrylic.

The next step is to very carefully drill holes into each corner about 3/4" from the top and bottom. You want the holes for the acrylic to be larger then the screws so the arrows slide up and down freely. Next, add a recess for the head of the screw to lay flat in (you don't want to step on the dang thing). You can do this with the tip of a large drill bit. You only need the recesses in the top 4 sheets of acrylic.

The screws will then secure in the wood, and you will have the layout of where to place the wiring and foamie.

Next is to rewire your spare DDR pad. Please note that my pad was used to play Stepmania only, that means I needed no buttons to be wired onto the pad. If you are going to use this with a console you will have to rewire the other buttons from the pad onto heavy duty buttons. The wiring is fairly simple, you first gut out the pad and figure out which sensors are running from which arrows and buttons into the pads circuit board. You need to make sure to label these connections, like on a piece of paper or something. Each arrow and button will have two wires running to it. These two sensors/wires will make contact with each other and send the signal to the controller telling it which button was pressed. The idea here is to carefully remove the sensors/wires from the circuit board of the pad you are modifying. You then can go ahead and strip your cat5 cale to reveal the 8 wires inside. 

As you can tell from the picture above, on my pad I had four + connections and four - for the ground. I first had to scrape away the black protective stuff (i used steel wool) from the connections in order for the solder to adhere. The four wires in the center are simply the ground wires - and one will go to each arrow. If you want buttons on your pad- just do the same thing I did here with the other connections, but run each to the buttons.

Wrap electrical tape around the connections. I then drilled a hole on the back of the casing to run the wires through.

Reattach the casing.

Now you will have to start running the wires through the pad to each arrow. I first drilled a larger hole onto one of the metal/wood squares which I will call 'steps' from now on. I ran the wires through the step and secured the pads original casing onto the top with screws.

While those two are attached I made sure to draw a schematic on the back of the 'step' to ease my wiring. I used a dremel to route out a section for the wires to run and a stapler to secure them.

I ran the wires carefully along the walls of each 'step'. I even labeled them for help.

Now to create the sensors you are going to use the tin tape. This connection is so much easier and better working then any of the others you will see online. It allows a huge area of the pad to become a contact sensor, and thus you get less missed arrows because of bad spots on the pad. The idea is that when you press the arrow the two pieces of tin tape will touch each other and cause the connection. First thing is to lay down the closed-cell foam in strips . I used two strips about 3"-4" long on each side with a center section cut out for the air to escape. After this take your pieces of foamie and cut them in squares that will fit right in the middle of the closed cell foam. You will want to glue this foamie down in some way (i used spray adhesive). Then take the tin tape and completely cover the foamie section with it.

The last step for the bottom is to wire it up. All of the bottom halves will be grounds, so run a ground wire there. All you have to do is first strip the wire about an inch down and then take another piece of tin tape and tape it down on the other tin.

I decided to keep some spare wire, just in case I need to modify in the future. Once again you will secure the wires with staples.

You then just do the same thing with the bottom of one of the acrylic pieces. Tin tape pieces, then wire, except these will be the arrow or + connections and not the grounds.

Notice that I labeled what each piece of acrylic was and where its front was. This is because each piece will probably be diff, so make sure your holes and pieces line up.

The foamie here does serve a purpose, it allows the pad to make contact with very little effort (since it does not have to travel very far) and is somewhat springy and will help push the acrylic up with the foam.

I then ran the rest of the wires and wired up each side.

The wire runs cleanly along the corners.

You will then go ahead and slip the arrows in between the two sheets of plexi.

Without the foot rest, the covers will be explained after.

The next part is to attach the foot rest, basically in the same way you did the 'steps'. You will want to cut a bigger piece of sheet metal, approximately 36"x7" to cover the 33"x4" piece of wood. The reason here is that you want the metal to completely envelop the wood and bend onto the bottom. This will make it so no sharp metal is sticking out when your jumping on this thing. You will attach the 4 screws and hammer it the same way you did the 'steps'.

The side covers are things I just sorta made up on the spot. They are some 1.5" pieces of plywood I had left over. The dimensions are: two side covers, wood = 37"x1.5" sheet metal = 40"x4.5" and top cover, wood = 34.75"x1.5" sheet metal = 37.75"x4.5". You pound those completely over the wood and go ahead and attach them via left over screws. I used a lot of screws just because my wood was warped a little.

I used some spare tin tape to cover the seams and pointy edges.

Then you can attach a handle if you please. Mine had a nifty place to put cord into. I hate that PS2 junk connection! Wish I had built a freaking usb one.

You might want to add rubber to the bottom to ensure it will not slip or scratch your floors.

The final piece to do is to adjust the arrows sensitivity. Go ahead and plug it into a DDR game of your choice and just stay on the menu. Take a screw driver and slowly adjust the height of each screw in the four corners or the foot arrow buttons. After each test go ahead and test the button out, then do it again and so on. That is the reason for the fine thread screws = more precise adjustment. The way that the hole is bigger then the screw itself in the acrylic will allow you to get it perfect too.

I hope this design helps people in their builds! Good Luck!