how about telling us what's wrong with the pad?

Well, let's just say it's permanently broken now... due to various causes.

What kind of pad do you want to build?  I haven't build a pad in forever, and that one turned out pretty crappy because I only spent $10 on parts because I'm cheap and don't care enough about DDR to invest heavily in it again, but pads are deceptively easy to build if you just go with a simple design like CF's or BeatGear's.  I built mine using the CF design from scrap wood, a spare control box, and $10 in wood glue, masking tape, and drywall screws.

Where might these designs be?  I'm looking into building my own pad for relatively cheap. 

(This post is a continuation of a discussion from the Ground Kontrol thread).


It really matters which system you'll be using it on; PS2/PS3, Xbox360, PC?

To be honest, I'm not sure there's a lot of difference in the quality of the soft pads these days (if ever). I'd suggest getting one that has USB support so you can use it with Stepmania on your PC. The XB360 soft pads use USB and will work on XB360 and PC, which is nice. Here's my suggestion (this might not work on XB360):
http://www.ddrgame.com/dance-dance-revolution-pc-reg-mat.html

Once you get your soft pad, here's what to do:
-Determine how large it is.

-Get a piece of MDF (this is nice stuff) or Plywood (cheaper, but it will work) and cut it to roughly the same size as your softpad. I'd add 2" on each end to give yourself some room for error. Remember, the wood needs to be larger than the soft pad!

-Get some cardboard and cut it out to be the same size as the wood base you just made.

-Place the cardboard on top of the wood base. I also put it on the bottom of mine to reduce noise on hardwood and to prevent the plywood from scrapping carpet and making a mess.

-Use a staple gun to fix the cardboard to the wood base along the perimeter and wherever needed. (Make sure the staples don't through the wood and poke out the opposite side!)

-Place your soft mat down on the base and make sure it's centered and not hanging off any side.

-Using a staple gun, carefully staple the outer edge of the mat down to the cardboard & wood base. When you do this, make sure the soft pad to be smooth and pulled taunt, not wrinkled and bunched up. However, don't pull it too much or you might get it so that it will think the sensors are constantly being pressed. Make sure the staples you use are long enough to go through the mat and cardboard and stick into the wood, but still short enough that they don't poke through the opposite side. I stapled my mat right on the inside of the fabric edge that runs along the perimeter. It's possible your soft pad might not have this, but most of the ones I have used do.

-Once you've done this, you are done. You could put another layer of duct tape over the perimeter one more time to hide the staples and make the edge of the mat flush with the base, but I didn't find this particularly useful, especially if you drove the staples in properly.

Don't the XB360 pads have axes problems on the PC?
That's the reason I bought DDRGame's Energy pad instead. It's worked pretty well, and has multiple inputs for the PS2, XBOX original, Wii, and the PC through USB.

*shrugs*
Could be. I haven't dealt with soft pads in years, so I couldn't say. If the Energy Pad works well, then I'd suggest they pick that up (if it's similarly priced).

gamestop softpads are the best, tape it to a small wood board or stack of cardboard.

confirmed for being able to star 11's on these.

used the same one for 6+ years and it's still going strong, but haven't used it in about 4.

Thank you so much for that write-up Suko! This is for a plain soft pad, not a foam pad right?


Do you mean the soft pads or the metal ones? They probably have the same hookups I suppose but I just wanted to see if someone had experience with the soft one.

I don't have an X360 so no issues there. I have a PS2 (hasn't been hooked up in awhile but I assume it's still working fine), a PS3 and a PC.

While I am on the subject, I was wondering if HDTV lag is still a problem today? I remember that getting the video, audio and input all synced up was a big problem back in the day, but is it still an issue? Maybe it depends on the game/system?

The DDR Universe soft pads for the xb360 games. Instead of being treated as individual buttons, the directional arrows are treated as POV hat switches, so you can't simultaneously press arrows in opposite directions sadly.

My write up assumes you have a soft pad without foam inserts. It's still possible to do this with a pad that has foam inserts I suppose.

I think he was referring to the soft pads.

The TV lag is still around, but if you're going to be playing using stepmania, it has the ability to offset the sync to match what you see on the TV. So you should be good after a bit of tweaking.

I have DDR Universe and the soft pads and I haven't had issues hitting jumps with them on the actual game on my XB360. I haven't tried putting it on my PC to test this out though, so perhaps you are correct. I can't say for sure.

Yeah, I meant for trying it on StepMania/ITG on the PC.