Omg! This is not happening.

[waffle]

My dance pad's bottom arrow just went out! This is a metal pad too..ive only had it for 5 months.

www.cyphergames.com/dadarepsv3ar.html
^Thats my pad.

After about 3 months of playing both my left and right arrows cracked. And now my bottom arrow is dead.
God, why is this happening to me.

(Yes, I am crying. Mind you )

Is their any way to repair this?

Anyone else having this problem?

[abrannan]

waffle said:

God, why is this happening to me.

Well, waffle, I hope you don't take offense, but you've presented what's called a "teachable moment".

First off, to answer your question: "Why is this happening to me?"

The answer is, "Because you cheaped out when buying a metal pad." Metal pads are simple, yet amazingly delicate instruments, that have to be able to handle a metric ton of abuse. You'll be jumping up and down as hard as you can on this thing for years (if it lasts). Spending an extra $50 or $100 on a quality metal pad is one of the better investments you can make (if you decide to go the metal pad route in the first place, that is).

Let's a take a moment to look at the advertising on the website for this pad:

Super Heavy Duty, can handle player weight up to 300lbs

This seems to be standard for all metal pads these days, since Cobalt Flux first started using it for their pads. It's a piece of wood and metal on the floor, it damn well better be able to hold 300 lbs. copying other pad's advertising -1 point

The entire frame is made by high quality metal with hard wood base, will never break

Unless, of course, you put more than 300 lbs on it, right? self-conflicting advertising copy -1 point

Dimensions: 31.5 inches x 34.5 inches

DDR arrows are 11"x11", making the minimum dimensions of a proper pad 33"x33"Improper sizing of pad -5 points

Constructed by metal, arrows are made of hard acrylic plastic

Ooh, this one's bad. Acrylic, while being transparent, is very stiff and not very flexible. Why is that bad? The stiffer the material, the more likely it is to crack or shatter. Plexiglass is better, but almost too soft, and will scratch easily. Lexan or other polycarbonate is ideal, hard enough to not mar, but soft enough to flex.Constructing the pad from improper materials -10 points

Re-designed new packaging, prevents from damage during shipping

Translation: We have a lot of these get damaged during shipping.


And note the notable lack of a few features:

-No mention of warranty
-No mention of quality control or testing process


All of this adds up to setting yourself up for a bad experience. But we can't change that for you now, so let's look at what we can do (now that we know you, and anyone else reading this, won't make the same mistake again).

First things first, have you cleaned your pad? Playing in shoes, while it gives you that "arcade" feel, can cause a lot of dirt and grime to build up under your arrows. If you can, carefully unscrew the corner brackets on your pad, and vacuum out the areas under the arrows, maybe even get in there with a dry scrubbing sponge to shake loose the dirt and grime. Reassemble and test, better?

No? Not better? Does the arrow never work, or only work sometimes? If it works sometimes we may be dealing with a loose connection. If never, it may be a broken connection. If it's always reading down, we may be dealing with a short circuit. Try manually pressing the arrow (or shorting the contacts while you've got the arrow disassembled). Look for loose wires, or solder connections that are cracked.

Depending on what you find, we may be able to help you. Pictures are good too, if you can get a good shot of the interior of an arrow.


Also, you can pick up Lexan at Home Depot (or your hardware megastore of choice) and cut new arrow panels to replae your old ones.

[waffle]

abrannan said:

waffle said:

God, why is this happening to me.

Well, waffle, I hope you don't take offense, but you've presented what's called a "teachable moment".

First off, to answer your question: "Why is this happening to me?"

The answer is, "Because you cheaped out when buying a metal pad." Metal pads are simple, yet amazingly delicate instruments, that have to be able to handle a metric ton of abuse. You'll be jumping up and down as hard as you can on this thing for years (if it lasts). Spending an extra $50 or $100 on a quality metal pad is one of the better investments you can make (if you decide to go the metal pad route in the first place, that is).

Let's a take a moment to look at the advertising on the website for this pad:



This seems to be standard for all metal pads these days, since Cobalt Flux first started using it for their pads. It's a piece of wood and metal on the floor, it d**n well better be able to hold 300 lbs. copying other pad's advertising -1 point



Unless, of course, you put more than 300 lbs on it, right? self-conflicting advertising copy -1 point


DDR arrows are 11"x11", making the minimum dimensions of a proper pad 33"x33"Improper sizing of pad -5 points


Ooh, this one's bad. Acrylic, while being transparent, is very stiff and not very flexible. Why is that bad? The stiffer the material, the more likely it is to crack or shatter. Plexiglass is better, but almost too soft, and will scratch easily. Lexan or other polycarbonate is ideal, hard enough to not mar, but soft enough to flex.Constructing the pad from improper materials -10 points

Re-designed new packaging, prevents from damage during shipping

Translation: We have a lot of these get damaged during shipping.


And note the notable lack of a few features:

-No mention of warranty
-No mention of quality control or testing process


All of this adds up to setting yourself up for a bad experience. But we can't change that for you now, so let's look at what we can do (now that we know you, and anyone else reading this, won't make the same mistake again).

First things first, have you cleaned your pad? Playing in shoes, while it gives you that "arcade" feel, can cause a lot of dirt and grime to build up under your arrows. If you can, carefully unscrew the corner brackets on your pad, and vacuum out the areas under the arrows, maybe even get in there with a dry scrubbing sponge to shake loose the dirt and grime. Reassemble and test, better?

No? Not better? Does the arrow never work, or only work sometimes? If it works sometimes we may be dealing with a loose connection. If never, it may be a broken connection. If it's always reading down, we may be dealing with a short circuit. Try manually pressing the arrow (or shorting the contacts while you've got the arrow disassembled). Look for loose wires, or solder connections that are cracked.

Depending on what you find, we may be able to help you. Pictures are good too, if you can get a good shot of the interior of an arrow.


Also, you can pick up Lexan at Home Depot (or your hardware megastore of choice) and cut new arrow panels to replae your old ones.

When you said no offence, you scared me. That comment scares me to an extent .

Wow..that really helped alot..You know your dance pads lol. I usually play barefoot, used to clean it but it has been getting dirty lately so that could be it. It seems I went cheap on the pad..it was a nice pad at first. I now see it more cleary now.

Ty ^_^. I will update you after i try to fix this..problem.

[NESCartFanatic]

Here's what I've seen and learned about these pads from other 'what's wrong with my pad" threads on DDR messageboards.

The sensors in these pads are crap and need modified. Solution, open the bad arrow panels and add foil to the contacts (assuming no wires are broken)

That's "usually" the problem. Eeek at the cracked arrows, the old redoctane metal pads did the same thing.

If your pad is dead, look into a Cobalt Flux. Lexan panels don't crack and it's a highly durable piece of work!

[legend]

this worked for me when my bottem arrow on my metal mat started to die I slamed my foot on very hard on the down arrow and now my mat works perfectly, it's not recomended but you can try it if you want.

[waffle]

My pad is completely broke now and the tin foil didnt work...what can I do now? Can I bring it anywhere to fix?


I will take a picture of it tommorow. Im too tired right now.

[xstatic]

buy a new one?

[talon]

from what your describing I think the best thing you can do is (if you have one) pull your soft pad off the moth balls and save up for a good metal pad, I almost bought one of E-bay but thanks to adivice I recived here I am just going to save up for my cobalt flux, its the best thing I can do I think.

(PS xstatic, love the new avitar, what anime is that from?)

[xstatic]

Simca from Air Gear.

[Dakota]

Or you could play at the arcade? =)

For real. Unless it's a cobalt flux, the pad will break over time. Basic pad, Ignition, Afterburner, anything. Unless it's a CF, it'll break over time. Even a CF will wear out a little bit over time, but the maintenance is usually easy.

[xstatic]

...my afterburner works fine too....

[Dakota]

xstatic said:

...my afterburner works fine too....

Well...over time. No pad can handle a heavy mode player for too long.

My ignition pad lasted 10 months before it broke. I only play arcade now anyways so...I'm probably not the best judge when it comes to home version didder.

[sakura]

when is it ever not the bottom button. sucks that its a metal pad

i think you should contact the place where you bought it.(if its a website email them)