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Post by Kwame on Feb 18, 2005 11:29:57 GMT -5
I just received my DDR metal pad today and it DOES NOT work right. The right arrow, the start, and select button work, but the up, down, and left arrows will not work!! It's messed up...there are led lights around the arrows...if you hit the right arrow...only the led lights around the right arrow light up (that arrow is working). The rest of them if you hit the arrows...ALL of the led lights on the whole board light up if you push them, but the arrows are not functioning.
Abrannan...please help me...I just paid $150 for this pad, and it took the clowns 3 weeks to get it to me. What can I do to fix the sensors that are not working!? Can you help me possibly...its a heavy pad, but I would pay the shipping charges if you don't have any ideas. Please reply!
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Post by abrannan on Feb 18, 2005 12:07:49 GMT -5
First thing, you need to let the people you bought the pad from know that the product they sold you was defective, and that they need to resolve this issue ASAP.
Second, please register an account here, so you don't have to keep posting as guest.
Third, a few additional troubleshooting questions. When you say all LEDs light, that's including the Right arrow's LEDs, right?
And the arrows aren't functioning at all, not that all three are getting hit when you hit one of them?
It sounds like the wiring is all kinds of messed up, probably due to the manufacturer changing the pinouts on the board without changing the assembly procedures. Definitely hit the person who sold you the pad *HARD*.
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Post by coolcash23 on Feb 18, 2005 13:07:58 GMT -5
Yeah, on the right arrow only the LED lights around the right arrow light up, but on the rest of the arrows...if you hit anything else, the arrows on the whole board light up, but only the start and select buttons work. I just got breaker pro and first game I played was Dance Stage, Disney Mix (same as DDR: disney mix) and the down arrow worked a couple times, because as you know when you press down twice it changes the difficulty. Now nothing works at all.
This is a nightmare, it took them 3 weeks for me to get the product, now it doesn't work. I had a paypal complaint filed weeks ago when I didn't get the product in time, but I cancelled the complaint today when the product finally arrived. These people don't like to respond to e-mails and I know this is going to be an uphill battle. To people reading this, don't buy from eBay seller "7445" and take extreme caution purchasing pads on ebay. It may be worth it to just purchase one of the CF pads, or just pick a better seller I guess.
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Post by abrannan on Feb 18, 2005 17:15:56 GMT -5
Too late after the fact Ebay survival tip: If your seller has more than 1000 feedbacks, they had better have 99% positive or above, or else they've got problems. 7445 averages 45 negative feedbacks per month, and they have a boilerplate response to negative feedback "deadbeat bidder never paid us ,leaves negative feeback,ebay please help sellers!". These are all warning signs of someone you should not buy from.
As for the pad, itself, how are your basic electronics skills? Can you test continuity? Do you know what testing continuity means? Do you own a multimeter? And most importantly, how brave are you?
If you're brave enough, and you have some way of testing continuity, you can take the four screws out of the washers on the top of the mat and lift out the arrows and take some pics of the internals (probably need to do the same for the connector box).
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Post by coolcash23 on Feb 18, 2005 23:12:27 GMT -5
Yes, they had a lot of negatives, but I was hoping I would be one of their many positives, plus...this was by far the cheapest deal I found on the pad....$61 + $59 shipping. Knowing how long it would take to get, and the massive problems I had with the seller, I would have gladly paid at least another $50 to get it in a week and functional!!
My electronic skills are severly limited buy my car tv guy also does regular tv's and he does a lot of soldering so he would know the things that you are talking about. If you can, let me know what all tests he needs to run and I will take the pad to him. I took a lot of the pad apart earlier in hopes of finding what the problem was, but have since screwed it back together so I won't mess anything else up further. The control box needs to be taken apart as well?
Let me know what all tests I need my guy to run, and we'll see if we can get this thing fixed. Seems like their may be hope for it since all the led's light up on every arrow...just the sensors are fu**ed up. Let me know...and thanks.
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Post by abrannan on Feb 19, 2005 7:44:35 GMT -5
Oh, there's definitely hope for it. Just make sure the grounds are all continuous to each other and whichever pin is gound on the control box connector. I'm working under the assumption that all of the circuit boards are in the connector box, which means there should be a 9-pin or so connector that hooks to the control box. If that's the case, then each button (arrow) shoud be continuous to one pin on the connector, and the grounds should all be continuous to one pin. And none of the pins should be continuous to each other.
Once you've verified all the continuity is correct with no button pressed, and youve mapped the pins on the connector to which button (arrow) they belong to, make sure the buttons are wokring. Test continuity between the pin for ground and the pin for each arrow. When the arrow is not pressed, it shouldn't be continuous, when the arrow is pressed, it should be continuous. Repeat for each arrow.
My gut tells me that the problem is related to the LEDs, and that a +5V line used to drive the LEDs got mixed up with another line.
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Post by coolcash23 on Feb 19, 2005 12:36:49 GMT -5
OK, I think I get what you are saying. I just sent you a couple pics of the metal pad and the connector box. The connector (the pad to the box) is a 15 pin deal, so my question is....how will I go about figuring out which pin(s) go to which arrow? Seems like this could be tricky seeming that there is only 6 buttons (arrows).
Should I still go about testing continuity in the same method? What you are saying is making a lot sense, seeming that the only button the works is the right arrow....and on that arrow only the led's for that arrow work when that button is pressed. For everything else all the led's on the whole pad flash (except for the start/select buttons, which both work). The tricky part I think will be figuring out which pins are supposed to go what buttons and somehow switching the circuits. Hopefully the tv guy that i'm working with will no what the deal is. Let me know any other tips. Thanks.
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Post by abrannan on Feb 19, 2005 17:47:57 GMT -5
OK, I think I get what you are saying. I just sent you a couple pics of the metal pad and the connector box. The connector (the pad to the box) is a 15 pin deal, so my question is....how will I go about figuring out which pin(s) go to which arrow? Seems like this could be tricky seeming that there is only 6 buttons (arrows). You've probably got two pins to each arrow, one for the LED carrying +5V, and one for the pad switch. I'ts going to be a matter of trial and error to find out which is which. You may need to open the 15 pin connector and see if there's a sloppy soldering job in there. |
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Post by coolcash23 on Mar 17, 2005 16:17:37 GMT -5
Alright, well after using the pad for about 3-5 weeks I have encountered a new problem. It seems that the left arrow has stopped working now. I unscrewed the screws on that arrow to find that one of the wires (the white one) had come undone from the solder, so I took it to get it re-soldered. With that done, I was hoping that it would work again...but I just hooked it up to find that the arrow is still not responding.
What do I need to look at now? This metal pad is one big headache.
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Post by abrannan on Mar 17, 2005 17:43:38 GMT -5
What do I need to look at now? This metal pad is one big headache. Make sure there's connectivity from both sides of the circuit board to the d-sub connector that goes to the control box. I forget which pin is for the left arrow, though, and I threw away my notes. |
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Post by coolcash23 on Mar 17, 2005 18:17:12 GMT -5
I think I figured out the problem....when I pulled out that arrow I found that there are 2 sets of wires connected to the arrow...2 that are connected underneath the arrow, then wires underneath the styrofoam sensor connected to the underside of the sensor. Although I had one set fixed, it looks like both of the underside wires will need to be resoldered again...I was able to touch them temporarily and the arrow did work a couple times. Anyway, thanks.
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Post by abrannan on Mar 17, 2005 21:01:58 GMT -5
I think I figured out the problem....when I pulled out that arrow I found that there are 2 sets of wires connected to the arrow...2 that are connected underneath the arrow, then wires underneath the styrofoam sensor connected to the underside of the sensor. Although I had one set fixed, it looks like both of the underside wires will need to be resoldered again...I was able to touch them temporarily and the arrow did work a couple times. Anyway, thanks. Yeah, the two that are connected to the arrow itself are for the LEDs and aren't needed anymore. |
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Post by Misery on Mar 19, 2005 3:29:59 GMT -5
You bought the off brand DDR pad off Ebay with the lights and a bar, huh?
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Post by coolcash23 on Mar 19, 2005 13:21:20 GMT -5
Yeah, that's right Misery...it was like $125-140 and has been nothing but trouble. It has worked for the past 4-6 weeks because abrannan re-wired it for me but now the left arrow is acting up.
Abrannan...I looked at the rest of the arrows...and the wires that are connected directly to the arrows are still connected on every arrow...and when I touched the bare wires together the arrow started working again...so hopefully that is the problem...but I will have him look at the control box again just to make sure as well. I'll report back what happens. Again, a note to anyone reading this...don't buy an off brand metal pad off ebay unless you are a tech type of person! There are a lot of people now selling this same pad for $59 + $40 shipping....but its not a deal if it doesn't work. I have heard bad things about the red octane metal and ignition pads plus the knockoff redoctane ignitions pads (the ones with the foam and zipper just like the redoctane ones) so I am not sure what to tell you. The only thing I have heard really good things about is the original Konami pad and of course the CF pads. Save your money and buy the best!
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Post by abrannan on Mar 19, 2005 18:39:36 GMT -5
Again, a note to anyone reading this...don't buy an off brand metal pad off ebay unless you are a tech type of person! There are a lot of people now selling this same pad for $59 + $40 shipping....but its not a deal if it doesn't work. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I say to stay away from ebay metal pad auctions. I've heard far too many horror stories like this one to recommend anyone risk their money in this fashion. |
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Post by OrderlyChaos on Mar 19, 2005 20:28:52 GMT -5
Aww, man...I totally relate! I wish we would have saved up our money for the CF pads rather than bought ours off of Ebay. That was like 6 months or so ago, however so we really didnt know any better back then. Now I have two brokedown oversized paper weights. :( (The one that did used to work just gave out yesterday. My hubby has heels of steel.)
Till we have enough for some CFs, I guess we're just gonna have to try to fix these things ourselves.
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Post by Misery on Mar 19, 2005 22:46:25 GMT -5
You shoulda got the Cobalt flux pads. Your best chance of getting your money back is to fix the left arrow, shine it up, and sell it on Ebay.
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Post by coolcash23 on Mar 20, 2005 14:57:21 GMT -5
Yeah...I know Misery. I was adding up the costs of the generic metal pad yesterday.
$70 metal pad cost
$50 shipping
$39 price to ship pad to get it fixed
$39 price to ship pad back after fixed
$10 price to fix left arrow
Total $208.
For another 100 bucks I could have gotten that CF pad, although I don't know how much that costs to ship. Anyway, my tv repair guy was easily and quickly able to fix the left arrow...the 2 wires underneath the sensor had broken off and he just resoldered them (and much better) and it works again like new.
Orderly chaos...if you pads have stopped working I would be the farm that your leads on your sensors have just broken off from being stepped on too many times...that about the only thing that I can see that would go wrong with the pads other than the plexiglass/plastic panels breaking or cracking. Would you need to do is take the arrows apart and look underneath the sensors. If your LED's are still working be careful when you remove the sensors or you'll pull apart the wires on the actual arrows. Most likely what will happen when you look underneath is that you'll see that your leads aren't connected anymore. You can easily fix that if you know how to solder, otherwise take it to a TV guy and he'll fix it probably real cheap and you'll be back in business.
I am not sure if I should sell this pad now or just keep using it...I actually kind of like it and there are no other problems. Now that I know how to fix it i'll probably keep rollin it till the wheels fall off.
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havix
Heavy Mode
Posts: 368
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Post by havix on Mar 20, 2005 16:18:40 GMT -5
One CF pad with shipping runs about 350 dollars.
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