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So here is the control box unscrewed from the dance pads we picked up. These are not overly complex by any means. But we will need to modify the board slightly for our needs. Step one is to remove the board from the plastic. This can be done with just a little pressure. There are no screws. Just melted plastic holding it on. |
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Here is the project box we will use. We chose to go with the plastic lid so it looked a little cleaner. But you can choose either one. |
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Here are the innards of the dance pads control box. Before you do anything to this at all I would recommend taking a healthy blob of hot glue and applying it to where the small wires attach to the board. This will insure you don’t snag something and rip them out of the board accidently. |
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Here is a diagram of the control board’s outputs. If you connect any of the main terminals to the common ground it will activate that function. Hence it being a common ground. A ground that is common to them all. A single point of grounding they all share commonly. One ground to rule them all, one ground to find them. Etc... (If you haven’t noticed I kinda beat the common ground thing to death. I received so many emails about common grounds that maybe I have some pent up animosity towards them now.) |
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Step one is to take the 10 slot bar and mount it to the plastic box. The method is easy but it needs to be secure. Start with applying a liberal amount of super glue to the project box and bond the bar to it. To help hold it in place put a few small drops of hot glue on each corner to just be piled off later. When the glue is dry use a small drill bit or a hot soldering iron to melt holes through the box from the mounting holes on the bar and use screws to attach them permanently. |
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Next using some sandpaper or a dremel tool, buff off the black coating on the terminal portion of the controller card. One thing to think about here is safety. Do this outside! Buffing this off will also buff off some of the lead etchings and make it airborne. When you’re down to bare metal solder on wire leads to the terminals leaving plenty of slack. |
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Using a razor blade cut a hole for the memory card reader housing and slide it into the project box. It’s important to make sure this is a tight fit. |
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Drill small holes large enough for the wires to pass through. Feed all the wires out the side of the project box to be attached to the terminal bar later. Secure the memory card reader housing and board to the project box with hot glue and super glue for the permanent bond. |
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With all the wires fed through use hot glue to cover where they meet the circuit board to help reinforce them against the shock of a 270 lb guy dancing 1 inch above them. Also apply a little glue to the inside of each hole so the wires have some shock protection. |
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Next cut all the leads to size and strip them. Using a hot iron and some solder tin them (saturate with solder) so that there all nice and shiny silver. |
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Using some pliers bend the wire leads around the terminal posts on one side and secure the screw very tightly. I never worried about breaking the block by over tighteng them. Now at this point you will see the common ground we left dangling. We will mount that to the side in a second. But we wanted at this point to test that the box was working. To do this plug it in as you normally would and touch the ground to each post and note its functionality. XBCD and a USB adapter is the easiest way to test the dance pad all around. |
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Using the same methods as previously stated mount the side master ground terminal block to the project box. |
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So here are the innards of the deck interface completed. Note on the left the notch we cut in the project box so the little stress absorber would slot into the box nice and neatly. |
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