Homebrew Pads
Not satisfied with the cost and/or reliability of factory assembled metal dance pads, many players construct their own dance pad. Using common materials (such as plywood, sheet metal, and acrylic glass or polycarbonate) found at local hardware stores), do-it-yourselfers are able to construct a pad that is often much more durable and more authentic-feeling than commercially built hard pads. Some homebrew pads have extra features such as additional arrows (for playing Pump It Up or DDR Solo), menu switches and pushbuttons, and bars. Furthermore, the homebrew pads are easier to repair because they use common parts, and are usually designed for easy disassembly.
While some homebrew pads use custom electronics built from scratch, most homebrew pads make use a circuit board from a standard controller to simplify the process of interfacing the pad with a gaming system. The controller used depends on the system that the pad is intended to be played with (GameCube, PlayStation, Xbox, or PC).
Homebrew pads use a variety of technologies for designing the arrows that the player is supposed to step on. The most common design uses metal contacts that sandwich together when the player steps on the pad or arcade button switches but some novel ideas have been proposed such as the use of optical, pressure, vibration, or proximity sensors.
Due to the amount of work needed to create a custom metal pad, some players instead opt to modify their existing soft pads. Most of the time, players will take plywood sheets, acrylic, or even office chair floor protectors and staple it to their soft pads. This effectively cures wrinkling and makes the pad more durable to use while wearing shoes.
Read more about this topic: Dance Pad