First DDR mat almost done!
culture  

First DDR mat almost done!

We’re almost done building the first DDR mat! (Myprevious post about one arrow panel was actually written a week or two ago but wasn’t published for a while; we’ve made a lot of progress on the DDR mats since then.) It works well enough that we can play some songs on it; we just need to tweak the sensors a little, make the wiring neater, and add Start/Escape buttons. We haven’t tested it very thoroughly yet, but we’ll be playing on it tomorrow and should be able to work out any sensitivity problems soon. Here’s a picture of the almost completed DDR mat:

The four mending plates around the edges of each arrow panel are the tops of the sensors. (See this post for details about the sensors we’re using.) The cardboard rectangles in the middle of the arrow panels prevent the plastic from bending too much and cracking when someone steps on the arrows. Wiring all the panels gets rather messy; there is one wire for each screw and mending plate, plus two wires to be connected to the control board, for a total of 12 wires under each arrow panel. All the wires from the screws are connected together with a twist cap connector, and all the wires from the mending plates are connected together.

Close up of a finished arrow panel We actually didn't have to solder much at all. The wires attached to the screws are just tightly wrapped around under the screw heads, and the wires attached to the mending plates are just taped on (there's a lot of pressure on the taped wires when you step on an arrow, which makes the contact still pretty good). It turned out we weren't able to solder these contacts since the screws and mending plates are zinc coated and too large to heat up with a soldering iron. The only soldering required was to attach some wires to a d-sub (VGA) connector, which will connect to a USB adapter to plug into a laptop. The USB adapters are commercial Cobalt Flux DDR mat control boxes, which we can use for both the Cobalt Flux DDR mats and the mats we're building. Eventually we do plan on buying some USB game controllers and making our own USB control boxes/adapters by soldering wires to the game controller circuit board. Anyway, we're looking forward to testing and playing on the new DDR mat soon!

Recommended Articles

My Friday Nights
culture

My Friday Nights

It was the Friday night of midterms during my first year at Caltech, and I was alone in the library. That weekend (week five of term, if you’re keeping count) also happens to coincide with Halloween. But as a bright-eyed frosh trudging my way through Ma 1a lecture notes, I was just baffled that no one else was studying alongside me. Spoiler alert: not all Caltech students spend Friday night—or every night—studying or grinding sets, even during midterms. And especially on Halloween weekend.

By
caltech q and a
culture

caltech q and a

In order to get a good sense of the Caltech community, there is no better way than to talk to the students themselves. To give a little bit of an inside perspective of Caltech, I asked some students a variety of questions. Questions ranged from conspiracy theories to Caltech-specific takes and other random topics.

By
What's on my desk?
culture

What's on my desk?

I’d like to think that I keep a tidy desk, but hey— entropy prevails for everyone. Here’s a breakdown of all the items you could find on my desk, circa February 2023.

By
Searching for snow
culture

Searching for snow

My grandma always says that it rains whenever Dragonssuperior zodiac sign travel, and sure enough, it was raining when I landed at LAX for my last calendar year at Caltech. It’s officially my graduation year—but between leaving campus just before spring term in my freshman year and returning, twenty-one years old, as a junior, it really does feel like my time here has flown by.

By