Looking for button, may not exist??? + MDF... may not be best for everything

[crashwg]

I am about to embark on the project of making a DDR hardpad in the next week or so and I'm kinda at a loss when it comes to one part of my design.

I've decided to make my pad completely of MDF mainly because I've worked with it before and I know how to.  Just recently I realized that when it comes to the arrow panels, I only need 2 sheets thick of MDF for them to work, but when it comes to X,O,tri,sq,sel&strt I'm not too sure I can get away with it.

So, basically, my question is does anyone know of a type of button, similar in size to an arcade button that I might be able to install in a thickness of 1

[Stormy151]

I don't know if a long button like that exists, but could you cut a larger hole in the bottom piece of MDF, to accomodate the nut and microswitch?  Sort of like how you cut a hole in a wood panel so that you can mount a trackball on a plate?

[crashwg]

Ooops, I guess I was a bit unclear on what I'm looking for.  I need a button that no part of it will be exposed on the other side of the 1

[pointdablame]

I would think that the pounding of the MDF would lead to the destruction of any kind of arcade type button over time, even if you routed out an area for it or protected it somehow.

Also, if i may ask, why are you making it entirely out of MDF? That seems like a very bad idea.  It'll be much heavier and more awkward if you ask me, and really limits aesthetics since you'd have no lexan buttons, etc etc.  Unless you meant just an MDF structure?  I'd also think that it'd be much more prone to bending and breaking... I guess I just can't picture it. Please don't take that as an insult, I'm just curious as to how you plan to go about this, I've never seen an all MDF pad before.

[crashwg]

I didn't mean the arrows too, just the hard pannels and the base.  IOW, I've rapped 5 - 10 7/8" square MDF in sheet metal and am using a 33" wide piece of MDF for the base.

The buttons that I'm looking for are just for the non-arrow buttons.

I've pretty much decided to go with another 3/4" of mdf rails between the buttons and the base, so now I only need a button that will have a mounting depth less than 2" or so.  I'm pretty sure that happ's horizontal pushbuttons are longer than that, so I guess I'm still looking for buttons...

[patrickl]

I was thinking about using the Momentary Contact Pushbutton from Happcontrols. Allthough I doubt you can just order those buttons from them (isn't there a minimum order). I also saw them at CoinOpExpress. Again with a minimum order problem,  but I just wanted to say that they do exist. Maybe you can find them somewere else too.

I am thinking about using these buttons in the sides of my cab as pinball buttons. But they should not be too deep cause otherwise they would interfere with my replacable CP.


:edit: Actually, in your case you could even just use a standard microswitch. Why would you need the rest of the button?

[Sephroth57]

i dont think using a microswitch will be good enough for this. I plan on building my own pad eventually too but i will just be using metal contacts to complete a circuit. like you have a piece of thin sheet metal on the bottom of the button, and when you hit it it makes the circuit.

theres a ton of pages out there on this, you have checked them out right?

[paigeoliver]

How about just buying the switches actually designed for Dance pads? Anything else is going to self destruct anyway.

You can order them, or your local distributor will probably have them in stock.

[abrannan]

My plan for doing this was to make smaller versions of the arrow buttons an out them in a row along the top (3" by 3" buttons).  It makes your base 33" by 36", but you have foot selectable buttonsright there.  You'll need to fabricate a smaller corner bracket for these small buttons, but it should work for you.  That is, if you aren't doing the X/O up-left and up-right arrows for DDR solo.

[crashwg]

If you're wondering about the whole MDF thing... I'm not done yet with my DDR hardpad and already my running total weight is 59LBS!  Now I don't know exactly how much some of the other home-built pads out there weigh, but I'm pretty sure it's less than that.

Here's hoping I can keep the weight under 75lbs.