DDR Plans (part I)

So, recently I have become fairly addicted to DDR. After discovering that there is a wonderful emulator for it called StepMania that runs on Windows and Linux (!) I played it over spring break (instead of studying for SAT II's :) ). However, as I got better, my hacked Kraft pad (which you can get here) wouldn't cut it anymore.

Thus a plan to build my own pad was born. The other pad plans that I saw online were just too expensive to make for a poor student like me. My goal is to make a fairly usable pad for less than $20.
Here are my criteria:

• Cheap


• Functionality is the main priority


• The exact dimensions aren't that important


• No masochism including:
  
• Bending metal


• Cutting an inch off of each 12"x12" pad block



• Use as much material lying around as possible

So the basic plan is to use available materials, making up the actual plan while doing the project in my spare time. In order to satisfy the cheap requirement, I decided to use an old, broken USB keyboard (picture)...

... to act as the controller, as StepMania supports keyboard input, and its just easier and more importantly cheaper than breaking apart a gamepad (no d-pad hacking required too!).

The pad base will be two 2'x4'x1/4" particle board panels. I want to make it fairly portable so I will add a hinge so that the pad will be foldable. I'll post the pictures later, when I'm that far.

The arrow buttons will be 12"x12" pieces (instead of the standard 11"x11") of different colored linoleum glued to a harder material, probably more particle board. The sensors used will be surface mount switches attached in parallel to the keyboard controller, surrounded by some kind of squishy material like mousepads.

We'll see how this will work out. Wish me luck! :)