BNS DX-XTREME Pad Modification

Written By: Summerschool23
Written sometime in 2003.

Disclaimer-- I am not responsible for any damage that is done to you or your dance pad. Most of the stuff here cannot be undone. I suggest only doing this if your dance pad does not work very well. If the buttons are still responsive and playable you might want to just use it until they are shot. So DO NOT do this to a new dance pad ever.

This design can also be used as just a dance pad. Follow steps 1-8 then use a regular playstation controller to solder wires to. Put duct tape on to top of all the sheet metal so you dont slip and its a dance pad.

Take the 2' x 4' steel and measure 8- 11" x 10.25" rectangles. Then use the tin snips to cut them out.

Cut the board into a 33" x 32" square. This will be the base board which the steel panels will be glued onto.

Next you need to glue 4 metal panels onto the board where they will be underneath the arrows. The glue doesn't work very well on the board so you will proabably have to duct tape the edges of the sheet metal to the board. Put about 1/4 of the duct tapes width on the steel and 3/4 on the board. You want most of the metal to be open for contact. The corners of the metal should almost touch and they might, but that doesn't affect anything. Those lines say 10.25". This picture is sideways. The front of the metal panels is to the left.

Step 4

Now is where you will need the Xacto, solder, and solder gun. Take the some wire and cut it into 4 small peices, about 3" each. Use the Xacto to scrape off some of the enamal coating on the ends of each wire. Solder the a wire to the inside corner of each panel so that all the panels make a connection. In the diagram below the thick line is the wire.

Now cut 1 peice of wire about 6" long, scrape of the enamal coating on each end and solder it to the corner of the top (up button) panel.

Step 5

Now take the other 4 panels and solder a wire to the corner of each. These will be the up, down, left and right arrow panels that go to seperate circut solder points. the length of each wire will vary. Here is a good estimate of what each leagth sould be. Up panel - 6", Down Panel - 42", Left panel - 25", right panel - 25". Scrape of the enamal on both ends and solder the the sheet metal acording to the picture. After you solder you should put duct tape around the edges of each of the panels or else it could tear the Dance pad cover and be a safty hazard.

Now take the foam core and cut 8, 1" x 1" sqaures. Then cut each square if half diagonally. So now you have 16 small triangles. Now you will need the weathseal. Cut 2 peices about 8" long each. Stick them to the 11" sides of a panel on the board inbetween the duct tape and metal surface. Then cut 2 more peices and 6.5" long. Stick them to the remaining to sides of the panal inbetween the duct tape and metal surface. Then take 4 foam core triangles and glue them with the spary adhesive to the very corners of the metal. Repeat this on the other 3 bottom panels.

Step 7

Now take the Xacto and cut about half an inch of foam core from the center of each strip. Then take those half inch peices and place them about 2" in from each corner.

Step 8

Now you will need the spray adhesive again. Spray it onto the weathseal surface and foam core. Then place the top panel on it according to the leangth of wire. Short wire will go on the top (up) panel, longest wire will go on the lower panel (down), and the middle leangth wires will go on each of the side panels. Have the wires on the outer corners as shown in step 5.

Now it is time to solder all those loose wires to the circut board. You will probably have to set the whole board with the panels on the foam insert on the BNS pad before you flip it over so the wires can then easily be reached. To get to the circut board you will need to flip over the dance pad and unscrew the eight screws on the front plastic thing. Make sure you do not loose the screws and you can put them back in through the layers of material. This is the part were you will cause the current dance pad to not work so you can't undo this. First cut all the plastic that is connected to the board. It is clear with black lines on it. Then you have to use the Xacto to scrape off the plastic and black coating on the tabs you need to solder to (see picture). I suggest soldering wires to X, O, Start, and Select because you need them for different things in the game. Also you should solder a loose wire to the ground so you can use that to connect it to the X, O, Start, and Select buttons.

Step 10

Now screw the cover back on. Make sure the screws are secure. Then turn the dance pad over. BE CAREFUL so you don't break any of the soldered wires. All the loose wires can be connected to buttons or some other type of switch. In the picture I have the X and O button wires solder to a seperate peices of scrape sheet metal and the long peice underneath them is soldered to my loose ground wire. Now you can zip up the pad with the board in it. You might need to cut the corners of the board to make it easier to zip.

Now it should be done. Please PM me if you have any questions or comments.