This is an Arduino based controller for home brew and DIY dance pads, like DDR or PIU pads.
This code is used on my DIY hard PIU dance pad. For more information, please check the following links:
- Emulates a USB Game controller, by becoming a HID device (requires an Arduino that supports HID natively)
- Supports PIU, DDR, and any other type of panel-based dance pad, as it can control any number of arrows, from 1 to as many input pins the Arduino board has
- Supports LED strips to light up the arrows when a player steps on them (requires the FastLED library)
- Implements debouncing to mitigate double-stepping issues
Each individual arrow on the dance pad should have one or more step sensors. These sensors are typically made of two conductive plates separated by an air gap. When the player steps on the pad, the gap closes and an electrical connection is made. This is the equivalent to a simple momentary switch.
Multiple sensors on the same pad must be wired in parallel, as this controller does not support detecting individual sensors on a single pad. Here's a rough wiring schematic showing the connection of a Pump it Up pad to the Arduino board:
For a guide on how to build 3D-printed sensors, check out this post: PIU Dance Pad (part 3) - Pad Sensors
This controller can add LED support to the pad. It supports a variety of addressable LED strips through the FastLED library (required).
LEDs should be installed as described on PIU Dance Pad (part 4) - LEDs and Electronics.
LED support features:
- Initialization sequence after pad power up, to indicate that the pad is ready and all LEDs working
- Full RGB/HSV support through FastLED, with each arrow capable of having different colours
- Easily configurable number of LEDs per arrow, strip chipset, and colour order
LED support limitations:
- Single, continuous strip for all arrows is not supported yet
- Only works with addressable LED strips
- Number of LEDs per arrow must be the same across all arrows
The file configuration.h contains all supported configuration values for the
controller (unless you fork this project and roll your own :) ). These are the
existing options:
- DEBOUNCE_INTERVAL: Debounce interval in milliseconds. This is to prevent
bouncing, which happens when the electrical contact is briefly lost on the
sensor due to physical bouncing. If absent, a single arrow step would usually
result in extra step inputs being sent to the controller, causing gameplay
issues.
Defaults to
50 - NUMBER_OF_ARROWS: Number of arrows present in the dance pad.
This would be 4 for DDR, and 5 for PIU. Defaults to
5 - SENSOR_PINS: Arduino pins where each arrow is connected to. Sensors will
be treated as momentary switches, and will be set in Arduino as
INPUT_PULLUP. Defaults to using the pins 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10
-
ARROWS_HAVE_LEDS: Flag that sets whether the dance pad has LEDs that light up when the player steps on them. Comment to disable. Defaults to
enabled -
LED_CHIPSET: The LED strip's chipset. Refer to https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED#supported-led-chipsets for a list of supported chipsets. Defaults to
WS2812B -
LED_RGB_ORDER: The colour order of the LED chipset. Some strips may interpret colours in different orders, such as RGB, GRB, BGR, etc. Defaults to
GRB -
LED_PINS: Arduino pins where the Data input (
Din) pin of each arrow's LEDs are connected to. Each arrow has its own respective LEDDinpin. Defaults toPIU_LED_PINS -
LEDS_PER_ARROW: How many LEDs are there per arrow. The total current draw and power requirements of the pad should be taken into account when choosing the amount of LEDs. Defaults to
8 -
INIT_INSPECT_DELAY: Duration in milliseconds for which the LEDs stay on when the pad is initialized. This can be used to make sure the LEDs are working, and also as an indicator that the pad is now online and ready for use. Can be disabled by setting it to zero. Defaults to
1000 -
ARROW_COLORS: Maps colours to the arrows' LEDs. The file
mappings.hdefines some standard mappings for PIU and DDR. Defaults toPIU_ARROW_COLORS