DDR Extreme LED Mod - yes or no?

magugin

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Seeking advice from anyone who has done this before.

I have a Dance Dance Revolution Extreme and need to fix the lights on one of the floor pads. I have seen people who have done the LED modification instead of the costly repair with original parts. This is for home use only and I am OK with a game that is not factory exact.

Does anyone who has tried this mod have any advice or what items?
What parts did you use? there are so many LED options out there, what works best? Where did you buy them?
Did you go clear LEDs or colored?

there are a few youtube videos I have found but they all seem to use different parts, so i was asking of anyone had any experience or opinions on LED Options.

Thanks much!
 
I did the official LED "upgrade" on a Pump It Up. A lot more reliable, not eating up power. Not worrying about the tubes vibrating and breaking (their tubes were not in a protective tube, just on stand-offs). Or the accidental breakage from cleaning the inside of the steps. Basically, just like the Ronco Rotisserie Oven-"Set it and forget it"!
When I do it again, I would clean out the step cavity, get a spool of 12v waterproof white LED tape and run across a few strips across the bottom and hook directly into that pads light source. I did this to my Deal or No Deal and I will (hopefully) never have to disassemble that f'n seat platform. Those bulbs were a f'r to replace.
My new motto: When in doubt, take the LED route.
 
Heres what I would do.

http://tinyurl.com/jjal4o2

I'd stick with the native color for each step though. That should really deepen the color on the plastic. Two strips of these LED's should do it. See those horizontal copper pads on that first picture? Thats where you can cut the LED strip and solder wires to them to join them to other strips or wire them into the cabinet.

I actually have 2 DDR Super Nova Dance pads opened up at the shop right now. I've never really paid much attention to the inverter boards connections (the board that drives the small cold cathode tubes) but I'm sure they are +12 and the drive circuit from the dance stage interface board. Maybe I'll convert one of the pads with pink tubes to red LEDs and see how it looks. I'm already replacing those nasty screw in 20watt halogens with 50watt equivalent MR16 LED's so doing a little more mod work wouldnt be an issue. I'm also replacing the bleached out green and pink lenses in the spot fixtures with red, blue, yellow and green plexi glass. :)

I can post pics if you guys want to see the mods.
 
UGH... So I guess the bulb socket for those screw in Halogens is E26/E27? Years ago, maybe 10 or so, we couldnt get those bulbs from our distributors so they sold us kits to convert them to push in MR16's. I just found a bunch of LED E26/E27 bulbs on eBay. :(

Oh well.
 
Well... LED installation done. I think I like the cold cathode lighting better.

The panel with the LED's appears to be a deeper color IRL and you can see the LED's through the plexi. Not as bad as they look through the camera though.

Panel on the left is LED'd one on the right is factory.
 

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Well... LED installation done. I think I like the cold cathode lighting better.

The panel with the LED's appears to be a deeper color IRL and you can see the LED's through the plexi. Not as bad as they look through the camera though.

Panel on the left is LED'd one on the right is factory.

There must be an easy fix to diffuse the led's a little so it isn't as noticeable.

The CC does look a lot better though
 
There must be an easy fix to diffuse the led's a little so it isn't as noticeable.

The CC does look a lot better though

Its not that noticeable IRL, the phones camera is real sensitive to light. I bet a piece of white construction paper would diffuse the LED's pretty well.

Take a look at this pic.

The two plexi's have been replaced on the right spots and the one on the upper left is still the transparent bleached out pink with a 20watt halogen. IRL the two on the right look amazing but in this photo they all kinda look the same. The phones camera is just too sensitive to light.
 

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There must be an easy fix to diffuse the led's a little so it isn't as noticeable.

The CC does look a lot better though

Get some of the light diffusing sheets from a broken LCD screen. I save mine when someone broke my touchscreen on my photo booth. They just stabbed the screen enough to break the touch screen and also crack the LCD screen. (F'ers!) This happened TWICE in a month!
 
Very cool stuff everyone, thanks so much for the insight and pics!

gamefixer- those spot lights look great with the upgrade! I think I will add that to my list after I get the pads working!

Thanks! I will post some pics of mine once I start the conversion and get a before and after.
 
I'll take another pic of the marquee assy when I get the green and blue spots installed, probably tomorrow.
 
couple of pics with all 4 plastic lenses changed in the spots.
 

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