DrumMania controller / DDR Pad weirdness

[Kitsune Sniper]

A few weeks ago I picked up a DrumMania controller set (Konami brand, not Topway) at the flea market. Well, not a set - just the drum pads and the pedal. Everything looks fine, but ... Well, I plugged it into my PS2 to test it out, and the games go nuts when I do so. It seems like whatever button is assigned to the Up direction on the pad (or whatever) is stuck. Or maybe the kit just doesn't like any of my games.

Well. I was wondering if this is a problem with the pad or something? I want to sell it, but if I have to repair it, or if this is a known issue... well. I need help, I guess.

The other thing is that I have a non-official DDR hard pad. Well, more like plastic pad. I plugged it into my PS2 to try it out, and the buttons light up, but the presses are not detected. I'm wondering if there's something special I have to do to get it to work.

Thoughts?

[MonoTekETeA]

First off, let me state I don't know a thing about the game or its controller.


Well since you don't know which part it is, I would suggest picking up the game some how, and testing the game with a normal controller. That would get you the button assignment.
That way, if you do fix it you could even bundle it.

If that isn't your cup'o tea, buying the game and what not, hit up a fan site. I am sure you can find a site out there with a bunch of drum mania lovers, and I am sure they would be happy to tell you the button assignment, even for their own knowledge.

From there, it is your choice, you can crack it open and check out the pad area, and all of its soder points, or you can post on the fan site you chose. The reason I am so positive about fan site are because there are people out there that, as much as we love games in general, they love that game just as much, and pour everything into it. (Check out some guitarhero youtubes, lol.)

But yeah, I would recommend opening it up after finding out what pad it is, and just inspecting the area, clean contacts, you know the deal.

[Vectorman0]

I think that may be how it works. The up button is always enaged until its drum is hit, then it is off. I think that's how the strum bar in GH works. However this is just an educated guess, and you should look into it further.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I asked at Bemanistyle and got this response:

The Drummania controller holds down left, up, and right all the time. DM games detect this to automatically change the controls for the DM controller. The controller only works correctly with DM games and games that can disable directional arrows held down.

Short of paying hundreds of dollars to have my system modded, there's no way of knowing if the pad works properly, but I'm still ebaying it.

I still don't know what's up with my DDR pad, though.

[phreak97]

yeah, pop'n music controllers and i think guitar freaks controllers too (maybe others aswel) hold three directions to tell the game the controller is plugged in. you cant usually hold three directions on a controller, so theres no danger of the game getting confused by a dual shock or otherwise. the reason they did this, is that when you plug in the custom controller (drums, guitar etc) the game completely reconfigures the control scheme, and the controllers were originally made for playstation, so usb controllers werent an option, and any extra stuff they would have to have done to send any data probably just would have cost more than three solder blobs.
ddr pads have nothing special like that, each button is just assigned to that button on a regular psx pad. so theres no reason why you wouldnt be able to test that with any random game, other than that some pads have not got enough buttons to get into any game play. i have one which only has up, down, left, right, and start.. which even makes it incompatable with newer ddr games. have a look at the wiring, make sure any wires are properly connected, and that the place where the lines come in from the buttons is all good, and that there are good connections all round.