Taiko Rythm Game Open Controller

I have been living in Japan for two months now and I had the opportunity to experience the thrill of arcade games! After playing some times downtown, I wanted to make my own in my dorm room.

This replica has the exact same dimension from the real one and my Japanese friend told me that it feels nearly the same from playing in the arcade.

This project requires nearly zero knowledges in electronics and only basics wood cutting skills. The total price of the project is just above €100 and both the software (provided here) and the game to play on your computer are open source.

The total time of making this project is around 12 hours (~3 afternoons) , it is plenty of fun and has a low chance of failure (if you follow these steps).

I will know explain rapidly how taiko game works. Your controller is made of 4 differents buttons :

• two on the center of the drum on the right and left side that are represented by the red notes in game
• two on the outside of the drum on the right and left side that are represented by the blue notes in game

When you play you want to hit the core and the outline of the drum in rythm with the notes that appears on screen in order to get the maximum number of point. Like in the real arcade game our goal is to make a drum with these 4 buttons hidden beneath a rubber cover.

On step 1 you can see the drum without its cover.

During all the project I have put image tooltip to help you, be sure to check the image before realising the step.

Supplies List :

I have put tooltip on each image to help you find the supplies if the amazon link die

For the wooden support :

• 14 x Rubber damping block (the import thing is that they have M4 hole ) Amazon link
• 4 x Piezzo electric sensors : Amazon link
• 1 x Arduino or any other microcontroller : STM32F103C8T6 controller (cheaper and the tutorial is about this one, the microcontroller needs to able to be turn into HID devices)
• 1 x Wood planck 12mm thickness (minimum 2 planck of 600mm x 500mm) : Amazon link
• 2 x Corner brace angle : Amazon link

General purpose supplies :

• Some electrical wire ( more than 40cm x 8) : Amazon link
• Heat shrink tube : Amazon link
• M4 countersunk bolt : Amazon link
• Breadboard : Amazon link
• M4 Wood insert: Amazon link (Be sure to have some ! )
• FTDI adaptater : Amazon link (if you want to use STM32 controller)
• M4 M5 wood drill with countersink attachment : Amazon link (be sure to have countersink drill)

For Rubber cover :

• 1 x Rubber sheet 3mm thickness( minimum 500mmx500mm plus a 1500mm x 30mm strip ) : Amazon link
• 1 x Strong rubber glue (this one worked well for this project : Loctite LMP-020 Amazon link)

Price :

Since I am a student I tried to buy only the cheapest supplies from amazon :

• without general purpose supplies : 80.59€
• total : 114.80€

Tools used :

There is two main ways to realise this taiko controller :

• by CNC machining
• by formal wood cutting method

Personnally, I did everything by hand but I will share the difference ressources in order to make it by CNC cutting.

In order to realise this project by hand you will need :

• protection gloves
• protection glasses
• mask for wood dust
• Vynil gloves to work with the glue (really important if you don't want to lose the tip of your fingers)
• some basic screwdrivers
• a hand drill (with sanding pad)
• a hand electrical jigsaw (with the correct wood cutter head)
• 2 or 3 standard clamps
• a pair of heavy duty scissors
• a ruler
• some string to make a DIY compass
• a pencil

I will detail each step of making the taiko by hand, but you can have an overview of every dimension here. For people that want to CNC cut the taiko you can find here the SVG.

Here you have also some picture of the final project without the cover.

Keep in mind the final product in order to achieve each step with the best result

As a warm-up we will first do the mounting plate.You need to trace a circle of 21cm in radius on one of your planks.You want to trace another line 1cm away from the circle in order to cut the rectangular piece that will later be used as a stand.

After this first cut you will need to cut the circle. In order to do that use two clamps to secure the plank on the table and cut the circle one-third after other. Be sure to always keep your gloves to avoid splinters and do not cut the table !

Always remember to cut on the outside of the line! (It means that you can see the line on the disk after cutting.)

Like the step before, use two clamps to secure the disk and you can sand one-third of the plank after other to get a smooth edge on the disk. You need to sand until the pen mark line disappears.

The disk you want to make now has the same dimension : 21cm in radius.You can repeat Step 2-3-4 with the other plank but this time this disk will be used to make the 4 buttons.

Now this is the hardest step of the build. In summary we will make the four Taiko buttons from our 21cm disk (reference to the plans step 1) :

• First you need to cut the disk in half (this time the jigsaw need to cut on the line in order to get equal part from both sides)
• Secondly, you need to draw a circle of 182mm in radius from the center inside the two half wooden part
• Now you can cut on this in line in order to get the 4 buttons. Be carefull because the part inside and outside of the line are important !!

Take your time on this step and don't hesitate to go check the template step 1 before cutting. The 182mm in radius circle is the one in green.

Well played for everyone that arrived here without any issue !

now you can sand each button. The key is to sand the button by pair, you will get a nice symmetrical result ! Take your time and try to make the best looking part.

When you obtain two pair of identical piece you can sand 1-2 mm of wood in the outside of the inner button and 1-2mm of wood in the inside of the outter button. (in order to increase a bit the space between button)

Now you can follow the template on step 1 to draw the different place where you will need to drill the different button plate.

Place nicely the button on the main plate (follow image tooltip), secure both plate on the table with clamp and you can drill through both plates at once with a M4 drill.

Repeat this step on each plate.

Be sure before drilling hole that the inside/outside button of each side fit well by pair. (the best way to ensure this is to put the 4 buttons in the final position they will have before doing any drilling)

Don't forget to countersink each button hole in order to make the bolt unoticeable.

Lastly, drill a last M5 hole or superior in the center of the mount plate to make a passage for cable.

You can now enlarge every hole on the Mount Plate Disk with a M5 drill in order to put each wood insert in it. The flange need to be on the opposite side of the damping block.

You can screw the two outside part directly on the mount plate and sand the top and bottom part in order to have a nice smooth circle.

Make sure that you are satisfied with each wooden piece before this step ! It will be hard to make some modification after this step.

You can now glue each sensor on different buttons. I have put red cross on the template step 1 to give a clue on where to glue the sensor on each type of button. The most important thing is to make sure to glue all the copper surface of the sensor on the wood.

Be sure to oriente each button cable toward the middle hole.

Helping you with the position of each button on the mount plate you need to make cable extension for each sensor in order to have a ~35cm cable for each sensor from the exit hole on the back. Don't forget to put heat shrink tubing.

like me you can twist cable by pair it is easier.

You can now put the 14 damping blocks on the mount plate and after screw each button on top. If you have follow each instruction, it should be seamingless.

you can cut a 500mmx500mm square onto you 3mm thickness rubber. The best way is to use a heavy duty scissors. after this you can draw a 250mm radius circle and cut this circle into it.

Draw the outline of the controller on the rubber it will be easier for making the flange.

Draw a circle of 217mm radius onto the rubber sheet and place a mark each 5cm on the controller outline. These marks will set the position of each flange you will need to make. In front of every mark cut a V on the rubber that stop on the 217mm radius circle.

The best way to do this is to not totally cut the flange and tear the rubber by hand. To tear it give it a little twist.

If you already have a 30mm x 1500mm rubber strip you can skip this step.

With the remaining of the rubber sheet you can cut 3 strip of 30mmx50mm and glue them on the little side.

Be sure to have gloves when using the glue !

During gluing use force to nicely stick the two surface of the strip

Wrap the band around the outer buttons in order to measure the total perimeter of your controller.

Cut the strip 2cm less than the perimeter in order to have a ring that stick well to the controller.

Glue the strip in order to make a ring.

You know it is the nice length if the ring need to expand a little to fit around the controller

This part is a bit tricky, you need to take time.

Place the controller on the rubber sheet with the rubber ring sticked onto it. Center everything and push the ring as far as possible against the flange (ref image 1).

Put vinyl gloves on !

Put some glue on the flange, try to pull it as far as possible and glue it against the ring. Stay in position for ~20sec and repeat this step for each flange.

Always remember to push the ring as far as possible down.

You should get a nice looking rubber cover that fit on your controller !!!

You can follow the template on the picture above to turn the two rectangle plate left over into the Taiko leg. Follow the sanding technique step 7 in order to get two identical leg.

You can follow the global template Step 1 in order to get the right position for the corner brace angle. Only two screw on each side of the brace is enough for overall strenght.

The wiring is really simple. The four little board that come with the sensor is only a resistance and probably a diode in parallel between signal and ground. You need to wire ground of every sensor to the ground of the microcontroller. The signal of each board need to be connected to a different analog input of the board.

If you don't receive the little sensor board you need to put a 1M resistance between each Signal and ground of sensors.

You can follow the tutorial on STM32Duino Github to install the right dependencies to flash the code on your STM32 microcontroller

Be sure to have put the right analog input for your project

Like said in the tutorial linked on the step before you need to install STM32CubeProgrammer in order to flash the program.

You need to connect your FTDI adapter like shown on the picture, be sure to put the yellow jumper of BOOT0 between 1 and the center (like on the picture)

After flashing you need to put back the BOOT0 between 0 and the center.

Connect the microcontroller on your computer and check that it works !

Now you can play the game !

download the free open source TJAPlayer3 game and enjoy your build.

You need to go in the settings to desactivate autoplay and to bind the touch.

You can find tracks by typing TJA song list on google.