What brand pad is this?

Some years ago my friend gave me his old metal dance pad, but he didn't have the control box for it and I'm tired of seeing a useless dance pad in my closet. I'm hoping you guys can ID this pad for me as it has no distinguishable branding. I'd like to buy a new control box for it. Is there any reason it wouldn't work with any 15 pin control box? Do I need some kind of special software or code to get it running with stepmania?

DDRGame pad, tournament version(?)

I wish I could say DDRGame, but I have no clue what the older ones look like. It does, however, seem to use the same adapter bit that plugs into the control box for a DDRGame control box, so if you have money to spare for a crap shoot it may work.

It does look similar to the DDRgame pads, but it has 8 buttons, not 6 so I dunno. Has DDRgame been around that long? This pad is over 10 years old.

Can you use a multi-meter to figure out the pinout of the pad? Basically have one lead connected to Pin 1 or 9 or 6 or 15 or 10 or 5 and another connected to anything else, then have someone press all the arrows, check resistance if the meter changes then you have a hit for that arrow and ground. Then do the same with another, keep one lead in the same hole and another anywhere else and press until you find it, at that point you found the common ground and two inputs, should be really easy to figure out the rest of the inputs.

Then check the pinout with the pinout of a DDRGame pad and if they match up you know a box from them will work, otherwise you can build your own.

That looks like an old school Red Octane metal pad. See this link:

http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=7804964

Maybe it is a counterfeit knock off?

That pad looks just like the one I have! I know for sure mine is the not a legit Red Octane one, the only difference I see with yours and mine is that the D Sub conenctor is gray instead of black.


The pin outs are different between the 6 arrow and the 8 arrow pad, even though they both use the same 15 pin connector.
(I didn't bother trying to find which 4 wires went to the leds for Up Down Left Right)

8 Arrow Pinout
2- Up Left
3- Ground for 2 and 4
4- Up Right
5-Down Right
9- Down Left
11- Right
12- Left
13- Down
14- Up
15- Ground

6 arrow Pinout
5- Ground
7- Up
8- Down
9- Left
10- Right
14- Up Right
15 - Up left

I made a cable to switch the 6 arrow pinout to match the 8 arrow one so I could use it on the same setup I have for it. Its hooked up to my multiconsole (PS2,3,Xbox, xbox360) joystick where its mapped to the buttons Sqr Tri X O so I don't run into any axis problems when I use it on PC.

the meter changes then you have a hit for that arrow and ground. Then do the same with another, keep one lead in the same hole and another anywhere else and press until you find it, at that point you found the common ground and two inputs, should be really easy to figure out the rest of the inputs.


emma