To connect a dance pad to an arcade machine or a computer, you need some sort of input device.
¶ USB Input devices without light support
¶ GHETT.IO
¶ BARR.IO
The BARR.IO is a board designed to connect PIU or ITG pads to a PC via USB. The board connects to the PIU pad IO in the pad with a Molex connector.
¶ J-PAC
https://ddrpad.com/collections/circuit-boards/products/j-pac
¶ I-PAC2
https://ddrpad.com/collections/circuit-boards/products/i-pac2
¶ Pad2pc
¶ USB Input devices with light support
¶ FSRio
The Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) Sensor Control Board - FSRio V2 is an input device designed to make it easy to build a pad with FSRs. It retails for about $85. See the manual for more details.
Notable features:
- Supports up to 8 FSR sensors
- USB C connector
- Support for an addressable RGB strip (WS2811 / WS2812)
- SPI port, used in factory for preloading. Can be used for recovery
¶ Minimaid
The Minimaid is an adapter board designed to plug into your computer via the USB slot. It will allow you to play V4-V7 on your drummania and guitar freaks arcade machines as well as Stepmania 3.9+ Redux on your DDR arcade machine or Open ITG for Windows. Minimaid was created by a user on sows over a decade ago and hasn't been produced in a very long time.
The original cost of a Minimaid was about $150. At the time, this was really the only solution for getting a DDR pad to work with a PC while maintaining light support. Resale value of these boards quickly raised to $300-$400.
¶ STAC
The STAC (Stop Throwing Away Cabinets) board is a small electronic PCB that allows you to connect your dance pad to a modern computer to play modern dance games. One board will connect one player side of your dance pad to your computer to play your favorite games keeping your lighting functionality in tact.
Notable features:
- Reactive Lighting. Press a panel, it lights up!
- 1000hz polling
- Set Player 1 and Player 2 on the board directly. No more “guessing” which pad is which in * game!
¶ PIUIO
¶ PAD2PC
The PAD2PC allows you to use your dance pads with a PC and maintain panel light support. You just pull the step panel connectors from the factory Pad IO board and plug it into the new board. This board comes in two versions: ITG/PIU and DDR. This board can be purchased from the creator on Etsy or from DDRPad.com.
¶ AM041104 - PUMP USB CLONE
It is a clone of the PUMP I/O for the GX cabin that uses the original firmware and schematic.
can be found in this store https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.co/MCO-1448063786-am041104-pump-it-up-andamiro-io-board-maquina-de-baile-_JM
¶ Light-only boards
¶ Lit board
The Lit Board allows for StepMania users to have the existing lights on their Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) cabinet turn on and off to the beat of the game. It is intended to be used in conjunction with existing JAMMA IO adapters.
¶ Arcade Pad IOs
¶ GN845-PWB(B) DDR pad IO
¶ BD845-PWB DDR pad IO clone.
A clone of the original DanceDanceRevolution GN845-PWB(B) Stage I/O board. This board was designed as a drop in replacement clone board for the Konami GN845-PWB(B) Stage I/O board. It emulates the original DDR Stage I/O communication protocol boot sequence allowing to run the game without an IO Check Bypass.
It also provides additional features such as debouncing and a Light-On-Press mode that lights up the arrow light when pressed without the need of an external lights driver board.
Additional information can be found on the BlueDot documentation website.
¶ ITG/PIU Pad IO
¶ APU0PCB029-USB
is a clone of pad io, when plugged into usb port it works as a simple usb gamepad, when unplugged from usb port it automatically starts working as arcade pad io
¶ Roll your own
Arduino or a Teensy.
There are several projects available to build your own I/O board. Some of them do emulate a PIUIO board, which means that they would be loaded by the default PIUIO StepMania driver, also being plug-and-play with original ITG/PIU hardware
| Name | Link | Supported boards | Features | Sensor type | SM5 Driver |
| PIUIO_Arduino | https://github.com/ckdur/PIUIO_Arduino/ | Arduino Mega/Uno | Input,Lights | Digital | PIUIO |
| piuio_clone | https://github.com/racerxdl/piuio_clone | Arduino Uno | Input,Lights | Digital | PIUIO |
| piuio-pico | https://github.com/48productions/piuio-pico/ | Raspberry Pi Pico | Input,Lights | Digital | PIUIO |
| SM5 Arduino Lightning | https://github.com/Tiny-Foxes/SM5-Arduino-Lighting | Arduino IDE compatible | Lights | Digital | Win32Serial/SextetStreamToFile |
| FreeJoy | https://github.com/FreeJoy-Team/FreeJoy | STM32 | Input | Digital | Joystick/X11 |
| teejusb fsr | https://github.com/teejusb/fsr | Arduino Leonardo | Input | FSR | Joystick/X11 |