Interfacing with USB devices

Try to use DirectInput. If the device is supported by the HID subsystem, it will be enumerated in the DI device list.
If you have access to the DX8 or DX9 SDK try the %DXSDK_DIR%Samples\C++\DirectInput\Bin\DeviceView.exe sample.
The source code is located at %DXSDK_DIR%Samples\C++\DirectInput\DeviceView.
If you don't have the SDK, I can provide you with a link where you can download the sample app. Your pad should get listed in the sample app and you can toy a little with it. In case it doesn't get listed you will need to obtain a proper driver first.

Hope this helps,
Pat.

If you need examples of this I am sure that you can download one ofe the games that uses a dance pad because most of them are open source. Try going to stepmania.com and downloading its code though I warn you that it will probably be pretty complex. For a slightly simpler project you may be able to get the source to dance with intensity(search for it).

Darookie, good suggestion, I forgot that DI can enumerate HID devices. I tried that app, but unfortunately it crashes when it reaches the EnumDevicesBySemantics call. I'm not sure if this is a failing of the action map stuff, or something else. (It doesn't crash if the USB pad is unplugged.)

Yohumbus, I will check that out. I wasn't sure if any of them used the Pump it Up USB pads. But it's worth a shot!

PS: Thanks for the fast reponse. :) Oh, and I tried StepMania -- it does pick up his pad and works fine. So he'll check out the source.

[Edited by - FenrirWolf on November 24, 2004 9:32:25 PM]

Okay! Got it to work. One thing that is required is the HID interface for MSVC. You can get it out of the Windows DDK. (All you really need is the HID interface library, hid.lib.)

And in that, the only thing you need is the calls to get handles to the HID devices. Then it's just a matter of opening it as a regular pipe and reading in using overlapped IO. Pretty dang simple.