Adapting your Kraft Dance Pad for Stepmania

Here's how to change the button mapping so that the Kraft dance pad will work with other dance pad games such as Stepmania. The Kraft pad comes wired like this:

Select & Start = Buttons 9 & 10
Four Diagonal Arrows = Buttons 1, 2, 3, & 4
Up, Down, Left and Right = 4-way hat (digital joystick)

The problem with this mapping is a joystick or 4-way hat doesn't let you press both down and up, or left and right, at the same time. Windows and the USB game controller chips are designed with this assumption. Up + down, or left + right, are very common moves for a dance pad, but for some reason the Kraft games do not utilize these moves.

The Kraft dance pad controller does not appear to have a non-intrusive way to change its mapping like some controllers do by "holding up, select and start for 3+ seconds". Nor does it have buttons 5-8 available on the PCB or on the chip. So the easiest hack is to exchange the two less-used buttons - select and start - for down and left, thereby letting the system recognize up and down simultaneously. Of course, once you do this you can no longer press select and up at the same time, but that never comes up while dancing, so don't worry about it.

It might be a good idea to confirm that your dance pad works properly before doing this mod, as these pads are not heavy-duty by any means and it's possible some may have dead areas or arrive broken. Use the Windows Gaming Devices Control Panel to test the button mapping matches what I show above, and make sure all the buttons work. As always, you crack open electronic devices at your own risk.

You will need:

  • An X-acto knife
  • A small Philips head screwdriver
  • A soldering iron
  • A bit of solder
  • Wire cutters
  • A couple tiny pieces of wire

Click on the numbered thumbnails at left to see a detailed photo.

Figure 11. Unplug the mat from the PC (duh).
Figure 22. Unscrew the plastic cover and remove the two halves.
Figure 3 3. Fold the circuit board back over onto the mat to see the green side. Carefully remove just the white tape without lifting the black printed mat traces plastic from the board. Clean up any tape gum and gunk. Fig 3 (click on pic at left for bigger photo) shows the circuit board as it comes from Kraft, and the traces we plan to swap.
Figure 4 4. Fig 4 shows the cuts we need to make. Use a sharp X-acto knife and cut deep enough to completely sever the traces on the PCB. Wipe away any metal shavings and crumbs and make sure there's a clean and complete cut across all three trace cuts.
Figure 5 5. Use the knife to scratch away the green solder mask on both sides of the cuts so we have somewhere to solder onto. Fig 5 shows the areas that you'll need to scratch clean.
Figure 6 6. Solder four wires connecting the points as shown in Fig 6. Make sure the criss-cross wires on the right side don't short out by touching each other.
Figure 7 7. Flip over the circuit board and cut the jumper wire J3 as shown in Fig 7 at left.
8. Reassemble and screw case together firmly (but don't crack it!).There's a flat area on the inside of the case that lines up with the black rubber strip. It's important that the case is screwed together completely and the PCB is properly positioned within, as the case puts pressure on the mat's traces to make a good connection with the PCB. The mat won't work unless you press firmly on that black rubber strip with your hand.


You're done! Plug in the board and test the new button mapping using the control panel. Go into Stepmania (or whatever your dance program of choice is) and assign the button mappings. The mat will no longer work with Kraft games unless you can remap the buttons from within the game. And don't forget to enjoy some delicious KraftTM Macaroni & Cheese.

We are not in any way endorsed by or related to, KraftTM Foods, but we do enjoy their delicious KraftTM Macaroni & Cheese.