15 pin highdensity D-SUB male connector
The Cobalt Flux DDR pad is a steel-tiled dance platform manufactured by Cobalt Flux, Inc. of Salt Lake City and designed for use with Dance Dance Revolution and compatible rhythm games. It connects to a Cobalt Flux control box via a 15-pin HD D-sub (high-density three-row) cable. Each arrow and button signal is a normally-open contact closure: pressing a tile shorts the corresponding pin to the shared ground, requiring no active electronics in the cable. Cobalt Flux, Inc. never published a public connector specification; the Cobalt Flux patent US7122751 confirms only that the platform uses “a conventional 9-pin serial connector” for some variants, without specifying pin assignments.
| Name | Pin | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ground | |
| 2 | Up | |
| 3 | Down | |
| 4 | Left | |
| 5 | Right | |
| 6 | Up Left | |
| 7 | Up Right | |
| 8 | Down Left | |
| 9 | Down Right | |
| 10 | Center | for playing ‘Pump It Up’ only |
| 11 | Start | |
| 12 | Select |
Notes
- Each button signal closes when foot pressure deflects a steel tile into contact with the grounded base sheet, shorting that pin to Ground (pin 1).
- Pins 13–15 are not listed; their function is not publicly documented.
- The control box is available with HD-15 or 9-pin D-sub output options depending on configuration; this table describes the HD-15 variant.
Signals
- Ground — common return for all switch signals (pin 1)
- Up — directional arrow: up
- Down — directional arrow: down
- Left — directional arrow: left
- Right — directional arrow: right
- Up Left — diagonal arrow: upper-left
- Up Right — diagonal arrow: upper-right
- Down Left — diagonal arrow: lower-left
- Down Right — diagonal arrow: lower-right
- Center — centre panel; used in Pump It Up mode
- Start — Start button
- Select — Select button