I have been looking around for ways to read my usb device here. It's kinda funny, but I'm trying to figure out how to make this Pump It Up dance pad to work with my computer. It installs with 4 drivers.
Generic Game port Device
HID-copmliant device
HID-compliant game controller
USB Human Interface Device
Since it is using the game port (which is currently in use by another game pad) it will crash when accessing the game controllers config from the control panel. The pad is directly connected to the USB Human interface device driver.....

My goal is to make the buttons on the dance pad equal to buttons on my keyboard IE: I push the center button on the pad and it translates to the 5 button on my keyboards numpad.

Please help me out, I am really stressing over this cuz I'm just a newbie with people waiting for me to fix the problem... everyone picks on the newbie

hmmm... maybe try it with the same drivers in lunux, and if it works you know that it is a windows problem, or a problem with the windows drivers.
You could also search on google. Mybe some other ppls had the same problem, and many write down how they solved it and put it in the net.
I can't help you directly tho
My USB mouse works perfect
[addsig]

Well, my real problem (the drivers work) is knowing what the buttons on the dance pad are telling the computer (ie: what does the "A" key on the keyboard say? it says "A"). So what does the middle button say? Know what I mean? From there I can take the buttons on the pad and translate it into "A" on the keyboard. So that middle button = "A". Real simple concept, no info anywhere.... it's driving me insane.

can't you just catch the event and check what it contains? I mean, if you catch a event with a WinAPI app (or Xlib, doesn't matter), you have to check what's inside... can't you just proceed with that method in this case?
[addsig]

use direct input.
you'd just enumerate your game device, register for dInput events, and then broadcast key press messages every time a relevent button's pressed