I have scoured allelectronics, mouser, and digikey and haven't found a cheap large keypad yet. Anyone know where I can purchase a decent quality keypad with more than ~16 keys?

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=16 key keypad&btnG=Google+Search
Eh never mind I thought you meant exactly 16

You can butcher a regular keyboard. If you find an older one it should have an accessible soldered in connector you can attach to.
PS2 keyboards can be read by microcontrollers.

 

Haha, I suppose you read my post too fast. There are plenty of 16 key keypads at my college, but I would like a much larger keypad. Such a pain to find one

 

www.newark.com sells a keypad from Grayhill that has 20 keys in a 5 by 4 arrangment. Check it out here.

hgmjr

 

You'd think they would have cheap keypads like the ones you can get on 5 dollar calculators. Ideally I would love to have something like this without the 80 dollar price tag.

 

Try Rapid Electronics (UK based).
http://www.rapidonline.com/products.aspx?tier1=Electronic+Components&tier2=Switches&tier3=Keypads

There seem to be a bunch of keypads of all kinds and colours there..

Cheers

 

Short of having your own custom keypad designed, I think the great majority of the high-keycount keyboards generally available are 4x4.

Have you considered placing two 4x4 keyboards side-by-side to double the key count? If you need more than an 8x4 then you can add more keypads until you have all the keys you need. If you purchase the self labeling versions, you can even label the keys to suit your applications.

hgmjr

 

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category/295/Keyboards.html

 

You're right hgmjr, the best thing I can do is just use multiple 4x4s.

 

I like using ebay to find one-off things for projects, you can usually get a really great deal on some really high quality stuff. I once bought a 950$ motorized micrometer for a project for 50$, which was a steal And the list goes on

I bet you can get an amazing keypad on ebay, or at least a good price on multiple 4X4s if you go that route.

Steve

 

Great advice about eBay, I already found an possible keyboard choice for when I need one in the future.

 

Great advice about eBay, I already found an possible keyboard choice for when I need one in the future.

Thanks! Not a bad keyboard and a pretty good price too.

Oh no, my secret is out, there will be 'bid-wars' over obscure electronic components now!

Steve