What Is a Keypad?

<sidebar>Sidebar: What Is a Component?</sidebar> A keypad is a set of buttons arranged in a block or "pad", these buttons are labelled with digits (numerals), symbols and sometimes alphabetical letters. For example, telephones and mobile phones have a set of numbers 0-9, all alphabetical letters, usually in a set of 3 on each key, and symbols such as the asterisk (*) and the hash tag (#).

A number based keypad can be called a numeric keypad, also known as "numpads", these are often used on computer keyboards, digital and numerical based locks such as combination locks.

Calculators are numerical and symbol based, similar to a computer keyboard number pad they have a set of numbers 0-9 from bottom to top and a set of simple symbols to the right and above the numbers, advanced and 'scientific' calculators have even more buttons and functions, usually to the topside of the keypad/calculator.

Keypad components work very well with LCDs and 7 Segment Displays in Flowcode, it is straight forward to program and has a clear and effective outcome, by programming the Keypad to act as an input for a 7 Segment Display to display any number pressed, and with an alphanumeric keypad you can use the LCD to type a message to display, based on letters, numbers and even ASCII if programmed properly.

The default set of keypads readily available in Flowcode consist of the following components:

Keypad	Description
Keypad Base	Base component, used to create your own keypad component and increase functionality. Can also be used as a simple keypad component and is ideal for testing purposes.
Keypad EB014	Standard 3 * 4 telephone keypad, as used by the Matrix EB014 E-block
Keypad Hex	Hex keypad, with a full number set 0-9 and A-F alphabetical characters.
Keypad Cursor	Simple programmable keypad with directional arrow keys, an 'OK' key and 4 'function' buttons to be programmed. Ideal for programming the Formula Flowcode Buggy