Qwiic Keypad

Never fear! The SparkX Qwiic Keypad has gone red! Checkout it's new version over here.

Keypads are very handy input devices. And there are many great libraries written to interface to keypads! But who wants to tie up 7 GPIOs, have a handful of pull up resistors, and write firmware that scans the keys taking up valuable megahertz? Let's make it easier! The Qwiic Keypad uses very simple I2C commands to read what button was pressed. It also implements a stack with time stamps for each key press so you don't need to constantly poll the keypad. Qwiic Keypad even has a configurable I2C address so you can have multiple keypads on the same bus!

Qwiic Keypad is very low power and uses less than 4mA at 3.3V. There are jumpers on the board allowing the user to select between different I2C addresses as well as to remove the I2C pull up resistors if needed.

The Qwiic Keypad comes fully assembled and uses the simple Qwiic interface. No soldering, no voltage translation, no figuring out which pin is SDA or SCL, just plug and go!

Note: Depending on availability you may receive a white buttoned keypad or a black buttoned keypad. The function and performance is identical.

We do not plan to regularly produce SparkX products so get them while they’re hot!

Experimental Product: SparkX products are rapidly produced to bring you the most cutting edge technology as it becomes available. These products are tested but come with no guarantees. Live technical support is not available for SparkX products. Head on over to our forum for support or to ask a question.

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  • Member #134773 / about 5 years ago / 1

    I'd like to see a version of this with the 16 button keypad -- it could make for easier-to-navigate "menus", e.g., the programmer/maker can assign one button to be "up" and one "down", one for decimal point, one for "enter", one for "backspace", and still have the 10 digit keys for direct data entry.

  • Member #220963 / about 6 years ago / 1

    The ATtiny84 firmware source code includes a file named 'Keypad.h,' but this is omitted from both the "Firmware for the ATtiny84" link & from the GitHub repo. Any chance of correcting this oversight?

  • Member #24259 / about 6 years ago / 1

    Are there going to be guides to using the Qwiic devices on a Raspberry Pi, without using an Arduino?

Customer Reviews

3 out of 5

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Beware, Qwiic is 3.3v

I wanted an I²C keypad for an Arduino project I'm working on. When I found this one, it seemed perfect.

However, when I got it I realized that Qwiic is a 3.3v interface, but I'm committed to 5V for my project. Thus it wasn't as useful as I had hoped. (and in order to mix 3.3V and 5V I²C devices on the same I²C bus, you need I²C voltage converter.)

Hello, and thanks for your review. Even though Qwiic is a 3.3 volt system, the ATTiny84 on this board will work at 5 volts. If you're OK with potentially burning out the power LED, this should work OK on a 5 volt bus. Just remember to power the keypad with 5 volts as well and you should be OK. :-)