With this you can HEX-keypad in style, you'll no longer have to slave away entering HEX-digits using your standard base 10 numpad! This hi is the deluxe keypad belonging to the RC-ONE computer, a KIM-1 replica, so you'll also have the additional keys found on the classic computer designed by the late Chuck Peddle. MOS was famously bought up by a somewhat unknown typewriter-manufacturer named Commodore, so the computer was also later rebranded as the Commodore KIM-1 which shares the key-layout I've used!

I've designed the PCB so that it can be used with both 3 and 5 pin Cherry MX-compatible key switches, personally I'm using the Gateron clones as they're almost as good at a far more reasonable price. Usually you'll find the switches with a colour associated with them, the colours correspond to the force needed to push down on the key - however, for that complete retro-feeling I went for something that has an audible click and that meant green switches for me. To print out the labels I'm using a Brother P-Touch TZe label printer, but I ran out of white on clear tape so if you want to do something that looks a bit better than mine that's an option.

While this HEX-keypad is the ultimate in manually programming my KIM-1 replica, I've also created a small add-on board featuring an Arduino Pro Micro so that you can also connect it to your modern computer and use it there as well! Great stuff when used with emulators, for that retro-feeling or simply entering code found in old magazines and books. Check out my other shared projects to find this as well.

The video below is just me punching in some data on the RC-ONE, mainly setting up the initialization for the KIM-1 monitor and then verifying that the entered data is correct afterwards.