MickytankbankThe Epomaker EK21 is the a very good budget Keypad ready to take on any task
#epomaker #keypad #keyboard #tech #technology #review #blog
https://churapereviews.com/2025/08/09/enhance-your-workflow-with-the-epomaker-ek21-keypad/
josechurapeEnhance Your Workflow with the Epomaker EK21 Keypad
Disclaimer
Epomaker sent me the EK21 keypad to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. Make sure you also check out my reviews for the Click Lite Gaming Mouse and Alice Tide Keyboard. I’ll be using my Amazon Affiliate link where possible. It really helps me out if you use it.
What’s in the box?
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZgBE2a-_9yk
- EK21 Keypad
- Key/Switch Puller
- USB-C to USB-A Braided Cable
- 2.4Ghz Wireless Dongle
- User Manual
Features
The Epomaker EK21 is ready to take on any workflow. It only comes in black, but its stylish modern design helps it fit most desk aesthetics. It features 20 hot swapable keys illuminated with beautiful south-facing rgb effects. All 20 keys and the nob can be easily reprogrammed through VIA for some added versatility. The gasket design and shape of the key caps give users a comfortable typing experience, while also letting off a satisfying tack that doesn’t get too loud. The EK21’s lite weight, respectable 1000mAh battery, and wireless capability make it the ideal travel accessory. If you’re looking for 20 more keys to enhance your productivity, check out the EK21 keypad.
Review
The EK21 does look a little cheap, but the keypad is well machined. The numbers are clearly printed, the color scheme is nice, and the knob has a nice tactile feel. I do appreciate the keypad’s light-weight because I did end up having to travel a lot with it. Most importantly, the keypad is very comfortable. It not only made my data entry and number crunching easier than using the number row, it helped some of the strain from my hand. I did a bit of reprogramming on VIA. I don’t need to do it for my workflow, but it is a nice feature to have and I like how easy it was to set up.
As far as function goes, the Keypad functioned as intended. It was very responsive out of the box with out any glitching, and I haven’t had to charge the battery since I opened it. I always keep the RGB on and the RGB profiles are very subtle and fun. You can turn it off for additional battery life.
Ultimately, if you need a keypad for your workflow, this is a great budget option that feels good, looks great, and gets the job done. At only $40, the EK21 is a powerhouse of utility in the perfect sized package.
You can pick up the the EK21 Numbpad on the official Epomaker store, or on Amazon through my affiliate link.
#2025 #blog #blogger #blogging #ek21 #entertainment #epomaker #internet #keypad #media #numbpad #review #Reviews #tech #techReview #watch #wordpress #writing
If you are in the market for a cool looking keypad, check out the KiiBOOM Phantom 21!
#kiiboom #mechanicalkeyboard #keyboard #keypad #tech #technology #review #blog
https://churapereviews.com/2025/07/30/phantom-21-keypad-review-stylish-and-functional/
Phantom 21 Keypad Review: Stylish and Functional
Disclaimer
KiiBoom sent me the Phantom 21 Mechanical Keypad to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I will not let it sway my opinions. This will be my hones review. Make sure you also check out my reviews for the Phantom 81 V3 and the Loop 65. I will also be using my Amazon Affiliate link where possible. Using it really helps me out. Make sure you also check out my new sponsor, NordVPN to earn an Amazon Gift card.
What’s in the Box?
https://youtube.com/shorts/571k0X0cRBI
- Phantom 21 Keypad
- 1.5m USB-C to USB-A Braided Cable
- Key/Switch Puller Tool
Features
The Phantom 21 is KiiBoom’s stylish solution for the ultimate keypad experience. This modern keypad comes in four colors: clear, pink, blue, and purple.
Thew clear body and fun colors are a guaranteed upgrade to any aesthetic. They keypads come with 21 keys with hot swappable switches all illuminated by the its vibrant customizable RBG color effects. But the Phantom 21 is more than just a pretty keypad. The control nob can be customized for volume, zoom, scrolling, and other essential functions. The keys are also easily customizable with KiiBOOM’s proprietary software to handle any workflow. Users can easily remap keys or load it up with macros to maximize efficiency.
Sound Test
https://youtube.com/shorts/hcWf4bWpsik
Review
I do like having a keypad for my workflow because I do a lot of data entry. I was very excited because the Phantom line is my favorite Keyboom product, and the Phantom 21 did not disappoint.
Out of the box, users will be impressed by the unique clear bodied design. I got the clear color, but the colors are fun, vibrant, and look good on the table. The manufacturing is clean and the keypad is very high quality. The keypad’s unique style definitely makes a statement in the best possible way.
After using the keypad, users will appreciate the comfort the keypad offers. The typing angle is ideal for most hand types, and the spacing allows for a comfortable hand position. I have a really bad repetitive stress injury, but using this keypad never triggered it. The clear glass-like caps give have a very satisfying smooth feel to them, and the clacking of the switches make it a wonderful typing experience. At least when it came to data entry and number crunching.
As far as performance goes, I noticed no ghosting or latency, and I still haven’t had to charge the keypad after using it for a 2 weeks. I keep on all the RGB effects. For those that need some added functionality, customizing, remapping, and adding macros to the Phantom 21 is very easy. This keypad can handle large workloads if you need it to.
If you are in the market for a unique looking keypad/macropad loaded with functionality, the Phantom 21 is a fantastic option. This pretty keypad is the perfect size for travel, very sturdy, and its flexibility make it perfect for any workflow.
You can pick up the Phantom 21 directly from the KiiBOOM site, or through Amazon through my Affiliate link.
#blog #blogger #blogging #entertainment #gaming #internet #keyBoard #keypad #kiiboom #mechanicalKeyboard #review #Reviews #tech #techReview #technology #watch #wordpress #writing
Sean FenianGlancing again at dedicated left-hand WASD-plus #gaming #keypad devices. About the only one that isn't just half a keyboard stuck on a stand and doesn't look like an alien medical-torture device is still the Logitech G13.
But not one of the "suggested" games that it's optimized for is one I'm interested in (the closest is Fallout 3), and HOLY FREAKING MOTHER OF HASTUR, $500 for a left-hand keypad? GTFO.
But not one of the "suggested" games that it's optimized for is one I'm interested in (the closest is Fallout 3), and HOLY FREAKING MOTHER OF HASTUR, $500 for a left-hand keypad? GTFO.
Simple DIY Electronic Music ProjectsArduino Atari MIDI Keypad
This uses my Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB and a pair of Atari 2600 keypad controllers to see if they can be used as some kind of MIDI controller.
https://makertube.net/w/7VoDLuAWbiHuMr21XszyD4
Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments!
These are the key Arduino tutorials for the main concepts used in this project:
If you are new to Arduino, see the Getting Started pages.
Parts list
- Arduino Uno
- Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB
- 2x Atari 2600 Keypad, Video Touchpad or other keypad like controllers
- Arduino MIDI interface, (Ready-Made MIDI Modules, DIY MIDI Interfaces, etc)
The Circuit
Once again I’m using my Arduino MIDI Proto Shield which makes connecting everything up pretty straight forward.
Note: I started off with the V0.3 version of the PCB (as shown below) but then swapped to the capacitor-less V0.2 version of the PCB.
Reading the Atari Keypads
As already shown in my Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Build Guide I can use the Arduino Keypad library to read the Keypads directly.
The simplest way to do this is to set them up as per the Keypad library tutorial example as a 4xROW, 3xCOL matrix, mapping them onto the Arduino pins as follows:
const byte ROWS = 4;const byte COLS = 3;
char hexaKeys[ROWS][COLS] = {
{'3','2','1'},
{'6','5','4'},
{'9','8','7'},
{'#','0','*'}
};
byte rowPins1[ROWS] = {11,10,9,8};
byte colPins1[COLS] = {12,A0,A1};
byte rowPins2[ROWS] = {6,5,4,3};
byte colPins2[COLS] = {2,A2,A3};
Keypad kp1=Keypad(makeKeymap(hexaKeys),rowPins1,colPins1,ROWS,COLS);
Keypad kp2=Keypad(makeKeymap(hexaKeys),rowPins2,colPins2,ROWS,COLS);
And, as shown before, this works pretty well. And the keypad handling can be generalised to support multiple key presses too.
But there is a problem. If the two buttons on the same ROW from the two COLUMNS that include a hardware pull-up resistor in the Keypad are pressed, then the keypresses aren’t registered.
Other combinations of buttons are fine, but not that one.
To understand what is going on, we need to look at how the Keypad library works and then go back to the original Atari keypad circuit diagram.
The keypad library works as follows:
Set all ROWS as INPUTS with PULLUPSSet all COLS as INPUTS (temporarily) to disable them
FOREACH COLUMN:
Set the COL as an OUTPUT
Drive the COL LOW
FOREACH ROW:
IF ROW reads as LOW THEN
Register this key as being pressed
Set the COL HIGH
Set the COL back to an INPUT to disable it
Looking at the original Atari circuit, we can see some of the potential problem.
The way the Keypad is wired, for two of the columns, the highlighted paths are connected via a 4K7 pull-up resistor to 5V. When each COL is scanned, the pin (5), (9) or (6) will be driven LOW in turn and pins (4), (3), (2), (1) are scanned as INPUTs (PULLED HIGH) to see if any of them are low indicating that a key has been pressed.
However, when both buttons are pressed and the pin (5) goes low, there are now two 4K7 pull-ups in parallel connected to 5V, one of which is connected via the second key being pressed. That makes a combined equivalent pull-up of around 2K4 which is a pretty strong pull-up. Strong enough to stop the INPUT pins (i.e. (4), etc) from reading LOW which means when scanned the keypresses won’t be detected.
We can see this on a scope trace.
The left is the signal from the column without the pullup resistor. The right shows the trace for a key on the column with a 4K7 pull-up. Although not as clear, it still seems to just be enough still to register as a key press though. I can get away with this for a single keypress.
But things are a little different when two keys are pressed.
Here the left shows the signals when a key from the non-pull up column and a key from one of the pull-up columns is pressed. Again we can see both are just enough to register as keypresses.
The right however is the signal when both keys are from the pull-up columns. Now, with the much stronger (2K4) pull-up the signal is not enough to register as a keypress for either column.
So if those pull-ups are causing problems when the COLs are used as OUTPUTs for detecting LOW signals, would they work better as INPUTs if I swap the ROWS and COLS around?
After all, that is almost certainly why the pull-ups are there in the first place, as the “COLs” are the inputs and “ROWS” the outputs. As this is contrary to how the Keypad library works, I’ll have to swap them over as followS:
That can be done by redefining the Keypad matrix as follows:
const byte ROWS = 3;const byte COLS = 4;
char hexaKeys[ROWS][COLS] = {
{'3','6','9','#'},
{'2','5','8','0'},
{'1','4','7','*'},
};
byte rowPins1[ROWS] = {12,A0,A1};
byte colPins1[COLS] = {11,10,9,8};
byte rowPins2[ROWS] = {2,A2,A3};
byte colPins2[COLS] = {6,5,4,3};
Keypad kp1=Keypad(makeKeymap(hexaKeys),rowPins1,colPins1,ROWS,COLS);
Keypad kp2=Keypad(makeKeymap(hexaKeys),rowPins2,colPins2,ROWS,COLS);
It turns out that this is even worse. Now, none of the keys on “ROWS” (which were previously the columns) with a hardware pull-up work at all. I’m not entirely clear of the reason, but I guess it is something to do with there being an internal Arduino PULLUP configured (which I seem to recall the ATmega328 datasheet states is between 20 and 50 M) and the external 4K7 pull-up. This will result in a pull-up resistance pretty close to the 4K7 value which is obviously 3 to 4 orders of magnitude lower than usually expected for INPUT_PULLUP.
Taking a scope trace of this situation, gives the following:
The left is a pretty noisy signal associated with the non-pullup “ROW” but we can still see a clear key press happening as the signal is pulled LOW. The right trace shows a pull-up “ROW” and we can see that the pull-up just won’t allow the signal to drop anywhere near registering as a LOW when a key is pressed.
I have to be honest – I’m not entirely clear why this is different to the previous scenario. They both, to my mind, appear to be setting the 4K7 pull-up to the internal Arduino pull-up.
So now I’m mulling over the possibility that this is an interaction between those added capacitors for the paddle controllers and the scanning pulse period of the Keypad handling. Maybe the capacitor discharge is preventing a clear LOW reading?
That is a little odd of course, as the original Atari circuit does indeed have to cope with the RC circuit on pins (5) and (9). It may be that the pulse of the scanning on the Arduino is just too fast, but to slow everything down I’d need to rewrite the Keypad library (or at least the matrix scanning part).
But I have a way to test this theory, as my original Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Design didn’t include them at all.
So yes, if I use the REVERSE method of scanning on the PCB without the capacitors I get good clean signals for all keypresses! The following trace shows several keys being pressed at once and although there is still a little variation, it is a much clearer signal in all combinations I’ve tried.
There is still the possibility of ghosting when pressing lots of keys, but in my experiments so far, given the quirkiness of the controllers in the first place, I’ve not found that a particular problem.
The Code
So the final code has essentially the following structure:
loop():IF any keys on Keypad 1 have changed:
IF State changed to PRESSED THEN:
Send corresponding NoteOn message
IF state changed to RELEASED THEN:
Send corresponding NoteOff message
REPEAT for Keypad 2
I’ve set the Keys to map to the pattern: C, E, F, G, A, Bb and repeated this over four octaves, with the lowest octave on the bottom row of keys.
I’ve left the option for either the “forward” or “reverse” mapping of the ROWS/COLS. The “forward” works best with the capacitor shield but has the issue of some two-key combinations not working. The “reverse” works best with the non-capacitor shield.
Closing Thoughts
Once again, what I thought would be a relatively straight forward project actually turned out to be a lot more involved than I imagined.
I’m now breaking away slightly from how the original Atari would have scanned these Keypads. If I get the chance, I might try to see what the scanning traces look like for an original console.
But I’m quite pleased with the final result. Those keypads are not the easiest things to use – the buttons are quite hard to press. I do have one Video Touchpad which also works, so it would be interesting to try to get hold of a second one and use those.
But having the two keypads linked together by their casing gives a nice “hold in two hands” kind of playable feel, as shown in the video. Holding them in my hands and playing with my thumbs isn’t actually too bad!
Kevin
bokMany would find it odd, but I find it convenient to have Shift+KeypadMultiply defined as "p". #keypad
Karl Voit 
A brief #history of the numeric #keypad
https://www.doc.cc/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-numeric-keypad
Interesting, how the two types of numpads developed independently and why Google/Apple stick to a particular one.
A brief history of the numeric keypad
Picture the keypad of a telephone and calculator side by side. Can you see the subtle difference between the two without resorting to your smartphone? Don’t worry if you can’t recall the design. Most of us are so used to accepting the common interfaces that we tend to overlook the calculator’s inverted key sequence.
The KiiBoom Cybrix 16 is a very cool looking Keypad with some impressive versatility, if you can get it to work.
#kiiboom #keypad #keyboard #tech #technology #review
https://churapereviews.com/2025/05/07/cybrix-16-keypad-features-setup-honest-review/
Cybrix 16 Keypad: Features, Setup & Honest Review
Disclaimer
KiiBoom sent me the Cybrix16 Keypad for free to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. Make sure to also check out my reviews for the KiiBoom Phantom98, the Moonshadow V2, and the Breeze 75 if you’re looking for a full-sized keyboard.
What’s in the Box?
https://youtube.com/shorts/wYkfEAwHwH0
- Cybrix16
- USB-C to USB-A Braided Cable
- Key/Switch Puller Tool
- Instruction Manual
Features
The Cybrix 16 is versatile keypad ready to upgrade your productivity. The keypad comes with 16 fully programmable keys and 3 rotary knobs ready to take on any workflow. The keypad is QMK/VIA compatible, and users can save up to 5 profiles to maximize the versatility. The keypad supports 3-pin and 5-pin switches for some added customization.
The Cybrix keypad has a clean and elegant design and comes in three colors: Silver, Pink, and Black.
I chose the silver, but all colors are great. The blank gradient keys give it its futuristic minimalist aesthetic. The keypad is wired only, but it more than makes up for it with its highspeed performance. It also features a soft and subtle RGB effect for a bit of added flare.
Sound Test
https://youtube.com/shorts/aGetCzIzZYE
Review
Out of the box, the keypad has an undeniable elegance that will go unmatched by anything on the market. The build and construction is clean, and I am a huge fan of the minimilistic aesthetic. It did take some time to remember what each key did, but it is not a huge deal. The customization is nice, when I finally got it to work and I wasn’t able to repeat the process. It isn’t very user friendly, and that is going to be a problem for the folks who aren’t enthusiast or a tech savvy.
That said, it is a solid keypad. The volume and media controls are always appreciated, and access to a keypad always upgrades my workflow. I wish it were wireless because my desk gets cluttered quickly, but it is nice to not have to worry about losing charge during an important project.
If you’re looking for a keypad that will upgrade your aesthetic, and you don’t mind a bit of tinkering to take full advantage of its features, the Cybrix 16 is a fantastic addition to your setup. It is not impossible, but it definitely not plug and play. If you’re only getting this to use it as a Numpad, you’re paying for the aesthetic and a few features you’ll eventually get to. The Cybrix16 is a solid peripheral, if you’re getting the most out of it.
You can pick up the Cybrix 16 on the official KiiBoom site.
#blog #blogging #entertainment #internet #keypad #kiiboom #review #Reviews #tech #techReview #technology #wordpress #writing
