Three boxes, one adapter
The soft keypad 5-pack, the heavy-duty 2-pack and the TinkerBlock TK85 carry the same adapter circuit. What differs is the keypad, and which half of the eight-pin connector each part has.
Three boxes
The soft keypad 5-pack has five flexible membrane keypads and five adapters, in a storage box. Each keypad is 69 × 76 mm with an adhesive back, and its eight wires run down a ribbon tail that ends in a socket. Keypad and tail together are about 160 mm long.
The heavy-duty 2-pack has two keypads in a rigid plastic frame with sixteen separate raised keys, and two adapters. Each keypad has eight pins soldered along its bottom edge, and its adapter has a socket for them.
The TinkerBlock TK85 is the adapter on a TinkerBlock board, with mounting holes for the base plate. It comes in the 46-piece kit.
The joins
The two adapters are the same circuit. The only difference is the connector: right-angle pins on the soft pack's adapters, an eight-way socket on the heavy-duty pack's.
Which keymap
The two keypads bring their wires out in a different order, so they need different keymaps. The TinkerBlock TK85 is photographed with the soft keypad, and with that keypad it uses the soft map. One adapter, two keymaps explains why, and the first keypress has both maps ready to paste.
When it does not work
The socket has no key, so it fits the adapter's pins either way up. Turned over, every key still works but the rows and columns land on different chip pins. Refit it with the keypad's face and the adapter's chip facing the same way, as in the photos, or run the keymap finder and use whatever map it prints.
The socket is one pin off, so one wire has no pin and one pin has no wire. Pull it off and line up all eight — the socket should cover the row of pins exactly, with nothing left over at either end.
Not directly: the ribbon and that adapter both end in sockets. Eight male-to-male jumper wires will join them. Keep them in order, then run the keymap finder, because a crossed pair changes which map is right.
The adapters with pins go with the soft keypads, and the adapters with a socket go with the heavy-duty keypads. They are the same circuit and the same chip; only the connector differs.
Twenty millimetres square, four jobs, and the two labels on the back that are the wrong way round.
The adapter, pin by pin →Edit this page — content/books/matrix-keypad/three-boxes-one-adapter.mdx
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