I made this a few weeks ago. Coding on my laptop is a real PITA without a full keypad (not for the numbers but for the cursor and page movement), so I hacked a couple keypads to make one. Every separate keypad you can buy is a full-size keypad and I wanted something smaller that I could place over the laptop's existing cursor keys. There's a mouse/keypad combo available on ebay that had what I needed, but I needed to ditch the mouse part. I took apart a separate IBM full-size numeric keypad and wired the one from the mouse to it. The circuit layouts aren't the same so not all of the keys work, but all of the important ones do with the exception of the Ins key (it works, but it gives me two keypresses every time I press the key).
The little box has the circuit from the IBM keypad. The heavy cable is from an old ThrustMaster joystick I had that I used because it had ten wires going through it. I have a small circuit in the box also that is supposed to fix the Ins key, but it isn't working right yet. Otherwise, the pad works very well.
It's a real shame that no one makes a separate small keypad instead of just the full-size ones that you can clip to your laptop like this. I'd think that a lot of people would be interested in one.
HAHAHAHA I love seeing stuff like this-First it was Eric with the iPod 8 track adaptor setup-now this!!
Lol interesting,my 17" already has one built in.
wish my laptop had a number pad. Its there but its odd to type expense reports and have to turn off numloc , otherwise im getting use to using the numbers along the top row.
my desktop keyboard having the number keys off to the side is a lot better for me. I tend to react quicker using a separate number pad than the number row for some reason.
does anyone know why keyboards place the numbers from bottom to top row then ending with zero on the very bottom.?
it seems they would have started with number 1 at the top left to right then eventually / logically ending with the zero right were it is after 9. example,, the number 9 would be where our 3 is now.
Adding machines and calculators have always been that way.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823328008&cm_re=numeric_keypad-_-23-328-008-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834995516&cm_re=numeric_keypad-_-34-995-516-_-Product
And lots more.
Short answer, yes, they've been available for some time.
Have you used a phone lately (that's how they're laid out) Never understood why the two are so different.
*EDIT*
A google search uncovered THIS (http://www.howstuffworks.com/question641.htm). Interesting...
Those are FULL-SIZE keypads. I made this one specifically because it's smaller than full-size and can clip right over the laptop's existing keys.
Ah, you mean the keys itself. Really, doesn't seem like an enormous difference to me.
The problem with full-size keypads is that they won't stay put. If they could clip to the laptop so that they couldn't move around that would be something, but none of them do that.
http://www.thereifixedit.com
You should submit it.
I am in love with this site. I'm surprised I didn't know about until now. Oh so many postings I would have...