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wokwi-membrane-keypad Reference

A standard 4x4 keypad. Great for numeric input, e.g. security pin code.

Pin names

NameDescriptionExample pin*
R1Row 1 (top row)9
R2Row 28
R3Row 37
R4Row 4 (bottom row)6
C1Column 1 (left)5
C2Column 24
C3Column 33
C4Column 4 (right)2

* These are just the Arduino Uno pin numbers used in the code example below. You can use any input digital input pin.

Attributes

NameDescriptionDefault value
columnsNumber of columns: "3" or "4""4"
keysLabels for the keys["1", "2", "3", "A", "4", "5", "6", "B", "7", "8", "9", "C", "*", "0", "#", "D"]

You can change the key labels as you like. The first four items in the array set the labels for the first row of keys, the next four items set the labels for the second row of keys, etc. Unicode characters are supported, so you can use special characters, accented letters, superscript/subscript (e.g. Xⁿ or A₁), and even emojis.

Arduino code example

The example below uses the Keypad library for Arduino. The key names set in the keys array define the values that keypad.getKey() returns. They don't have to match the actual key labels (but it can be confusing if they don't), and they must contain exactly one ASCII character.

#include <Keypad.h>

const uint8_t ROWS = 4;
const uint8_t COLS = 4;
char keys[ROWS][COLS] = {
{ '1', '2', '3', 'A' },
{ '4', '5', '6', 'B' },
{ '7', '8', '9', 'C' },
{ '*', '0', '#', 'D' }
};

uint8_t colPins[COLS] = { 5, 4, 3, 2 }; // Pins connected to C1, C2, C3, C4
uint8_t rowPins[ROWS] = { 9, 8, 7, 6 }; // Pins connected to R1, R2, R3, R4

Keypad keypad = Keypad(makeKeymap(keys), rowPins, colPins, ROWS, COLS);

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
char key = keypad.getKey();

if (key != NO_KEY) {
Serial.println(key);
}
}

You can also try this example on Wokwi.

Tip: You can use keyboard shortcuts to activate the buttons on the keypad. Click on the keypad once (now the keypad is in focus), and you can press 0...9/A/B/C/D/#/* in the keyboard to activate the corresponding key.

Examples

ResultAttrs
{ }
{ "columns": "3" }
{ "keys": ["1","2","3","4","Q","W","E","R","A","S","D","F","Z","X","C","V"] }

Simulator examples