Make a custom keypad?

[Dermbrian]

Because I use DWJukebox for both singles and album skins and prefer pushing buttons on my jukebox over navigating with a mouse, I'm in need of a keypad that can support a lot of buttons.  This is mainly because to navigate the album skins on a huge collection it's best if you have a button for every letter.  At worst, for every couple letters (A-B, C-D, E-F...etc).

Genovation makes 35 key programmable usb keypad with re-legendable caps that comes with a couple of double keycaps.  Those double keycaps would be useful for the big functions, like SELECT and INSERT COIN.  As you can see, it is a bargain but is definitely not low-cost.

http://www.smartkeyboardsolutions.com/genovation-controlpad-682-u.htm

Does anyone have any idea what kind keypad I might be able to make myself that might meet my needs?   I wouldn't want the standard big arcade pushbuttons.   What I'm looking for is something more cigar-boxed sized for the whole keypad.  It would be ideal if I could somehow just hack a USB keyboard and reconfigure it to end up with something that is more row/column than QWERTY.  Or maybe use two standard USB keypads to somehow create a bigger, more complex USB keypad.  I don't know...I just know my options in the ready-made area like the Genovation seems limited to that one-and-only and perhaps there's a creative, durable  DIY solution that I haven't been able to figure out.

Brian

[Dermbrian]

...this is kind of what I am going for if I buy the Genovation keypad.

Brian

[NickG]

Found this thread looking for similar projects.  I am currently starting a simlar project.  I am making a 2 or three row keypad to include full alpha and numeric for arcade mahjong games (and the like) and also for use as jukebox input.
I came across products similar to genovation here: http://piengineering.com/xkeys.php
None of their prebuilts seemed to meet my needs, but they do sell the keycaps separately so I ordered 50 of those and ordered some cherry mx from alliedelec (they are currently cheapest in U.S.A.)  I will need to build the switch mount panel and box myself.  Also, I am going to hack one of my old wireless keyboards (the ones I killed with beer) to keep this thing portable (so I can just set it on the arcade, the coffee table, my car's dashboard, etc.)  I am searching know for alternatives to the keyboard hack but I fear I may not find any in wireless.