Keypad Enclosure

This is an enclosure for one of the popular 4x4 keypad matrix boards that are widely available at low cost. Specifically, this is designed around the one that was included in HackerBoxes 0015, shown here. The board has no provisions for mounting and it's easy to short out the pins on the back of the board. Wrapping the board in this enclosure solves both problems neatly.

The enclosure consists of two 3D-printed plates that sandwich the board. The lower plate is flat on the bottom, and shaped on the top to support the circuit board in between the protruding component pins. The upper plate features close-fitting holes for each of the sixteen switches and clearance for the connector. Three tabs on the lower plate engage with matching slots on the upper plate to provide alignment. Four holes at the corners are provided to fit #2 or #4 screws to hold the sandwich together and mount it onto the front panel of your project. Alternatively, the sandwich may be glued together and the screws omitted.

The keypad matrix board comes with the connector on the top side. This connector may have straight pins, as shown here, or right angle pins. The top plate of this enclosure has clearance for either configuration. A cleaner design for a permanent installation would be to mount the connector on the reverse side; this enclosure would have to be modified to support that design.