Decora style button panel

[Guy Lavoie]

For a project I'm building, I would like to find a Decora style panel that would have several tiny push buttons that would close normally open dry contacts. Is there such a thing available? Ideally I'd like it have 8 buttons (two columns of four) or more, although other button configurations could also be ok. If someone has a dead Leviton HCC4D or something like that, it would be an ideal configuration.

 

[WayneW]

I think I have a couple Leviton 6400's around, in ivory. They are similar to the 16400's in this link, but without the LEDs and without the clear key caps. They have rocker switches instead of stand-alone push buttons.

 

[mcascio]

Insteon has the 8 button Keypad Lincs.

Depending on your setup, once our Insteon plugin is complete, ala MainLobby, you could assign any command to a button on the keypad.

So whatever MLServer/MainLobby can talk to, a single button could also.

 

[Digger]

Are the keypad links for on/off or just dimming? I couldnt figure that out looking at the Smarthome website.

I use the M1 to control my Insteon (just put the serial module in this weekend) and immediatly became annoyed when I shut down the panel to add something and lost the links to the Insteon. Its a pain to re-linkl them. I decided to power the serial module seperately so when I shut the panel down it stays energized.

I had an old Ademco AD12612 and a 4 Ah battery. I use that and tied the commons together. Seem to work fine. And a 4 Ah battery will power the serial for days since it only pulls max 30 Ma.

Anyway..... back to the original question. You could get a blank cover plate and make your own device easy enough if its low voltage.

 

[smee]

Guy:

I've wanted something like that for a while, now, too. Certainly it's easy enough to make one, but it's difficult to make one that looks clean and professional like the commercial ones.

I figured the best way to do it was to find a relatively cheap one (or a broken one) and hack it.

Xantech does sell a keypad that would work fine: Xantech 598-00. It's just an 8-key keypad that fits in a decora opening. It's got nine connections on the back - common and one for each key. It does not have provisions for LEDs if that's important. The big problem - the cheapest I can find them is $50.

 

[Guy Lavoie]

Looks like smee has the same idea as myself. That's the trick, getting it to look good. As I also hinted at, a dead unit would be the ideal choice, especially one with removable and transparent keycaps. At $50 for a new one though, that's just way too much.

Waynew, are you saying that you actually have a couple of the Leviton button sets that you're not using? Those do have the advantage of being dry contacts to begin with, and seem to have very little depth. PM me and tell me how much you would like for them and I might consider them as a solution.