This article on adding an external keypad to the K3 was created to make it simpler for the next poor sod down the road to add a Genovation CP48USBHID, 48 key keypad, or the Genovation CP24USBHID, 24 key device to their K3/P3 devices. I initially learned about the Genovation keypads on the Elecraft mail list. It sounded to me like several people were talking as if they had them working, so I asked how to set one up, and got nothing back… I asked again a few weeks later, only this time on both the Elecraft, and the Yahoo mail lists. I received several replies, all saying they would like to have one of these working as well. I did get one lone reply from a person who said, “yes, but I did it a year ago, and have now forgotten how”. From that I concluded I was on my own in getting these two devices connected. Given I agreed with the general premise that having a keypad available to send macros to the radio would be good, I decided to move forward with this project and see how far I might get. I contacted the Elecraft support team first, and got, “only the listed keyboards will work”, response. However, in the discussion, I got what would later turn out to be a vital piece of information in making the connection between these two devices work. Read more
