Dear members,

That was a handful or should I say a screenfull ? The brain storming session was quite informative. I am now weighing the options as laid out by you all :

First point that i didnt mention, is that the unit will have a 20x2 LCD for user interaction. Second the pump type is something that they dont fiddle with on a daily basis - what I have thought about is this. Apart from the keypad there will also be a 2 digit thumbwheel and if a digit is selected on it then the system will check if there is a matching configuration and if yes it will display the corresponding pump name. If no, it will open the edit mode dialog. Thus the use of keypad is limited to this level only.

Option 1 : Use a full fledged keyboard. Would love to but space does not permit this.

Option 2 : Use a custom keyboard - an option that I can check with Cherry.

Option 3 : Go Nintendo style. Not bad at all and why not ? considering the scarce use of the keypad.

Option 4. : use a 8x5 matrix keypad and usual reading techniques.

Option 5 : Use a laptop for configuration download. Was suggested as the first to the client - but the issue of locating the laptop when needed fast - vetoed against this option.

Thanks one and all.

Shall revert once I have the thing ( or a combination )in place

Raghu