I've been following this sort of loosely.  But over the weekend I was
approached by someone who said...wouldn't it be cool if we had this thing
that did this and this....etc.

What I need to know is if there are any assembled keypad (0-9, A-F) and 2
line LCD units.  I need to customize the display some, and it can't come
from a host but has to be internal to each keypad unit.  They will talk to a
host via RS232 most likely.  In other words, the user runs thru a menu and
selects the item he/she wants to work with, punch in a couple of things,
hits enter, etc....data sends to the host.  Sure I could build something,
but its just as easy to buy it sometimes.