Keypad

Greetings

I am looking for a way to increase my available buttons without having to resort to programming keystrokes (CTRL+R, etc). This would ultimately result in clashes with other software and would be very cumbersome to program/update.

I currently use LINDA for buttons and FSUIPC for axes. Perhaps we could avoid a debate on the benefits of each. Suffice to say, LINDA has the profiles for most addon aircraft and FSUIPC is....well FSUIPC.

It seems the hardware is available, in the form of programmable keyboards/pads, but I don't seem to see any software that can trick windows into seeing the device(s) as game controllers. That would seem to be necessary in order to effectively use LINDA/FSUIPC. I understand that there is a limit of 32 buttons for a controller in windows as well.

So my questions are these. Hopefully someone already has a solution that answers all of them  :unsure:  :

-is there a keypad (no switches, no axes, etc; just keys) that would be seen as a game controller in windows with no intervening 3rd party driver?

-is there a software driver out there that will trick windows into seeing a USB attached keyboard as a game controller?

-if so, can this driver (if the keyboard has more than 32 buttons) trick windows into seeing the keyboard as 2 or more controllers?

I saw a program out there called HIDMacros. It appears to have several ways to send input to the machine, but does not disguise a keyboard as a game controller. Perhaps someone has used it and would have some advice.

Maybe it is necessary to program keystrokes into the keyboard and then assign them to LINDA/DSUIPC. If so, OK. I would still like to avoid that.

The above questions tie into my desire to use LINDA and FSUIPC to program my aircraft without having to resort to generic keystrokes. I have looked all over the place and it is obvious I am looking in the wrong places. So now I will look in the right place....AVSIM hardware forum!

Having written half a book here, if there is a simple product that does what I want out of the box, please forgive my taking up all the space.

Thanks

Graham