Thank for the advice Al,
Thats basicly what we came up with (including the radioshack rotary switch).
I came up with something that was a bit more complicated and had like 30 different programs and still worked...but then someone else on the electrical team made another one when they were board...that used regular toggle switches and wired the whole thing in serise so that as you flipped the switches you got more resistance...
If i have time to get mine done we'll use mine but it looks like we may just go with the simpler one
thanks for all the help everyone.