[jmullins16]

Adding a photo of a basic TI launchpad wired to about 18 buttons. Be sure to add strain relief on whatever USB cable you use to connect to the your board--TI Launchpad or anything else. Micro USB does not deal with lots of tugging very well.

I agree with the advice about most things being on/off type inputs or outputs. We had talked about using the analog inputs with sliders or potentiometers, but we decided pretty quickly that they would be useful only when tuning/calibrating. Having the drive team dial in a number on the SmartDashboard right before a match is doable, but we try very hard to reduce the number of things to remember at that stressful time.

Toggle switches are also useful for when you want to have a mode "held" with positive visual feedback to the user what state the robot is in.

Note how close you make the buttons. We have the operator do some chording as they operate multiple subsystems at one time, so you don't want that to be too uncomfortable. Our first board we customized for the operator with a fan layout, but since then we decided that a simple grid tends to be easy to learn by everyone as opposed to be optimal for one person's hand dimensions. But these are the fun things to tinker with after you get the first one built, and there's always room to grow from a simple board.