Hello CD,
Our team is working to build a custom digital I/O board for our driverstation. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to buy buttons or switches? Also, can someone please post a link with what circuit board we would need?
I have been looking around, but have only been able to find just a little bit about these bards online.
Thank you in advanced. 
We successfully used a Teensy control board as our custom interface board. It was pretty easy to setup. (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2666)
Any push button will work as the buttons, we bought ours from a local electronics store but Mouser.com, digikey.com, sparkfun.com or any other online retailer will have the same thing.
10k potentiometers work well with the Teensy, remember to get linear and not audio taper pots. Again most electronics suppliers will have them.
Let me know if you have any specific questions about building the panel.
We took the guts out of one of the USB joysticks. This worked really well because the Driver Station software automatically recognizes it and all of the joystick VIs can be used. We removed each through hole mini button and replaced it with two wires. Then we bought arcade buttons and wired them up. We have tried many different options throughout the years and this was the most reliable with the least amount of extra programming and failure points.
I don’t know the best suppliers, but I follow fighting game tournaments and from what I have heard Sanwa buttons are the best arcade-style buttons. Depends on your application though.
We used the following unit this year for our custom controller:
If you don’t need as many Inputs they also have the following:
http://www.u-hid.com/home/uhid_nano.php
Their web site is hard to navigate but they are really easy to program and have been good to us over the years.
Helpful links
Config Utility Download:
http://www.u-hid.com/home/download_driver.php
Manual (with good examples of wiring diagrams)
http://www.u-hid.com/u-config/u-hid%20Manual.pdf
Online Store:
http://www.ultimarc.com/JShopServer/section.php?xSec=13
Hope this helps,
-Clinton-
For Buttons and Switches we sourced most of our parts from http://www.allelectronics.com/
Buttons (with good tactile feedback):
Red - http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/PB-138/SPST-N.O.-PUSHBUTTON-RED/1.html
Blue - http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/PB-172B/SPST-N.O.-PUSHBUTTON-BLUE/1.html
Green - http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/PB-172G/SPST-N.O.-PUSHBUTTON-GREEN/1.html
Yellow - http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/PB-172Y/SPST-N.O.-PUSHBUTTON-YELLOW/1.html
Black - http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/PB-139/SPST-N.O.-PUSHBUTTON-BLACK/1.html
Rocker Switch:
ON-OFF-ON - http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/RS-179/ON-OFF-ON-ROCKER-SWITCH/1.html
(Used for Key Shot - OFF - Pass Mode)
ON-OFF - http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/RS-148/ON-OFF-ROCKER-SWITCH-20-AMP/1.html
(Used for Intake Rollers ON-OFF)
-Clinton-
I’m surprised no one has suggested the e-stop robotics CCI.
http://estoprobotics.com/estore/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=33
Used one of these in 2011 and it worked very well.
As far as buttons go, I’ve had really good experience with the push-buttons from Suzo Happ. Used the same or so buttons from 2009 to 2011 and they held up just fine. They’ve also got some other really neat stuff on their site, old school arcade controllers and the like.