Reddit reviews Cylewet 5Pcs 360 Degree Rotary Encoder Code Switch Digital Potentiometer with Push Button 5 Pins and Knob Cap for Arduino (Pack of 5) CYT1100

After seeing a couple posts of people's custom button boxes on reddit I knew I had found my next project. I've been doing quite a bit of Arduino and small electronics lately, and this was the perfect fit. So off I went to Amazon, ordered a bunch of stuff I thought might be cool / useful and started piecing things together. Took a few weekends of working on it here and there, the most time consuming part just being tediously soldering and wiring the 38 inputs.

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Was originally going to set it into some sort of project enclosure, but ended up getting impatient and just mounting it to two pieces of plywood with some feet. It added enough heft to it that I can lift the switch guard and rotate the somewhat stiff selector without issue. Eventually I'll get a better enclosure for it, probably grab one off of Hammond mfg or get someone with a larger 3D printer to make one. The Engine Start and black/red button (that I'm going to use for quantum jump) have leds in them that I don't currently have hooked up to the Arduino, but once we get some sort of API into Star Citizen hopefully I can tie them to engine state and jump spool/ready state.

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The controls are:

Power on, flight ready, 3 misc buttons, zoom rotary encoder, 3 misc buttons, quantum spool, quantum jump

Hat switch + center for shield distribution and reset, engine, shield, and thruster power switches, power distribution profile selector, misc selector

Flare Fire button, flare select, 7 misc toggle switches, self destruct switch, eject switch.

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I mapped everything to a button in the Arduino code (no rotary encoder as zoom in this screenshot) so that I can easily bind to functions in Star Citizen. Unfortunately without an API this means the switch positions can get out of sync with the actual ship status easily. If by the time of release / they make an API there still isn't a way to read / set state by API then I'll probably make a new version with only toggle buttons.

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Code Libraries

PCF8574_library for interfacing with the IO expanders
- https://github.com/xreef/PCF8574_library

ArduinoJoystickLibrary for emulating a joystick on windows
- https://github.com/MHeironimus/ArduinoJoystickLibrary/

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Useful Instructables

Joystick Library
- https://www.instructables.com/id/Create-a-Joystick-Using-the-Arduino-Joystick-Libra/

PCF8574
- https://www.instructables.com/id/PCF8574-GPIO-Extender-With-Arduino-and-NodeMCU/

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Parts List

1 Terminal Expansion Board - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PGDWJ2V

3 PCF8574 IO Expansion Board - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B95LMLQ

1 Rotary Encoder - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DM2YMT4

1 4 Position Rotary Selector - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JN2967L

1 Red Ring Momentary Push Button - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017ILTX60

1 Engine Start Momentary Push Button - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MK2394L

5 Heavy Duty Toggle Switch - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078KBC5VH

1 12 Position Rotary Switch - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074WMC9C8

1 5-Channel Rocker - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K5PFPNC

1 Arduino Micro - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AFY2S56

7 Red/Black Momentary Push Buttons - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BD2D96W

2 Red Cover Toggle Switches - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BD2D96W

8 Small Toggle Switches - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013DZB6CO

Here is a copy and paste from an older post I had on it:

I basically ordered one from Amazon (well a pack of 5 I guess since that's the smallest they come in). This one: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07DM2YMT4

Snipped off the 2 extra legs that are supposed to hold it to the board since they just got in the way. Then I soldered the two pins for the push button directly to the PCB using the regular switch holes. (Had to bend the other 3 pins up or if the way but after that they fit great). My PCB was the standard Lily58 from littlekeyboards.com (not the pro) so I only know they line up well on that board. (EDIT: actually with this build I'm now using the pro, the two push button pins don't line up nearly as well due to the board expecting hotswap sockets, but you can just solder a little wire between the pins and board, so it works ok for the pro too.)
The encoder itself already fit through the switch hole in the case so nothing needed there.

After that you need to attach the other 3 pins for the encoder to the PCB. The middle one I attached to ground by trailing a wire from the center pin the the ground pad for the underglow on the top side of the PCB. I lined it up so it ran directly between the switches and it covered by the case so you can't see it.

For the remaining 2 pins I soldered longer wires and fed them to the underside of the PCB through the hole for the case standoffs. Still plenty of room in the hole for the actual brass standoff. Then I ran them to the pro micro and soldered them to pins F4 and F5 (which I'm pretty sure went being used)

All that's left was to add a bit of glue to hold it to the board and add the config for encoder to my qmk using pins F4 and F5.

I'm happy with how it turned out.

Hope that helps.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DM2YMT4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's a potentiometer knob.

Cylewet 5Pcs 360 Degree Rotary Encoder Code Switch Digital Potentiometer with Push Button 5 Pins and Knob Cap for Arduino (Pack of 5) CYT1100 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DM2YMT4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gnoqDbT62PMJE