If you're building an electronic device of any kind, you'll more often than not need to give it some controls. This can be done in various ways, depending on what you have available, but you should always keep in mind that you don't have to sacrifice aesthetics or comfort if you know where to turn. Even if it's just a DYI project, you can still benefit from going the extra mile and getting a quality control pad for your creation, as in the least, it will give you a slight sense of satisfaction every time you use it.
Rubber key pads are the most common solution in these cases when you need a fine balance between quality and price. They often offer a good range of features that make them flexible and useful in a number of configurations, and they're inexpensive to produce, even in mass quantities. Best of all, they can easily be configured to work with different electronic devices, as all that really matters are the electronic circuits generating the appropriate signals underneath.
When you're ordering a custom key pad from a manufacturer, you should always leave room for any potential improvements or changes to your device that might come later on. So if you think that you may have your keys arranged in one of several different ways, just order one keypad for each and don't worry about it. The total price would likely still be low enough to make this an acceptable move, and you'll also get to play with some different configurations to see exactly how they're going to impact your creation.
Even if you're not building this to sell it though, you should always consider its durability and never buy products that might break down soon after you've started using them. This is not simply something that will put a spike in the wheel of your progress - a malfunctioning control pad can sometimes damage its underlying electronics. It may sound like a bit of a stretch, but the truth is that it all depends on how exactly your device works and what kinds of controls it implements in the first place.
Familiarize yourself with the specifications and safety requirements of the keypad you're using as well. Electronics have the tendency to get hot during prolonged intensive use, and this can obviously be a problem when combined with thin rubber parts. So make sure that you're never using your key pad too close to elements that can get hot during their operation, and always take the necessary safety precautions to ensure that you can secure your device even in case something does go wrong. Other than that, there's not much else that you should need to remember in order to use your newly bought custom key pads as safely and effectively as possible, so see what creative implementations you can come up with now that you have the power to control your devices as fully as possible, and with a customizable range of controls that you can implement in any way you want!
