How to make physical custom keys to OpenCpn

[LarsBrinck]

I would like to have some physical custom keys on top of my new OpenPlotter nav-station. I got a 13" touch screen but find the touching the "buttons" on OpenCpn is too fiddly for me. I would lika a row of 4-8 keys with direct access to zoom, follow-toggle, shift-click and perhaps some more functions. I don´t have any issues with waterproofing since this is indoors on an old tug-boat. I don´t want an full-size keyboard since it is a cramped space.

Should I go directly do GPIO-pins on the RPi or through USB? Are ordinary pushbuttons or keyboard switches (like this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4980) best?

Any ideas, pics. or links to projects are very welcome!

/Lars

[abarrow]

I'd probably just start with a programmable keypad and wire out the keys to something waterproof. You could then program the shortcut keys in Linux.

[LarsBrinck]

Thanks for tip - (sorry late reply - missed the notification email)
You mean an ordinary usb-keypad and then wire out those keys? Seems like a very neat solution. I´ll check it out - thanks!