This switch has a nice snappy feel, and returns to the center/un-pressed position immediately when it is released. By monitoring the input state of five pins, it’s easy for any Parallax microcontroller to detect whether the switch is in the up, down, left, right, or pressed position. It is possible for more than one position to make contact at a time, such as pressed+right, left+down, or pressed+right+down, for a total of 18 input states.

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