Best way
simplest way
cleanest way
Four separate wires plus a common to 0V/GND or 3V3, five wires in total would be my choice.
If you want it neater consider buttons on a button board then use header pins and jumpers to connect to the main board. Or just take more time soldering the wires up.
The only way to get down to the three wires you are hoping for would seem to be to build a resistor chain which will require ADC, which a Pico does have, or add a processor on the button board which can send serial.
You can use Power/Data combined and get the connection down to just two wires but that's moving far away from "simplest".
simplest way
cleanest way
Four separate wires plus a common to 0V/GND or 3V3, five wires in total would be my choice.
Maybe forget about that as no one but you is going to see those wires, know what a mess it is, once it's all assembled in its box.I actually have tested with 4 separate buttons but really don't like the mess of cables and ground rail bodge job I had.
If you want it neater consider buttons on a button board then use header pins and jumpers to connect to the main board. Or just take more time soldering the wires up.
The only way to get down to the three wires you are hoping for would seem to be to build a resistor chain which will require ADC, which a Pico does have, or add a processor on the button board which can send serial.
You can use Power/Data combined and get the connection down to just two wires but that's moving far away from "simplest".
Statistics: Posted by hippy — Mon Jul 21, 2025 2:52 pm