Michael, Oliver and Erik

Thanx for the comments.

I will use a grounded all metal frontpanel/keyboard like this: http://www.metalwo.com/uk/key_metal.html
And yes, my plan is (was?) to control the leds directlys from the controller outputs, and scan the keyboard matrix via some other i/o's. The display is a VFD type.

Enviroment. Well -- the end product shall confirm to MIL-STD_461, wich is al about EMC. The panel might be used for military or ermergency purposes. I'll gues that EMC is a larger issue than ESD

Per