In a lot of random scrap hardware I got one of these camera controllers. I thought I might repurpose it to control something else, but after reading up on the protocol it seems that I cannot simply get the state of the buttons that way and I would be much more limited in what I could do with it. It used a form of rs485 to communicate that could have worked for more limited use cases, but I wanted more. The boards also end up being generally useful if you can accommodate the form factor so consider them for general purpose development boards. 

From the controls on the front, especially the three axis analog joystick, the first thing I could think of was a game controller, and what's better to have as a game to control than kerbal space program. This should make it a lot easier to fly some of my designs than a keyboard. Analog controls just feel so much better.