Anyone Ever Build a Custom Selector Switch Panel? (LCD, TFT, etc?)

[Power Hungry]

Welcome! Glad to have you with us.

In regards to your question, I'll answer as best as I can.

The controller output for the Hydra is passive. It's literally just two 7 Seg. LEDs and two buttons. The chip provides an output through the ribbon cable to control the LEDs and display the position, but is otherwise unaffected if the controller is removed. The two buttons provide a signal to either switch up or down. It's simply a pull-down from 3.3V. All very basic and simple stuff.

With that said, I will add that we did look at doing custom digital displays using 2x16 LCD modules. We even built a few prototypes. These would allow for a more intuitive representation of the tune in each position based on a description that would be written into the header of each position. This is very similar to what you're describing (bouncy truck aside).

Doing some small amount of market research (mostly through dealers), we ended up deciding that there wasn't enough of a market to make it worthwhile and it simply wouldn't have been cost effective to make a small quantity of the devices. Plus, it would have required a separate firmware to handle the active IO to the controller as well as a new SKU, different packaging, a change to HydraFlash, and few other little things.

We did offer another option for a while, which was called Cyclops. It replaced (or worked in conjunction with) the two button controller and allowed for someone to change their position using bluetooth on their Android. It even gave them the option for custom labels so that they could define what each position was. Ultimately, these didn't do as well as expected and they were discontinued after the first batch was depleted.

Given the relatively simple nature of the output signals to the switch, it wouldn't be difficult build a device with a built-in decoder to determine what position the chip is in and then use that to control an LCD display. However, it would have to be completely self-contained and self-powered as the signal lines from the chip would not handle the current required to run an LCD. Still, it would be cool to see someone build an accessory like that and we would be more than happy to provide the signal line information to anyone that wants to attempt it.

I hope this helps.