Torrent is retired. Its job has been picked up by Switchback, which now handles relay-style light and accessory switching plus Picket-format sensor inputs in one off-the-shelf box. We hate to see Torrent go. We also know it is the right call.
What Torrent was
Torrent was a custom PCB power distribution module. Eight MOSFET channels, each PWM-capable, so anything you wired through it could be dimmed as well as switched. It was one of the first modules we built, it ran in our own rigs for a long time, and it did its job well.
It was also one of the few remaining custom PCBs in the system. Every time someone wanted to build a TrailCurrent setup, Torrent was a module that required ordering a fab run, getting the parts, and assembling the board. That is a hurdle. For a project that prides itself on being something you can actually build, every hurdle counts.
What Switchback does instead
Switchback runs on a Waveshare ESP32-S3 carrier with eight relay outputs and eight digital inputs, all in a finished plastic enclosure with screw mounts. You order it, you flash it, you wire it in. No fab run, no board assembly.
The eight relays replace Torrent's switching job. The eight digital inputs replace what Picket sensors do on a small scale, in the same exact message format Picket uses, so Headwaters does not know the difference. One module, two jobs, off the shelf.
What you lose
Dimming. Switchback's relays are on or off. Torrent's MOSFET channels could ramp brightness with PWM. If you had a build that depended on dimming specific lights through TrailCurrent, that capability does not transfer.
In practice, the lights most RV owners care about are not the dimming ones. Awning lights, porch lights, scare lights, water pump, fridge, the awning motor itself, slide motors, the macerator. These are all on or off. For the handful of cabin lights where dimming actually matters, smart bulbs or a dedicated dimmer driver wired downstream of a Switchback relay do the same job without dragging a whole custom PCB into the build.
We thought about this trade for a while. The dimming capability was real. The cost of keeping it, in terms of build complexity and total parts count, was also real. The simpler path won.
What you gain
The full picture is:
- One fewer custom PCB to fabricate or assemble
- One fewer 3D-printed enclosure to print and mount
- Sensor inputs included in the same module that handles switching
- Lower total parts cost across the build
- A finished commercial enclosure with screw-mount tabs, indoor mount, no 3D printing required
- Built-in Ethernet on the Waveshare board if you want a wired link instead of CAN
For a starter build, Switchback plus Tapper now covers the same ground that Torrent plus Tapper plus a few Picket sensors used to. That is a meaningful reduction in what you have to source, print, and assemble before you have a working system.
If you already own a Torrent
It keeps working. The firmware repo stays on GitHub for anyone who wants to keep building or maintaining one, and the CAN protocol it speaks is unchanged. If you are comfortable running esptool from your own machine, you have everything you need to keep an existing Torrent in service.
What does change is that Torrent is no longer in the web flasher. Anyone building a TrailCurrent module with no toolchain installed should be looking at Switchback, so the in-browser path now reflects that. The custom-PCB enthusiasts who choose to run Torrent are exactly the people most at home with esptool on the command line.
And going forward, "start with Switchback" is the default story we tell on the catalog, the getting-started page, and the architecture diagram.
A note on direction
This is the second consolidation in a few months. Solstice absorbing Ampline was the first. The principle is the same in both cases. When two modules share enough DNA to become one without losing what matters, they should become one. When a custom PCB can be replaced with an off-the-shelf board that does the same job, it should be.
The three things we keep optimizing for are simple, off the shelf, and low cost. Every time we can move the needle on all three at once, we will. Torrent moving aside for Switchback does exactly that.
The Switchback build page has the wiring, the BOM, and the firmware link. The starter recommendations on Get Started and the catalog on What's Inside have been updated to reflect the change.