Engineering synchronized per-seat touch control panels for a private jet cabin
Challenge
A private jet cabin systems integrator needed a touch control panel built into each passenger seat, letting every passenger independently control their own shades, entertainment, and lighting - plus dedicated panels for the cabin's suite and lavatory areas - all staying in sync with each other, running on custom-built hardware rather than an off-the-shelf smart display module, and reconfigurable for a new seat position without reflashing firmware.
Solution
We built the embedded software stack from the ground up on an STM32H7 (Cortex-M7) MCU, driving a compact round touch display directly through its GC9A01 controller over SPI and reading gestures from a CST816S capacitive touch IC, all rendered through ST's TouchGFX graphics framework. To keep every panel in sync, we designed a lightweight CAN FD protocol that broadcasts screen navigation, activity and screensaver state, and live flight ETA updates across the shared bus in real time, so any panel reflects what's happening on the others instantly. Each unit ships with the same firmware image and a configurable board ID, so the same hardware serves any seat position, and a remote configuration protocol backed by non-volatile flash storage lets settings be updated in the field without a reflash. We also integrated an external I/O expansion board handling PWM lighting dimming, RS-485 communication, 4-20mA sensor inputs, and lavatory water tank level sensing, so the same panel network extends into the cabin's broader monitoring and control layer.
Results
The result is a stable, production-ready multi-panel firmware running across every seat and cabin zone, with responsive gesture-based navigation and a UI that stays synchronized in real time across the whole network. Field-configurable board IDs and remote settings updates mean panels can be commissioned or reassigned to a different seat without a service visit to reflash firmware, and the shared CAN FD backbone leaves headroom to bring additional seats or functions onto the same network as the cabin configuration grows.
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