My desire is to have a simple setup with a dial device (ideal would be a 3 click dial with 3 distinct settings but an analog dial would also be appropriate) whereby position 1 would display a color (yellow, for example) and position 2 would display red and positoin 3 would display blue. The only programming involved would need to set the colors to each position.

I have managed to do this with a very, very pooly crafted arduino but it feels like this is overkill for a simple project. I also think that it can be made fairly inexpensively with a little knowledge. I have tried to look up RGB drivers and this seems to be the way to go but there are a lot of choices. I also looked up a 555 IC timer, which looks like it would be fun to play with but probably not the right choice for this.

If anyone has a direction for my reading, experience, or other pearls of information I would very much appreciate any help.