Correct me if I'm mistaken, but if one were to fabricate a ring-type PCB for the rotary button using surface mount LED's, there shouldn't be a power problem so long as you wire the LED's in series. If I'm not mistaken, the current through the network would be based on the series resistor, not the LEDs; the LED's would only account for .7V drops across each of them. With a typical LED, Vt is around 2.?V, so that would limit you to 2 or 3 LED's per output pin from the PIC. Now, since the PIC typically can only source ~25 mA, so, set it up with 3 LED's and a 116 (or more) ohm resistor, and you should be good to go (provided those particular LED's will have a pin on the PIC all to themselves.) If you can find LED's with a transition voltage lower than say 2.9V, you might be able to add more LED's... but be sure to change the resistor value to prevent too much current from the PIC!