Hi Garfield,
Hermod, aside from being a powerful sequencer on its own, can be an extension of Vector, adding more pitch and gate outputs. You can apply Hermod‘s effects to Vector‘s parts and add interesting variations this way.
Hermod has a nice arpeggiator that I like to use with an external keyboard or simply with a chord part from Vector. Soon Vector will have its own arpeggiator function, though.
Hermod is also great to bring external sequencers such as iPad apps into the rack.
The aluminium board is a Grid from Monome, which is basically a controller whose function changes depending on the program/app/sequencer it is connected to.
I use it with the Monome Ansible (the module between Hermod and Sinfonion) which has several immensely inspiring sequencers built in and can also be used as a simple midi to CV interface.
Do check out Monome! They are also the makers of Norns.
https://monome.org/docs/grid/
https://monome.org/docs/ansible/