What you have#

The main module#

One per panel. It has the USB-C socket, the processor that runs the bus, and two tile connectors.


Connects to	Driver Station laptop, USB-C
Presents itself as	A game controller — 32 buttons, 4 axes
Drives	Up to 31 tiles on one chain
Also carries	The CFG button

The main module holds the whole configuration: which key is which button, what colour each LED is, and which USB personality to use. Tiles hold none of it, so a tile can be swapped for an identical one without reconfiguring anything.

The tiles#

Every tile has a small processor, a transceiver and two connectors. They differ in their keys, encoders or display.

Tile	What it is	Keys
mx9	3 × 3 grid of Cherry MX hot-swap keys	9
mx9rgb	The same, with an RGB LED under every key	9
mx1	A single MX key	1
arc4	Four arcade buttons, each on a 3-pin JST PH lead	4
enc2	Two rotary encoders with push-to-click shafts	2 encoders + 2 keys
disp1	A 128 × 32 text panel — a readout, not a control	none
disp2	A 160 × 128 colour display: text, and stored pictures	none
screenkey1	One key whose cap is a 128 × 128 colour screen	1

disp1, disp2 and screenkey1 are the display tiles. On screenkey1 the screen is the key’s legend. See Display tiles and legends.

Keys on a tile are numbered from 0. Buttons the Driver Station sees are numbered from 1. See Binding buttons.

Hot-swap means the key switches push in and pull out by hand, with no soldering.

What you supply#

A USB-C cable to the Driver Station laptop. That is the only power the panel needs.
Tile cables — one per link in the chain, six-way JST GH, straight through.
Key switches and keycaps for the MX tiles, or arcade buttons for arc4. Any Cherry MX-compatible switch fits.

What the Driver Station sees#

Personality	Driver Station	You get
`frc`	FRC (Windows)	32 buttons and 4 axes on one HID gamepad
`xinput`	FTC (Driver Hub / phone)	An Xbox-360-style gamepad; the 32 buttons map onto its controls

Change it in the config app, unplug, plug back in. See The config app.