Monitor Overview

The Modular Monitor is CCPE's interactive information terminal: a 12×10 grid of module slots on which you can install buttons, switches, knobs, screens and other modules, freely controlled via Lua from a CC:T computer.

Getting the Monitor Peripheral

The Monitor's CC:T peripheral type is "ccpe:monitor", and there are two ways to get it:

Method A: Via a Channel (recommended, works at any distance)

Using the Peripheral Extender's channel system, get the Monitor peripheral at any distance:

local pe = require("ccpe.pe")
local monitor = pe.getPeripheral(3)   -- 3 is the Monitor's global channel number

Method B: Direct CC:T Peripheral

When a computer is placed adjacent to the Monitor, wrap it directly:

local monitor = peripheral.wrap("right")
-- or
local monitor = peripheral.find("ccpe:monitor")

monitor itself provides module/screen query methods and sound methods (see Monitor). The obtained "module instances" then provide their own get/set methods.

Module Types

Type	Description	Docs
button_1	Button (momentary; player click detection / interaction lock / light strip control)	Button Module
toggle_switch	Toggle switch (latching)	Switch Module
knob	Knob (angle 0..360)	Knob Module
screen	Screen (cell-model text rendering + free-position graphics)	Screen Module

Common Module Instance Methods

The following methods are available on all module types (button_1 / toggle_switch / knob) as well as screens (screen) (handle denotes any module instance).

Method	Description
handle.getId()	Returns the unique ID (number) of this module/screen within the Monitor
handle.getType()	Returns the type name string: "button_1", "toggle_switch", "knob" or "screen"
handle.getX() / handle.getY()	Returns the grid coordinates of the module/screen's top-left corner (numbers)
handle.getWidth() / handle.getHeight()	Returns the occupied size (in cells, numbers). E.g. the knob is 2×2
handle.setTooltip(text)	Sets the tooltip text shown for this module in the config GUI/on hover (for screens, writes the hover description text tooltipText)

print(mod.getId(), mod.getType())   -- 7  toggle_switch
mod.setTooltip("Feed valve")
screen.setTooltip("Pressure gauge")

Conventions & Notes

• mainThread rules: all pure get methods are mainThread = false (read directly on the computer thread, low latency); all set / action methods are mainThread = true (written on the server main thread, safe). Note that wasClicked() / clearClicked() are "read-and-clear", so they count as actions and run on mainThread = true.
• Grid coordinates: x 0..11, y 0..9 (12×10 grid).
• Module IDs: unique within a Monitor; modules and screens share one namespace.
• Returns nil: returns nil when not found (empty cell / invalid ID).

Complete Example

local pe = require("ccpe.pe")
local monitor = pe.getPeripheral(3)

-- Inspect the module on a cell
local mod = monitor.getCellModule(3, 4)
if mod then
    print("type:", mod.getType(), "id:", mod.getId())
    mod.setTooltip("Description set from Lua")

    if mod.getType() == "toggle_switch" then
        mod.setToggleState(true)
    elseif mod.getType() == "knob" then
        mod.setAngle(135)
    elseif mod.getType() == "button_1" then
        mod.press()
    end
end