# Patch Bay

A rack panel of jacks with a cable hanging from each source. Carry a plug to where the events should go and it seats with a click; the lamp beside it lights for every event the cable carries.

Block · With a Pass · https://tactileui.dev/blocks/patch-bay

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## Anatomy

Verlet cable, Catenary settle, Floor contact, Route table, Two step keyboard patch, Poisson events, Container query layout, Finish following, Sleeping loop

## Usage notes

An integrations or routing section that shows what the product does by letting the visitor do it: sources on the left, destinations on the right, one real cable per source to move. Each route is a cable with length and weight that settles into a catenary; a live counter and flashing lamps prove the routes carry something. Every jack is a button: press a source, then a destination; Escape lets a cable hang; the status line says every change.

## Options

| Option | Type | Description |
| - | - | - |
| eyebrow | text | Eyebrow |
| heading | text | Headline |
| lede | text | Lead |
| routes | enum | Three cables in and Support hanging loose; all four in; or every cable hanging, waiting for a hand. |
| tally | number | Where the counter starts; every event a cable carries adds one. |
| tallyLabel | text | Counter label |
| finish | enum | Auto follows the page’s data-finish, then the visitor’s system. |
| sound | boolean | Synthesised, no audio file: a plug seats with a click and a thunk, pulls out with a pop, and a taken jack knocks. Only after a hand moves a cable. |

## Methods

- update
- routes
- tally
- cables
- destroy

## States

1. **At rest**: Cables hang still in their curves; the lamps of fed destinations are lit; nothing runs.
2. **Carried**: The plug follows the hand, the cable swings after it, and the jack under it is ringed.
3. **Seated**: The plug seats (with sound on: a click and a thunk), the cable swings into its curve, the lamp lights, the status line says so.
4. **Hanging**: Dropped in the air, the cable falls from its source and the spare lies on the desk below the panel.
5. **Refused**: A jack that already holds a cable refuses a second (with sound on: a knock); the status line names the cable in it.
6. **Signal**: Events arrive at each source's rate; each one down a cable flashes the destination's lamp and adds one to the lit counter.
7. **Keyboard**: A source jack picks its cable up; a destination seats it; Escape lets it hang; Delete pulls a source's plug.
8. **Aluminium**: A bead-blasted panel with screws, a reflective LCD counter, dark cables first.
9. **Graphite**: A soft-touch panel, a vacuum-fluorescent counter, light cables first.
10. **Off screen or hidden**: No loop and no events.
11. **Reduced motion**: Cables are drawn at rest at once; lamps are steady.

## How it works

Original. The routes, sources and destinations are placeholders for an invented event router. Cables are Verlet chains of fixed length drawn on one canvas; the jacks are buttons.