There sure are a TON of minecart station projects! Rather than add yet another, I'd like to share a design element that's fairly hard to implement in a compact fashion.
A frequent request/demonstration is using buttons to select your cart destination. A common problem is packing the buttons closely together, especially if you want indicator lights, which require memory.
EDIT ------ (UPDATE ON THE CURRENT VERSION)
Contributions by Angel_Mapper and Raken have led to the current version of the design. This is the most compact version so far. It buries all of the logic underground away from your buttons and lights and lets you move the logic as far down as you need.
Here's the compact underground design, schematic and save game file. It uses Raken's NOR logic and Angel_Mapper's indicator lights. It's 1x15x10 high underground, a 4x3 high panel above ground, and you can move the underground part as deep as you want with 4 high repeater sections.
I think this is as refined as I'm likely to get with the basic design concept of one NOR latch per input. The logic is pretty tightly packed in!
As of this writing, I think this is the lowest profile button array around, for those minecart station builders that want the absolute most creative freedom with their layouts. Time to maybe make a build video for this and move on to thinking about designs that are easier to build. This one takes serious patience and attention span.
Here's the schematic. The buttons in the save game were built using this schematic, so I think it's okay.
Here's the rest of the original post in this thread:
EDIT ------ (ORIGINAL POST)
I have put together an example of a select button/memory/indicator light array that is only 1 block wide per button and light. From forum searches, I haven't seen anyone pack all of those elements into as small and cut-and-paste friendly a format. (1 x 18 x 12 high per signal)
Hopefully this button/light array design will fit nicely into minecart stations. It can provide a row of 1-29 buttons without modification. If your cart station has 30 or more destinations, I would very much like to see it.
You can download the save game file. If you're interested, grabbing the save game and walking around in the design is good. Everything's labelled.
Here's a screenshot:
Here's a video walkthrough:
The design makes typical use of RS-NOR latches. The only thing special is that the latches are 1 wide by 5 long by 3 high and arranged side-by-side and vertically offset so the entire structure is only 1 wide per button.
Alternately, if you can do without indicator lights, then I suspect the demultiplexer approach presented in this recent thread (and probably others) can probably yield a more space-efficient design. Remote controlled minecart station
awesome work. I've got to try those vertical rs-nors. On your video, you don't pause long enough to read your signs most of the time. I get about half of the sign before you move.
awesome work. I've got to try those vertical rs-nors. On your video, you don't pause long enough to read your signs most of the time. I get about half of the sign before you move.
I can't seem to follow the side-by-side stacking of the switches. If you had some time, could you go more in depth on building the switches? How about building one from scratch in a video, and then adding the second onto it. My wires keep crossing :smile.gif:
I love your extra, discarded RS-NORs btw. I hadn't thought of building vertically (still too new, I guess) and I love it.
Yeah, building this is a pain. Here's a side-view schematic. It's not extensively double-checked, because it's late.
As soon as I can figure out how to get video and sound recording to synch, and censor swearing, I'll post a video of me trying to follow this schematic to build one from scratch. If I succeed, then the schematic is probably okay.
I think the only two actually novel elements in this design are the vertical RS NOR latches, and using adjacent torches to allow signals to cross without space between them.
I can't get this to run in the redstone simulator, so I won't be posting that version of the schematic. Maybe I'm entering something wrong, but I'm starting to suspect that the simulator doesn't have the timing 100% down.
Wow... very nicely done.I just finished my destination select with 4 destinations. I used 2 RS-NOR latches for the 2 bits of memory needed. But the problem is the circuit for multiplexing the 4 inputs into 2 bits and then demultiplexing back to 4 outputs is not very space efficient. I wish I had seen this before :smile.gif:
What do the torches circled in yellow do? I can't find any output connecting to them. They only have input.
Whoops! I fixed the current save game. Now there is redstone directly beneath each of those torches.
So the full story is, you only need ONE of those torches to accumulate all the R signals together. Directly underneath each should be redstone. But right before publishing it, I decided that instead of explaining that you only need one of those torches, I'd just put one torch at each possible place, so there was a repeating pattern. But I missed adding the extra redstone under each torch.
The schematic and the save game file (now) have the torches at every possible location, but you really only need one. It's position only matters if you have 15 or more buttons, to avoid running into signal length problems. If you had 29 buttons, then you'd have to make sure the centermost torch was present.
I used it it in my central switching station for my world that has 21 destinations. I split it up into four different units (5, 5, 5, and 6 destinations) based upon the direction (N, S, E, or W) of the main track. Now I just have to build all the tracks from the station to all the destinations. So much track to make and lay :sad.gif:
Very nice! I altered your design slightly so that all the lights are on the same level (I had to inset them one block to do this). Hope you don't mind.
A frequent request/demonstration is using buttons to select your cart destination. A common problem is packing the buttons closely together, especially if you want indicator lights, which require memory.
EDIT ------ (UPDATE ON THE CURRENT VERSION)
Contributions by Angel_Mapper and Raken have led to the current version of the design. This is the most compact version so far. It buries all of the logic underground away from your buttons and lights and lets you move the logic as far down as you need.
Here's the compact underground design, schematic and save game file. It uses Raken's NOR logic and Angel_Mapper's indicator lights. It's 1x15x10 high underground, a 4x3 high panel above ground, and you can move the underground part as deep as you want with 4 high repeater sections.
I think this is as refined as I'm likely to get with the basic design concept of one NOR latch per input. The logic is pretty tightly packed in!
As of this writing, I think this is the lowest profile button array around, for those minecart station builders that want the absolute most creative freedom with their layouts. Time to maybe make a build video for this and move on to thinking about designs that are easier to build. This one takes serious patience and attention span.
Here's the schematic. The buttons in the save game were built using this schematic, so I think it's okay.
Here's the rest of the original post in this thread:
EDIT ------ (ORIGINAL POST)
I have put together an example of a select button/memory/indicator light array that is only 1 block wide per button and light. From forum searches, I haven't seen anyone pack all of those elements into as small and cut-and-paste friendly a format. (1 x 18 x 12 high per signal)
Hopefully this button/light array design will fit nicely into minecart stations. It can provide a row of 1-29 buttons without modification. If your cart station has 30 or more destinations, I would very much like to see it.
You can download the save game file. If you're interested, grabbing the save game and walking around in the design is good. Everything's labelled.
Here's a screenshot:
Here's a video walkthrough:
The design makes typical use of RS-NOR latches. The only thing special is that the latches are 1 wide by 5 long by 3 high and arranged side-by-side and vertically offset so the entire structure is only 1 wide per button.
This is not very a beginner-friendly toy. Start by watching Bob's minecart/redstone tutorials.
Alternately, if you can do without indicator lights, then I suspect the demultiplexer approach presented in this recent thread (and probably others) can probably yield a more space-efficient design. Remote controlled minecart station
you can always hit pause yourself :tongue.gif:
Sorry for the poor video, it was my first try.
The save game should be updated with the 1 x 18 x 11 version.
I love your extra, discarded RS-NORs btw. I hadn't thought of building vertically (still too new, I guess) and I love it.
As soon as I can figure out how to get video and sound recording to synch, and censor swearing, I'll post a video of me trying to follow this schematic to build one from scratch. If I succeed, then the schematic is probably okay.
I think the only two actually novel elements in this design are the vertical RS NOR latches, and using adjacent torches to allow signals to cross without space between them.
ps. I hate you for not posting this 2 weeks ago before I built my minecart station with track switching.
I can't get this to run in the redstone simulator, so I won't be posting that version of the schematic. Maybe I'm entering something wrong, but I'm starting to suspect that the simulator doesn't have the timing 100% down.
Whoops! I fixed the current save game. Now there is redstone directly beneath each of those torches.
So the full story is, you only need ONE of those torches to accumulate all the R signals together. Directly underneath each should be redstone. But right before publishing it, I decided that instead of explaining that you only need one of those torches, I'd just put one torch at each possible place, so there was a repeating pattern. But I missed adding the extra redstone under each torch.
The schematic and the save game file (now) have the torches at every possible location, but you really only need one. It's position only matters if you have 15 or more buttons, to avoid running into signal length problems. If you had 29 buttons, then you'd have to make sure the centermost torch was present.
I used it it in my central switching station for my world that has 21 destinations. I split it up into four different units (5, 5, 5, and 6 destinations) based upon the direction (N, S, E, or W) of the main track. Now I just have to build all the tracks from the station to all the destinations. So much track to make and lay :sad.gif:
Download:
http://www.angelmapper.com/files/8butto ... Rachel.zip