My search didn't find anything like this, tho' I wouldn't be surprised if a similar idea had been proposed, but I am posting this in the hopes that it is at least somewhat unique.
New Block: The Hopper
A Hopper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopper) is a chute for directing materials into a device. In this case, you build it thusly:
top: iron - blank - iron
middle: iron - blank - iron
bottom: redstone - iron - redstone
It will constantly "scan" the 9 blocks centered one block above it, and if any items are floating (ie dropped or dispensed) it will scoop them up and put them into the block below the hopper. If that block is empty, the items will just fall to the ground. If that block is full, the items are not picked up by the hopper. If, however, that item is a chest, the items will be put into the chest.
More importantly, if the block below is a furnace, and the item is coal, charcoal, or wood and the bottom slot can fit it, the item will be added to the fuel slot. If the item is one that can be baked, then the item will fall into the top slot.
If the block below the hopper is a dispenser, then the item is loaded into the dispenser.
you get the idea, right?
So, in theory, you could rig one of these up to your cactus farm, have the farm pour the cactus into the hopper which loads 'em into the furnace. When mixed with coal, it then makes you lovely green dye. I'm sure you can follow the possibilities.
Now here's the fun part.
A hopper, when scanning the level above it, will also look into the "output" slots on any furnaces.
It could, conceivably, also scan chests.
So with such a device, you could build rather extensive production facilities that can produce "second level" baked items.
To take this up a notch (pun intended), if you arranged 9 hoppers in a square, they could feed their items into a crafting table into specific slots based on which position the hoppers occupy in the square.
New Block: The Hopper
A Hopper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopper) is a chute for directing materials into a device. In this case, you build it thusly:
top: iron - blank - iron
middle: iron - blank - iron
bottom: redstone - iron - redstone
It will constantly "scan" the 9 blocks centered one block above it, and if any items are floating (ie dropped or dispensed) it will scoop them up and put them into the block below the hopper. If that block is empty, the items will just fall to the ground. If that block is full, the items are not picked up by the hopper. If, however, that item is a chest, the items will be put into the chest.
More importantly, if the block below is a furnace, and the item is coal, charcoal, or wood and the bottom slot can fit it, the item will be added to the fuel slot. If the item is one that can be baked, then the item will fall into the top slot.
If the block below the hopper is a dispenser, then the item is loaded into the dispenser.
you get the idea, right?
So, in theory, you could rig one of these up to your cactus farm, have the farm pour the cactus into the hopper which loads 'em into the furnace. When mixed with coal, it then makes you lovely green dye. I'm sure you can follow the possibilities.
Now here's the fun part.
A hopper, when scanning the level above it, will also look into the "output" slots on any furnaces.
It could, conceivably, also scan chests.
So with such a device, you could build rather extensive production facilities that can produce "second level" baked items.
To take this up a notch (pun intended), if you arranged 9 hoppers in a square, they could feed their items into a crafting table into specific slots based on which position the hoppers occupy in the square.
Thoughts?