Abstract
In this thread I present a construct for automatically detecting reed growth. Unlike cacti, reeds don't automatically break and the usual methods of farming them require either polling (periodically pushing out pistons or removing water) or manual player interaction. Here I present a fully automated mechanism which uses the block update of reeds to trigger a circuit to automatically harvest the reed once it has grown. A demo video can be viewed here
Introduction
Most automatic reed farms designed today either rely upon the player or a clock to trigger pistons to trim the reed. Especially the clock is problematic as clocks in conjunction with pistons will generate a lot of noise and causes constant redstone updates throughout your world which, when applied in great numbers, can lead to lag.
The player triggered farm will most likely remain the primary way to harvest the reeds as there is little sense in harvesting them if the player isn't there to collect them. Furthermore the reed detector is considerably larger than a plain pressure plate and therefore cannot compete in compactness.
Reed growth detectors can also be applied for other purposes like e.g. a random timer similar to Ethos . In this sense, the reed growth detector is an interesting building block by itself which might someday lead to other inventions.
Related work
The design describe here mainly relies upon two mechanics. First it utilizes liquid redirection to detect when a reed has grown. The growth of a reed causes neighbour blocks to update just like the redstone does in the original liquid redirection threads.
Secondly it utilizes the by Etho to transform this updated water flow into a redstone signal which triggers the harvesting and reset of the stream.
Finally a basic understanding of liquid physics is required. In particular how liquid prefers to flow to the nearest drop. These physics are described clearly by and the water tutorial by Etho.
The design
By combining the technique of liquid redirection with a water sensor, we can transform the growth of a reed into a redstone signal. This redstone signal has to perform two tasks. First, it needs to reset the water stream to its original position and second it needs to harvest our newly grown reed block.
Figure 1.
[i]Fully automatic reed farm (front). Left: water sensor. Right: collection point. Bottom water source allows planting reed. Top water source functions as growth detector. A pressure plate below the boat triggers a sideways attached torch which powers the wool block above it.[/i]
To create this we use a water source with two holes at opposite sides as shown in Fig. 1. The right hole is permanently opened and ensures the water doesn't scatter in all directions around the device. It also doubles as the collection point of the farm (or the connection point of a larger water channel when built in series).
The left hole is the access point to the water sensor and needs to be closed at the time the water stream is reset (and opened directly thereafter). It is important to use a distance of at least two as a single block distance will cause the water source to update whenever we open or close the second hole.
There is a total of three regular pistons in this device. The right piston trims the reed. The middle piston cuts the water stream going into the sensor and the left piston opens and closes the sensor hole.
Figure 2.
[i]The wiring at the back. Left piston cuts the reed. Middle piston stops the water stream. Right piston opens/closes the water sensor. The right piston needs to be delayed (set the repeater to the third setting).
The triggering order of the pistons is very important. When the middle piston retracts the water stream will update. At this time the water sensor piston needs to be extended to ensure that the water doesn't flow to the left. Only after this water update the water sensor piston can retract again. Fig. 2 shows how the wiring can be done.
A demo video of the working system can be viewed here. Manually placing a reed has the same effect as when it grows. To cut the video duration and save on video editing I just place the reeds manually.
Conclusion
Using the growth of a reed to redirect a water flow into a water sensor we can construct a fully automated reed farm which requires no player interaction and no clock. The relative large footprint and high amount of resources required to construct this device makes the result more theoretical than practical though it might inspire spin-off designs and/or future inventions.
has recently independently discovered this device as well. He rightly observes that this is in fact a block update detector and has a more flexible design by having the block observer more exposed (very similar to CadenDonuts design).
Support the Allocator! Find my inventions such as my pressure plate removal detector on the About Me page of my profile.
I'm still looking for more feedback on my configurable Redstone Gate mod. All gates and common circuits (such as e.g. clocks, edge detectors, latches and Flip-Flops) in a single block.
Support the Allocator! Find my inventions such as my pressure plate removal detector on the About Me page of my profile.
I'm still looking for more feedback on my configurable Redstone Gate mod. All gates and common circuits (such as e.g. clocks, edge detectors, latches and Flip-Flops) in a single block.
#2: I spent about 2 hours a few weeks ago looking into something like this. This only detects the growth state of one reed, correct? Since a single reed growing nearby will cause the water to update, if you have more than one reed that will be harvested when the water sensor is activated you might run into a situation when only a few reeds have reached full growth. I spent FOREVER trying to see if reeds can grow through water (be it water source, horizontal water streams of all depths, and vertical water streams, but it never worked, which totally sucks. Otherwise, it would be fairly simple to create something that will only harvest reeds when all of them have reached maturity.
This only detects the growth state of one reed, correct?
Yes that is correct. Though you can mirror the design and share the water stream with a second reed. If you stretch it out, i.e. make the water sensor go straight instead of curving under the wiring, then you can also share the water sensor. Either way, it is still too big to compete with traditional designs.
I spent FOREVER trying to see if reeds can grow through water (be it water source, horizontal water streams of all depths, and vertical water streams, but it never worked, which totally sucks. Otherwise, it would be fairly simple to create something that will only harvest reeds when all of them have reached maturity.
Indeed. If that was possible you could run the water over the top of a row of reeds and into an elevated water sensor at the end.
Still think a 5minute clock would be more effective and less complicated. Non the less, great work! :smile.gif:
Without a doubt. "Because we can" applies here :tongue.gif:
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Support the Allocator! Find my inventions such as my pressure plate removal detector on the About Me page of my profile.
I'm still looking for more feedback on my configurable Redstone Gate mod. All gates and common circuits (such as e.g. clocks, edge detectors, latches and Flip-Flops) in a single block.
It seems Etho has just discovered this invention as well. He calls it the BUD switch (Block Update Detector). I linked his tutorial in the original post.
Support the Allocator! Find my inventions such as my pressure plate removal detector on the About Me page of my profile.
I'm still looking for more feedback on my configurable Redstone Gate mod. All gates and common circuits (such as e.g. clocks, edge detectors, latches and Flip-Flops) in a single block.
What i find funny is you credit etho for part of it, not the whole thing, which is what he made.
I know. My design predates Etho's BUD switch.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Support the Allocator! Find my inventions such as my pressure plate removal detector on the About Me page of my profile.
I'm still looking for more feedback on my configurable Redstone Gate mod. All gates and common circuits (such as e.g. clocks, edge detectors, latches and Flip-Flops) in a single block.
In this thread I present a construct for automatically detecting reed growth. Unlike cacti, reeds don't automatically break and the usual methods of farming them require either polling (periodically pushing out pistons or removing water) or manual player interaction. Here I present a fully automated mechanism which uses the block update of reeds to trigger a circuit to automatically harvest the reed once it has grown. A demo video can be viewed here
Introduction
Most automatic reed farms designed today either rely upon the player or a clock to trigger pistons to trim the reed. Especially the clock is problematic as clocks in conjunction with pistons will generate a lot of noise and causes constant redstone updates throughout your world which, when applied in great numbers, can lead to lag.
The player triggered farm will most likely remain the primary way to harvest the reeds as there is little sense in harvesting them if the player isn't there to collect them. Furthermore the reed detector is considerably larger than a plain pressure plate and therefore cannot compete in compactness.
Reed growth detectors can also be applied for other purposes like e.g. a random timer similar to Ethos . In this sense, the reed growth detector is an interesting building block by itself which might someday lead to other inventions.
Related work
The design describe here mainly relies upon two mechanics. First it utilizes liquid redirection to detect when a reed has grown. The growth of a reed causes neighbour blocks to update just like the redstone does in the original liquid redirection threads.
Secondly it utilizes the by Etho to transform this updated water flow into a redstone signal which triggers the harvesting and reset of the stream.
Finally a basic understanding of liquid physics is required. In particular how liquid prefers to flow to the nearest drop. These physics are described clearly by and the water tutorial by Etho.
The design
By combining the technique of liquid redirection with a water sensor, we can transform the growth of a reed into a redstone signal. This redstone signal has to perform two tasks. First, it needs to reset the water stream to its original position and second it needs to harvest our newly grown reed block.
Figure 1.
[i]Fully automatic reed farm (front). Left: water sensor. Right: collection point. Bottom water source allows planting reed. Top water source functions as growth detector. A pressure plate below the boat triggers a sideways attached torch which powers the wool block above it.[/i]
To create this we use a water source with two holes at opposite sides as shown in Fig. 1. The right hole is permanently opened and ensures the water doesn't scatter in all directions around the device. It also doubles as the collection point of the farm (or the connection point of a larger water channel when built in series).
The left hole is the access point to the water sensor and needs to be closed at the time the water stream is reset (and opened directly thereafter). It is important to use a distance of at least two as a single block distance will cause the water source to update whenever we open or close the second hole.
There is a total of three regular pistons in this device. The right piston trims the reed. The middle piston cuts the water stream going into the sensor and the left piston opens and closes the sensor hole.
Figure 2.
[i]The wiring at the back. Left piston cuts the reed. Middle piston stops the water stream. Right piston opens/closes the water sensor. The right piston needs to be delayed (set the repeater to the third setting).
A demo video of the working system can be viewed here. Manually placing a reed has the same effect as when it grows. To cut the video duration and save on video editing I just place the reeds manually.
Conclusion
Using the growth of a reed to redirect a water flow into a water sensor we can construct a fully automated reed farm which requires no player interaction and no clock. The relative large footprint and high amount of resources required to construct this device makes the result more theoretical than practical though it might inspire spin-off designs and/or future inventions.
[edits]
I'm still looking for more feedback on my configurable Redstone Gate mod. All gates and common circuits (such as e.g. clocks, edge detectors, latches and Flip-Flops) in a single block.
Please note the torch placement in Figure 1.
I'm still looking for more feedback on my configurable Redstone Gate mod. All gates and common circuits (such as e.g. clocks, edge detectors, latches and Flip-Flops) in a single block.
#2: I spent about 2 hours a few weeks ago looking into something like this. This only detects the growth state of one reed, correct? Since a single reed growing nearby will cause the water to update, if you have more than one reed that will be harvested when the water sensor is activated you might run into a situation when only a few reeds have reached full growth. I spent FOREVER trying to see if reeds can grow through water (be it water source, horizontal water streams of all depths, and vertical water streams, but it never worked, which totally sucks. Otherwise, it would be fairly simple to create something that will only harvest reeds when all of them have reached maturity.
Yes that is correct. Though you can mirror the design and share the water stream with a second reed. If you stretch it out, i.e. make the water sensor go straight instead of curving under the wiring, then you can also share the water sensor. Either way, it is still too big to compete with traditional designs.
Indeed. If that was possible you could run the water over the top of a row of reeds and into an elevated water sensor at the end.
Without a doubt. "Because we can" applies here :tongue.gif:
I'm still looking for more feedback on my configurable Redstone Gate mod. All gates and common circuits (such as e.g. clocks, edge detectors, latches and Flip-Flops) in a single block.
I'm still looking for more feedback on my configurable Redstone Gate mod. All gates and common circuits (such as e.g. clocks, edge detectors, latches and Flip-Flops) in a single block.
I know. My design predates Etho's BUD switch.
I'm still looking for more feedback on my configurable Redstone Gate mod. All gates and common circuits (such as e.g. clocks, edge detectors, latches and Flip-Flops) in a single block.
I feel the love.