So this is my second time building one of these, and I've made quite a few improvements on the original. I'll be posting shots of the original as well, just for comparison.
OLD DECODER:
NEW DECODER:
By far, a more compact version. Which sadly makes it slower, but worth it, I think. The blue wool is the actual decoder, the snow white lines simply tell the display which segments to activate for the given number. Once again, remember this is a work in progress. Just in case you were wondering why there are no real inputs going into the decoder.
OLD DISPLAY:
NEW DISPLAY:
All controlled by pistons, because torches are boring and make the display difficult to read. And of course, I still include corners because they add 75% more legitness. These are functional, but the corner pistons act as block update detectors. I can't disable them until glowstone has transparent qualities again and they take away and re-add the ability to place redstone dust on it.
This is just where the numbers are fed into the display, I'm pretty proud of how clean it turned out. I don't have a very good shot of the old one, but you should get an idea of how cruddy and unorganized everything was by the pic below. I sucked at making things compact at the time.
I'll post more screenshots as I complete different parts of the project, I actually have a bit more done than this, I just haven't screencapped them yet. So I'll go do that now.
EDIT: UPDATE TIME!!
These are 1-wide vertical RS NOR latches, my own design. I looked all over the interwebz to make sure it hadn't been done before. If you find someone that has used them previously, feel free to let me know.
OLD ADDERS:
Yes, absolutely hideous, I know. Especially the latches which are all over the place.
NEW ADDERS:
These are the new 2-wide, easily stackable adders, ( and a cow =] ) designed by AmmorthNefare. Check out his YouTube channel, he does some great things. Sadly they are not completely functional yet as MCXBLA is still in beta and redstone still "connects" to torches they're not actually connected to.
EDIT: UPDATE TIME ONCE AGAIN! (Finally)
RAM:
Just finished the RAM. The blue lines underneath are for "loading" they send whatever values that are stored in the flip flops to the decoder, which is why they are blue.
This is just an aerial view because I think it looks cool. The blue line on the left with pistons also plays a part in the loading process. As does another similar, inverted setup behind the adders, it prevents values coming directly out of the adders from being mixed with information the RAM is trying to send. You'll see it if you look carefully in the last shot I post.
USER INTERFACE:
This is the UI, the control room basically. It's pretty much complete now except for signs and actually turning it into a room. There is also a power switch for the display and a debug function. (Also for the display.) And, as you can see, the value "47" is displayed as the contents of the RAM. If you haven't guessed by now, 47 is my favorite number for some odd reason.
THE WHOLE KIT AND KABOODLE:
I added quite a few small features, but didn't feel like they deserved their own photo. So here's everything! The red line is for overflow, it shows in the UI room as an error and basically shuts everything down until you reset the inputs. Also, "EE" appears on the piston display, the RAM's binary display torches start flashing, and it cuts off the RAM's ability to write values. The snow on the side of the decoder is the "power" for the display. When the display is "off" all lines in the decoder are forced on, keeping all torches off so the display cannot receive any signals. (Except from the debug function, which I will talk about later.)
This is just a view from the other side. Under the glass directly behind the display is the debug function, it only debugs the display itself. I thought about expanding it to debug the entire decoder, but it rarely gives me any problems, strangely enough. But pistons bug nearly every time the machine processes anything, so debugging for it was necessary. Due to space restraints, you must turn the display off and then debug, but nonetheless it works.
Well, thanks for taking the time to check out my creation, fine people of MCF! There will be a YouTube video coming out soon, not sure if it'll be under my existing YouTube or if I'm going to make a new one. I'll get back to you on that one. In the meantime, if you would like to learn in more detail how this works, how redstone works in general, or just want to see a tour of it in "person" feel free to add me on Xbox Live.
Holy cow! (and there it is on your circuit). That's super-impressive particularly because you did it on *this* un-moused, un-creative-moded version. Sure puts my 8-bit counter (with only 7 t flip flops) to shame. I haven't done 7-segment digit displays yet, and I very much want to. The only thing that's holding me back from trying is the lack of sticky pistons. I've been a strictly peaceful player so far, so no slimes.
Pretty Impresive sir, Now, can you make it talk? Because that is your next assignment.
Well I suppose I could... in text. Right now it could only say "UP" or "bE" or "dO" etc. Anything else would require a completely re-designed display that isn't possible in the Xbox version. There's actually a thread in the redstone creations section by a guy that made a pretty sweet display with a full keyboard. It has symbols, working shift keys and all that cool stuff.
Holy cow! (and there it is on your circuit). That's super-impressive particularly because you did it on *this* un-moused, un-creative-moded version. Sure puts my 8-bit counter (with only 7 t flip flops) to shame. I haven't done 7-segment digit displays yet, and I very much want to. The only thing that's holding me back from trying is the lack of sticky pistons. I've been a strictly peaceful player so far, so no slimes.
The biggest downside to doing this on MCXBLA, for me, is no copy-paste-like feature. Being able to fly will help out tremendously though, I can't tell you how many times I fell off my old decoder and ragequit just for that reason, haha. Not to mention, cleaning up the random pillars of wool I used to ascend back to the top wasn't much fun either. 7-segment displays are easy to make really, the only problem is if you want to use corners they will be buggy until the official release update. You can still make one with torches though, the design is just a bit different in some places. I could help you out if you want, you're on your own with the decoder though, lmao. There's no way I'm taking the time to code it for 255 different outcomes. (I hate building decoders)
EDIT: Oh yeah, btw, it's still not quite done yet. I'm going to add 6 bits of RAM to it later today, maybe a couple other features.
Well I suppose I could... in text. Right now it could only say "UP" or "bE" or "dO" etc. Anything else would require a completely re-designed display that isn't possible in the Xbox version. There's actually a thread in the redstone creations section by a guy that made a pretty sweet display with a full keyboard. It has symbols, working shift keys and all that cool stuff.
The biggest downside to doing this on MCXBLA, for me, is no copy-paste-like feature. Being able to fly will help out tremendously though, I can't tell you how many times I fell off my old decoder and ragequit just for that reason, haha. Not to mention, cleaning up the random pillars of wool I used to ascend back to the top wasn't much fun either. 7-segment displays are easy to make really, the only problem is if you want to use corners they will be buggy until the official release update. You can still make one with torches though, the design is just a bit different in some places. I could help you out if you want, you're on your own with the decoder though, lmao. There's no way I'm taking the time to code it for 255 different outcomes. (I hate building decoders)
EDIT: Oh yeah, btw, it's still not quite done yet. I'm going to add 6 bits of RAM to it later today, maybe a couple other features.
Haha! I knew it must have been a bear for you without creative. I had a hard-enough time keeping things straight with the simple piston flip flops and data lines.
I don't know that I want to do a purist decoder either. I'm spinning ideas in my head based on some of what I've seen out there. I have this notion about a pianola-style data-storage/lookup-table, using a mix of transparent and opaque blocks (for data pass-through or blocking), cycled by pistons. The "roll" with the segment data goes up once on each tick, and triggers a pulse to the next significant digit when it loops around. Ideally, the digits also could be selected manually somehow. I know it sounds ambitious, and I don't know if I'll actually go through with it yet. I'm not even sure I can pull off the data roll in this version.
I have to be the one to say it... It's CALCULATOR not CACKALAYTURR.
Other than that. It's cool. It's just been completely over done on the PC. Once we get Creative Mode, it'll probably be overdone on the Xbox 360 as well.
Haha! I knew it must have been a bear for you without creative. I had a hard-enough time keeping things straight with the simple piston flip flops and data lines.
I don't know that I want to do a purist decoder either. I'm spinning ideas in my head based on some of what I've seen out there. I have this notion about a pianola-style data-storage/lookup-table, using a mix of transparent and opaque blocks (for data pass-through or blocking), cycled by pistons. The "roll" with the segment data goes up once on each tick, and triggers a pulse to the next significant digit when it loops around. Ideally, the digits also could be selected manually somehow. I know it sounds ambitious, and I don't know if I'll actually go through with it yet. I'm not even sure I can pull off the data roll in this version.
I used to have the same problem, as you can see by my old pictures. Most people don't realize how much of a pain it is to keep everything neat. If you miss one little detail, you end up having to rebuild a whole component, just to move it over 1 or 2 meters. Yeah, that's a good idea, I've seen one of those used for a timer, not sure how you would hook up the actual counter to it though. Unless you just scratch the flip flops and throw a clock directly on it.
I have to be the one to say it... It's CALCULATOR not CACKALAYTURR.
Other than that. It's cool. It's just been completely over done on the PC. Once we get Creative Mode, it'll probably be overdone on the Xbox 360 as well.
What's your point? Mansions are overdone, so are mob traps, lighthouses, pixel art, boats, statues, castles, the list goes on. Should we not build anything just because it's been done before? And most of the people (on YouTube anyway) just copy tutorials of really simple adders. They're not actually trying to learn something and pass on that knowledge.
I used to have the same problem, as you can see by my old pictures. Most people don't realize how much of a pain it is to keep everything neat. If you miss one little detail, you end up having to rebuild a whole component, just to move it over 1 or 2 meters. Yeah, that's a good idea, I've seen one of those used for a timer, not sure how you would hook up the actual counter to it though. Unless you just scratch the flip flops and throw a clock directly on it.
Right. No need for the old binary counter with this method. And a change in the data tables would change the behavior of the counter. E.g., it could be set to count down instead of up, without actual subtraction. One could theoretically even make a 24H:60M:60S clock, and hook a calendar to the end of it for good measure, with enough digits and data rolls. I'm sure there's a practical limit to the digits that can be strung together this way, though, with all those pistons shifting rows of blocks. Don't want to melt my console.
Religion, has actually convinced people, that there's an invisible man, living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of the day, and the invisible man has a special list. Of 10 things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do ANY of these ten things he has a special place, full of fire, and smoke, and burning, and torture, and will send you there to suffer and choke and scream for all of eternity... But he still loves you.
Right. No need for the old binary counter with this method. And a change in the data tables would change the behavior of the counter. E.g., it could be set to count down instead of up, without actual subtraction. One could theoretically even make a 24H:60M:60S clock, and hook a calendar to the end of it for good measure, with enough digits and data rolls. I'm sure there's a practical limit to the digits that can be strung together this way, though, with all those pistons shifting rows of blocks. Don't want to melt my console.
I'm sure before that actually happened pistons would just end up locking up completely and parts or maybe even the whole circuit would fail. Pistons are notorious for that on the Xbox version, that on top of the redstone bugs that already existed dooms it to failure.
I'm sure before that actually happened pistons would just end up locking up completely and parts or maybe even the whole circuit would fail. Pistons are notorious for that on the Xbox version, that on top of the redstone bugs that already existed dooms it to failure.
. Uses exactly the same method I was contemplating. (See ~1:30.) You're probably right about all that locking up on the 360. Let's see how far the August bugfix update takes us.
. Uses exactly the same method I was contemplating. (See ~1:30.) You're probably right about all that locking up on the 360. Let's see how far the August bugfix update takes us.
I've seen one like that, it was a tutorial vid for a 12-hour clock. It was actually pretty accurate too, (lost a second for every 10 seconds or something like that) but it wouldn't need to be accurate just for a counter or timer.
No.. it looks like AIDS. Except for the Church of Cake.
/cry
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Religion, has actually convinced people, that there's an invisible man, living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of the day, and the invisible man has a special list. Of 10 things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do ANY of these ten things he has a special place, full of fire, and smoke, and burning, and torture, and will send you there to suffer and choke and scream for all of eternity... But he still loves you.
Religion, has actually convinced people, that there's an invisible man, living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of the day, and the invisible man has a special list. Of 10 things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do ANY of these ten things he has a special place, full of fire, and smoke, and burning, and torture, and will send you there to suffer and choke and scream for all of eternity... But he still loves you.
... We got a smart allic. here. Cakalayturr is a word actually, it is Baron for Calculator.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Religion, has actually convinced people, that there's an invisible man, living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of the day, and the invisible man has a special list. Of 10 things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do ANY of these ten things he has a special place, full of fire, and smoke, and burning, and torture, and will send you there to suffer and choke and scream for all of eternity... But he still loves you.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Retired StaffOLD DECODER:
NEW DECODER:
By far, a more compact version. Which sadly makes it slower, but worth it, I think. The blue wool is the actual decoder, the snow white lines simply tell the display which segments to activate for the given number. Once again, remember this is a work in progress. Just in case you were wondering why there are no real inputs going into the decoder.
OLD DISPLAY:
NEW DISPLAY:
All controlled by pistons, because torches are boring and make the display difficult to read. And of course, I still include corners because they add 75% more legitness. These are functional, but the corner pistons act as block update detectors. I can't disable them until glowstone has transparent qualities again and they take away and re-add the ability to place redstone dust on it.
This is just where the numbers are fed into the display, I'm pretty proud of how clean it turned out. I don't have a very good shot of the old one, but you should get an idea of how cruddy and unorganized everything was by the pic below. I sucked at making things compact at the time.
I'll post more screenshots as I complete different parts of the project, I actually have a bit more done than this, I just haven't screencapped them yet. So I'll go do that now.
EDIT: UPDATE TIME!!
These are 1-wide vertical RS NOR latches, my own design.
OLD ADDERS:
Yes, absolutely hideous, I know. Especially the latches which are all over the place.
NEW ADDERS:
These are the new 2-wide, easily stackable adders, ( and a cow =] ) designed by AmmorthNefare. Check out his YouTube channel, he does some great things. Sadly they are not completely functional yet as MCXBLA is still in beta and redstone still "connects" to torches they're not actually connected to.
EDIT: UPDATE TIME ONCE AGAIN! (Finally)
RAM:
Just finished the RAM.
This is just an aerial view because I think it looks cool. The blue line on the left with pistons also plays a part in the loading process. As does another similar, inverted setup behind the adders, it prevents values coming directly out of the adders from being mixed with information the RAM is trying to send. You'll see it if you look carefully in the last shot I post.
USER INTERFACE:
This is the UI, the control room basically. It's pretty much complete now except for signs and actually turning it into a room. There is also a power switch for the display and a debug function. (Also for the display.) And, as you can see, the value "47" is displayed as the contents of the RAM. If you haven't guessed by now, 47 is my favorite number for some odd reason.
THE WHOLE KIT AND KABOODLE:
I added quite a few small features, but didn't feel like they deserved their own photo. So here's everything! The red line is for overflow, it shows in the UI room as an error and basically shuts everything down until you reset the inputs. Also, "EE" appears on the piston display, the RAM's binary display torches start flashing, and it cuts off the RAM's ability to write values. The snow on the side of the decoder is the "power" for the display. When the display is "off" all lines in the decoder are forced on, keeping all torches off so the display cannot receive any signals. (Except from the debug function, which I will talk about later.)
This is just a view from the other side. Under the glass directly behind the display is the debug function, it only debugs the display itself. I thought about expanding it to debug the entire decoder, but it rarely gives me any problems, strangely enough. But pistons bug nearly every time the machine processes anything, so debugging for it was necessary. Due to space restraints, you must turn the display off and then debug, but nonetheless it works.
Well, thanks for taking the time to check out my creation, fine people of MCF! There will be a YouTube video coming out soon, not sure if it'll be under my existing YouTube or if I'm going to make a new one. I'll get back to you on that one. In the meantime, if you would like to learn in more detail how this works, how redstone works in general, or just want to see a tour of it in "person" feel free to add me on Xbox Live.
Thanks, once again!
Stay classy, Minecraftians.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Retired StaffIt's "legal" to bump if it's justified by adding new information in a previous post right?
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Retired StaffWell I suppose I could... in text. Right now it could only say "UP" or "bE" or "dO" etc.
The biggest downside to doing this on MCXBLA, for me, is no copy-paste-like feature. Being able to fly will help out tremendously though, I can't tell you how many times I fell off my old decoder and ragequit just for that reason, haha. Not to mention, cleaning up the random pillars of wool I used to ascend back to the top wasn't much fun either. 7-segment displays are easy to make really, the only problem is if you want to use corners they will be buggy until the official release update. You can still make one with torches though, the design is just a bit different in some places. I could help you out if you want, you're on your own with the decoder though, lmao. There's no way I'm taking the time to code it for 255 different outcomes. (I hate building decoders)
EDIT: Oh yeah, btw, it's still not quite done yet. I'm going to add 6 bits of RAM to it later today, maybe a couple other features.
Haha! I knew it must have been a bear for you without creative. I had a hard-enough time keeping things straight with the simple piston flip flops and data lines.
I don't know that I want to do a purist decoder either. I'm spinning ideas in my head based on some of what I've seen out there. I have this notion about a pianola-style data-storage/lookup-table, using a mix of transparent and opaque blocks (for data pass-through or blocking), cycled by pistons. The "roll" with the segment data goes up once on each tick, and triggers a pulse to the next significant digit when it loops around. Ideally, the digits also could be selected manually somehow. I know it sounds ambitious, and I don't know if I'll actually go through with it yet. I'm not even sure I can pull off the data roll in this version.
Other than that. It's cool. It's just been completely over done on the PC. Once we get Creative Mode, it'll probably be overdone on the Xbox 360 as well.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Retired StaffI used to have the same problem, as you can see by my old pictures.
What's your point? Mansions are overdone, so are mob traps, lighthouses, pixel art, boats, statues, castles, the list goes on. Should we not build anything just because it's been done before? And most of the people (on YouTube anyway) just copy tutorials of really simple adders. They're not actually trying to learn something and pass on that knowledge.
Right. No need for the old binary counter with this method. And a change in the data tables would change the behavior of the counter. E.g., it could be set to count down instead of up, without actual subtraction. One could theoretically even make a 24H:60M:60S clock, and hook a calendar to the end of it for good measure, with enough digits and data rolls. I'm sure there's a practical limit to the digits that can be strung together this way, though, with all those pistons shifting rows of blocks. Don't want to melt my console.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Curse PremiumCACKALAYTURR
and spelled it exactly like you said you would...
Did you like my dirt village I made on that world..?
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Retired StaffI'm sure before that actually happened pistons would just end up locking up completely and parts or maybe even the whole circuit would fail. Pistons are notorious for that on the Xbox version, that on top of the redstone bugs that already existed dooms it to failure.
No.. it looks like AIDS. Except for the Church of Cake.
. Uses exactly the same method I was contemplating. (See ~1:30.) You're probably right about all that locking up on the 360. Let's see how far the August bugfix update takes us.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Retired StaffI've seen one like that, it was a tutorial vid for a 12-hour clock. It was actually pretty accurate too, (lost a second for every 10 seconds or something like that) but it wouldn't need to be accurate just for a counter or timer.
I'll add you either tonight or tomorrow and give you a tour, it's actually almost done. I should have more screenshots up tomorrow.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Curse Premium/cry
CACKALAYTURR IS NOT A REAL WORD
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Curse PremiumSomeone is gonna get an infraction for spamming.
REDSTONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Curse Premium... We got a smart allic. here. Cakalayturr is a word actually, it is Baron for Calculator.