Can anyone give me some examples of good uses for Beacons, Hoppers & Droppers? I'm pretty novice when it comes to Redstone builds and I could use some ideas. What are each best used for?
* Beacons are only good as expensive-to-make decorations. Think "searchlight" (as in WW2 searchlights). The idea was to help you keep from getting lost in PC-size worlds.... but with the 360 you have a map of the whole world- how can you get lost? I played with them some, tried to leave a extensive 'bread crumb' trail of beacons in all 4 directions. Still got lost once I lost sight of them.
* Droppers are 'cute' but kinda worthless. They only hold 9 items, and only 'throw' an item out about as far as you can 'drop' an item from inventory (B). See the wiki: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Dropper To me, their only saving grace is that you can stack a 'chain' of them to raise items up (say to the top of cliff). You put items in the bottom, it moves them to the top for you and kicks them out. So? You still have to go to the top of the cliff and retrieve them or they'll 'disappear', so you might as well take a bunch at once in inventory (beats 'dropping' an item up there one at a time) since you got to hoof it up there anyway. Even if it didn't 'drop' the item, it can only hold 9, so what's the point?
* Hoppers are very useful. Can't wait for them. For instance, if you have a hopper under the end of a water trough from your mob grinder, a hopper will automatically put those drops in a chest (below it) for you. This means the chest will continue to fill (while your grinder keeps on working) whether you're there or not. You don't have to worry about drops 'disappearing' if you're not around to collect them, or have to manually 'pick up' things and manually put it in a chest. They make those "automated" (actually "semi-automated") farms even more automated... and they don't have to be powered to work! See more about them here: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Hopper
A Dropper and Dispenser function very similar to each other with the exception that the Dispenser can 'activate' certain items in their inventory (ie. Dispensers will: fire arrows, dispense or collect water and/or lava source from a bucket, throws splash potions or bottles o' enchanting, activates spawn eggs to their respective MOBs, equips armor on players, throws snowballs or eggs, etc.), whereas the Dropper will only 'eject' or 'drop' the item to be picked up.
But another key difference is that the Dropper (like the Hopper) will 'insert' an item into another 'container' block. (this is what makes the item elevators possible). "Container" blocks include chests, trapped chests, other droppers, dispensers, furnaces, minecart with hopper or chest and even brewing stands, but does not include ender chests (as these hold player specific inventories), crafting tables, enchantment tables, or anvils).
Unlike the Hopper, the Dropper is capable of pointing (or dropping/ejecting/inserting) upward and it doesn't collect 'dropped' items (like Hoppers do from their tops), and Droppers have to be redstone activated to eject items, whereas Hoppers have to be redstone activated to lock them or to not eject items. Hoppers also only insert items into containers and do not technically eject/drop items like the Droppers do.
Droppers/Dispensers have 9 inventory slots and so can carry 9 item stacks, Hoppers only have 5 inventory slots and can at best hold 5 item stacks.
Beacons can also be used as a way to 'super mine' areas, with haste 2, and an efficency 5 pickaxe, one can 'insta-mine' stone, which is MUCH faster then breaking things in creative, in fact one can clear an area of mostly stone faster then someone with TNT can.
droppers can feed into furnaces automatically with repeaters, combined with a hoppers to auto collect from the furnaces. this allows you to just pour all your ores into one thing at ounce(or atleast in large dumps) and come back later with it all ready.
currently though(the reason im here) droppers in the 360 edition do not place items into the upper slot of a furnace. making your newfangled contraption and auto coal placer.......soon tho
I just use hoppers for automated furnaces. Place a hopper on the ground with a furnace on top and a chest beside it. To do this, sneak by pressing RS otherwise you'll enter the furnace/hopper/chest interface. Connect another hopper to the back or side of the furnace, and place a chest on top of it. To do this, you'll have to place a few blocks underneath you so you can still crouch. Fuel resources will go here. Finally, place another hopper on top of the furnace, with a chest on top for raw foods, ores, etc. It will all be done even while you're away, the only downside being no exp. I have a picture of how to spruce it up with stone brick, but I cant upload on my iPhone
Hoppers suck up items and can be used to make auto-looting mob farms and plant farms when linked to chests.
Droppers drop items that'd otherwise be fired out and used by a dispenser. Also...smiley face block.
Stay fluffy~
* Beacons are only good as expensive-to-make decorations. Think "searchlight" (as in WW2 searchlights). The idea was to help you keep from getting lost in PC-size worlds.... but with the 360 you have a map of the whole world- how can you get lost? I played with them some, tried to leave a extensive 'bread crumb' trail of beacons in all 4 directions. Still got lost once I lost sight of them.
* Droppers are 'cute' but kinda worthless. They only hold 9 items, and only 'throw' an item out about as far as you can 'drop' an item from inventory (B). See the wiki: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Dropper To me, their only saving grace is that you can stack a 'chain' of them to raise items up (say to the top of cliff). You put items in the bottom, it moves them to the top for you and kicks them out. So? You still have to go to the top of the cliff and retrieve them or they'll 'disappear', so you might as well take a bunch at once in inventory (beats 'dropping' an item up there one at a time) since you got to hoof it up there anyway. Even if it didn't 'drop' the item, it can only hold 9, so what's the point?
* Hoppers are very useful. Can't wait for them. For instance, if you have a hopper under the end of a water trough from your mob grinder, a hopper will automatically put those drops in a chest (below it) for you. This means the chest will continue to fill (while your grinder keeps on working) whether you're there or not. You don't have to worry about drops 'disappearing' if you're not around to collect them, or have to manually 'pick up' things and manually put it in a chest. They make those "automated" (actually "semi-automated") farms even more automated... and they don't have to be powered to work! See more about them here: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Hopper
But another key difference is that the Dropper (like the Hopper) will 'insert' an item into another 'container' block. (this is what makes the item elevators possible). "Container" blocks include chests, trapped chests, other droppers, dispensers, furnaces, minecart with hopper or chest and even brewing stands, but does not include ender chests (as these hold player specific inventories), crafting tables, enchantment tables, or anvils).
Unlike the Hopper, the Dropper is capable of pointing (or dropping/ejecting/inserting) upward and it doesn't collect 'dropped' items (like Hoppers do from their tops), and Droppers have to be redstone activated to eject items, whereas Hoppers have to be redstone activated to lock them or to not eject items. Hoppers also only insert items into containers and do not technically eject/drop items like the Droppers do.
Droppers/Dispensers have 9 inventory slots and so can carry 9 item stacks, Hoppers only have 5 inventory slots and can at best hold 5 item stacks.
droppers can feed into furnaces automatically with repeaters, combined with a hoppers to auto collect from the furnaces. this allows you to just pour all your ores into one thing at ounce(or atleast in large dumps) and come back later with it all ready.
currently though(the reason im here) droppers in the 360 edition do not place items into the upper slot of a furnace. making your newfangled contraption and auto coal placer.......soon tho
Use hoppers as roof to put hidden light sources. (Light passes through hoppers)