Levers can only be adjusted by hand. That's useful in some machine designs, but it would also be handy if there was another kind of lever that could be altered by redstone as well as by hand.
With that in mind I have two new types of redstone controlled levers I'd like to suggest.
Keep in mind that a lever is actually next to the block it is mounted on, not part of it. So to activate these you would need to send a redstone signal to the space the lever is actually in, or the block directly beneath it. Powering the wall it is on wouldn't do anything to the lever.
The Off Lever
When the Off Lever receives a redstone charge it switches off. If it is already off it remains off.
Uses: Resetting a big complicated machine with lots of switches. You could press a button to make everything you flipped on turn back off. You could also make a timer to automatically reset the levers after a set period of time, or at regular intervals.
The Lock Lever
This lever cannot be switched on or off when it is receiving a redstone charge. When the redstone charge turns off it can be flipped as normal.
It wouldn't be a bad idea to also have a lock button that can't be pressed when it is receiving a charge.
Uses: Can prevent a big complicated machine from having any of its switches altered until a master safety switch is turned off. Also handy in challenge maps, if you want to disable or enable devices in large portions of the map at once.
P.S. Both levers if placed on the floor would power themselves (since they'd power the block beneath them). The Off Lever would quickly shut itself off, acting like a button. The lock lever would be stuck on permanently, useful in challenge maps if you want a switch that can't be shut off once flipped.
I don't know about the second one, but the first one can essentially {now} be accomplished by opening and closing the circuit using a connected piston. Set it up so that part of the wire goes on a block in front of a piston. End the wire at the piston itself, causing it to push the wired block out from the circuit, cutting the power to itself and whatever contraption you're working on. Since a piston retracts once it loses power, it will automatically reset itself.
I know it's not as compact as what you're suggesting, but if you ever need something of the source and size isn't an issue, you know what to do.
I don't know about the second one, but the first one can essentially {now} be accomplished by opening and closing the circuit using a connected piston. Set it up so that part of the wire goes on a block in front of a piston. End the wire at the piston itself, causing it to push the wired block out from the circuit, cutting the power to itself and whatever contraption you're working on. Since a piston retracts once it loses power, it will automatically reset itself.
I know it's not as compact as what you're suggesting, but if you ever need something of the source and size isn't an issue, you know what to do.
You could interrupt the charge with a piston, but you can't actually make the levers switch back to the off position.
There are lots of ways of automatically turning off redstone devices after a period of time. However you can't cause the user interface (the levers) to reset themselves.
This suggestion really wouldn't affect what machines you can build with redstone. It's to improve how easily and intuitively you can control it.
For example, let's say you have a bunch of machines each activated by a separate lever. You could make a way of disabling all the machines at once. But then you'd still have to go from machine to machine manually flipping all the switches back to off.
Or let's say you have a challenge map where you want a lever to turn off after one minute. You could definitely find a way of cutting off the signal from a lever after one minute. But the lever would remain on, even if its signal isn't received anymore.
You could also disable entire systems without the lock lever, but people could still flip the lever on and off even if it isn't doing anything. And then when the safety lock is turned off, things might be in the wrong position and mess up your device.
Another thing you could use OFF levers for: a toggle that has to be manually reset. You could use it instead of a circuit latch in some simple designs.
Top repeater going -->
Bottom going <--
There's how you lock something on.
The off lever sounds interesting for time switches though, and lock lever can also be useful for other things.
You can lock something on or off and you can reset circuits, you just can't move or lock the switches themselves.
As an analogy, think about a toaster. When you push the toaster's button down it makes the toast go down too and start getting heated. The toast automatically pops up when its done. It'd be a pretty bad toaster if the button didn't also pop back up with the toast.
Or imagine an elevator that has its buttons light up once pressed. But the lights don't turn off when you reach that button's floor, it requires someone to press the button again to turn the light off. That'd be a pretty bad elevator.
Real life is filled with machines where the buttons and levers reset their appearance/condition for the next user. Sure that's not necessary for the machine to function, but it makes the machine much easier to use.
The Off lever is just an AND gate with an additional lever as 1 input and all the other parts of the circuit as the other input, with the normal output being whatever it was originally. You flip the lever connected to the AND gate and it won't go to the output.
The Lock lever is basically an Off lever with an input that makes it unchangable. So... the same AND gate as before but with another input connected to an inverter which is connected to a Lever.
They would be more convenient I guess but I haven't made anything that these would benefit.
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The Off lever is just an AND gate with an additional lever as 1 input and all the other parts of the circuit as the other input, with the normal output being whatever it was originally. You flip the lever connected to the AND gate and it won't go to the output.
The Lock lever is basically an Off lever with an input that makes it unchangable. So... the same AND gate as before but with another input connected to an inverter which is connected to a Lever.
They would be more convenient I guess but I haven't made anything that these would benefit.
My point is that yes you can replicate the effect with redstone circuitry, but you can't replicate the ability to reset the interface. It's pretty easy to turn a circuit on or off from a separate set of controls. And it's easy to disable a lever. But you can't reset the main switch for that device itself. It requires flipping a different switch elsewhere, and leaving the main lever for that machine in the wrong position.
For example, let's say you have a labyrinth where a player has to find three levers and flip them all to open a door. Right now you could easily make it so a pressure plate on the other side of the door makes it shut again behind them. But those three levers would remain on, even though the door's shut, so they'd be in the wrong position for the next person to come along.
With the off lever you could not only shut the door behind them, you could put the levers back to the original position.
The only problem is that the way the off lever is set up, it kills itself instantly unless you put the output in one spot, meaning the spot directly below the block the lever is attached to. If you try anywhere else, the lever would power it, then power itself and reset. It can't be reset without resetting itself.
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The only problem is that the way the off lever is set up, it kills itself instantly unless you put the output in one spot, meaning the spot directly below the block the lever is attached to. If you try anywhere else, the lever would power it, then power itself and reset. It can't be reset without resetting itself.
The off lever would not be affected by a redstone charge in the wall it's on. You'd have to power the block beneath it, or have something like redstone wire or a pressure plate directly adjacent to it.
With that in mind I have two new types of redstone controlled levers I'd like to suggest.
Keep in mind that a lever is actually next to the block it is mounted on, not part of it. So to activate these you would need to send a redstone signal to the space the lever is actually in, or the block directly beneath it. Powering the wall it is on wouldn't do anything to the lever.
The Off Lever
When the Off Lever receives a redstone charge it switches off. If it is already off it remains off.
Uses: Resetting a big complicated machine with lots of switches. You could press a button to make everything you flipped on turn back off. You could also make a timer to automatically reset the levers after a set period of time, or at regular intervals.
The Lock Lever
This lever cannot be switched on or off when it is receiving a redstone charge. When the redstone charge turns off it can be flipped as normal.
It wouldn't be a bad idea to also have a lock button that can't be pressed when it is receiving a charge.
Uses: Can prevent a big complicated machine from having any of its switches altered until a master safety switch is turned off. Also handy in challenge maps, if you want to disable or enable devices in large portions of the map at once.
P.S. Both levers if placed on the floor would power themselves (since they'd power the block beneath them). The Off Lever would quickly shut itself off, acting like a button. The lock lever would be stuck on permanently, useful in challenge maps if you want a switch that can't be shut off once flipped.
I know it's not as compact as what you're suggesting, but if you ever need something of the source and size isn't an issue, you know what to do.
You could interrupt the charge with a piston, but you can't actually make the levers switch back to the off position.
There are lots of ways of automatically turning off redstone devices after a period of time. However you can't cause the user interface (the levers) to reset themselves.
This suggestion really wouldn't affect what machines you can build with redstone. It's to improve how easily and intuitively you can control it.
For example, let's say you have a bunch of machines each activated by a separate lever. You could make a way of disabling all the machines at once. But then you'd still have to go from machine to machine manually flipping all the switches back to off.
Or let's say you have a challenge map where you want a lever to turn off after one minute. You could definitely find a way of cutting off the signal from a lever after one minute. But the lever would remain on, even if its signal isn't received anymore.
Top repeater going -->
Bottom going <--
There's how you lock something on.
The off lever sounds interesting for time switches though, and lock lever can also be useful for other things.
You can lock something on or off and you can reset circuits, you just can't move or lock the switches themselves.
As an analogy, think about a toaster. When you push the toaster's button down it makes the toast go down too and start getting heated. The toast automatically pops up when its done. It'd be a pretty bad toaster if the button didn't also pop back up with the toast.
Or imagine an elevator that has its buttons light up once pressed. But the lights don't turn off when you reach that button's floor, it requires someone to press the button again to turn the light off. That'd be a pretty bad elevator.
Real life is filled with machines where the buttons and levers reset their appearance/condition for the next user. Sure that's not necessary for the machine to function, but it makes the machine much easier to use.
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ModeratorThe Off lever is just an AND gate with an additional lever as 1 input and all the other parts of the circuit as the other input, with the normal output being whatever it was originally. You flip the lever connected to the AND gate and it won't go to the output.
The Lock lever is basically an Off lever with an input that makes it unchangable. So... the same AND gate as before but with another input connected to an inverter which is connected to a Lever.
They would be more convenient I guess but I haven't made anything that these would benefit.
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My point is that yes you can replicate the effect with redstone circuitry, but you can't replicate the ability to reset the interface. It's pretty easy to turn a circuit on or off from a separate set of controls. And it's easy to disable a lever. But you can't reset the main switch for that device itself. It requires flipping a different switch elsewhere, and leaving the main lever for that machine in the wrong position.
For example, let's say you have a labyrinth where a player has to find three levers and flip them all to open a door. Right now you could easily make it so a pressure plate on the other side of the door makes it shut again behind them. But those three levers would remain on, even though the door's shut, so they'd be in the wrong position for the next person to come along.
With the off lever you could not only shut the door behind them, you could put the levers back to the original position.
The off lever would not be affected by a redstone charge in the wall it's on. You'd have to power the block beneath it, or have something like redstone wire or a pressure plate directly adjacent to it.