Minecraft Forums

"And God said, "let there be light," And there was light. But there was no one there to accurately detect it" — minecraft:ID Unknown

Add a craftable light sensor which gives a redstone signal output of the exact strength as the light level of the block it is placed in.

By replacing the wooden half slabs in the recipe of the daylight detector with stone, and the brown color with grey in its texture, and finally setting the value of the block as the redstone output implementating it would be quick and simple.

Here is an image of the crafting recipe with a rough sketch of the suggested texture:

Direct access to the light level through a sensor would open up many new uses for redstone.

Here are some examples I've come up with so far

• Alarm for any area with too low or too high light levels
• Both normal doors and secret doors opened by placing a torch or other light sources.
Arrangements of light sources in certain pattern to set off multiple sensors would make interesting combination locks or puzzles

• Detection of day/night where the sensor needs to be less exposed
• Fire or lava alarms triggering water dispensers or other water sources.
Would it make building wooden structures next to lava possible? I personally would love to see survival builds made fire-proof like this!

• Redstone circuits reacting to lit projectiles (here I am not sure, do for example ghast fireballs light up areas while in air?)
• Redstone circuits reacting entities carrying torches, etc
• Wireless chain reactions of opening/closing doors + triggering of other contraptions in underground tunnels

Maybe you still wonder why would we need a light sensor, when there already is the daylight detector?

Then let me tell you why: The reason is that the daylight sensor/detector acts very differently

The daylight detector which is already in the game

• gives different outputs depending on how it is placed in relationship to open sky
• reacts only to daylight
• does not give the light level at a block coordinate as the output. This value is currently only accessible by pressing F3.
• has an two modes

So you can see that while it is very convenient, it still cannot do what the light sensor can. (Nor can the light sensor do what the daylight sensor does, I do not in any way propose replacing the daylight detector! I love it as it is!)

You can read more about how the daylight detector works here: https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Daylight_Detector#Usage

(note: the idea was originally posted in a simpler form in this thread. I was then encouraged in a PM to post this suggestion in a thread of its own)

Vote in the poll if you'd like to see this suggestion implemented or not, maybe give the post a like if you do. Also feel free to post ideas for improvements, questions and opinions.

Genius!

I like it. Anything that gives redstone more options would be a great addition to the game. Sadly, many players would find it useless, but that shouldn't prevent the developers from adding it.