Neat mob sweeper using observer-powered pistons
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 248 points ยท Posted at 15:24:53 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
KoalaeiO's mob sweeper
There is 1 redstone tick of delay between the activation of each piston row.
The pistons are powered from below using observers that detect a change in the redstone dust.
You can wire any clock you want to the first redstone dust line.
Here I used a comparator clock, but a hopper-timer would work just as well.
T_Rollinue_ ยท 33 points ยท Posted at 15:59:04 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)*
This is going to make my blaze farm a lot less of a pain in the ass. I am definitely going to use this.
E: My god, it sounds like a steam train. They just get yanked off to the side of the screen the moment they get close enough. This is hilarious.
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 9 points ยท Posted at 16:02:44 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Glad to help! :)
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 22 points ยท Posted at 15:26:45 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
I got inspired by the post about waves to make this mob sweeper.
The quartz represents the spawnable spots. Any mob spawning there will be very quickly transported to the other end of the platform, where you could build a gathering/killing system. The platform can be indefinitely expanded in both directions.
voltaek ยท 8 points ยท Posted at 18:00:13 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Are the observer blocks necessary? Couldn't you remove them, push the top platform back one block and down one block so the redstone directly powers the pistons?
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 6 points ยท Posted at 18:13:33 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Sadly no, the redstone powder cannot power pistons above it.
voltaek ยท 5 points ยท Posted at 18:34:21 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Yeah, I just built what I described and it didn't work because the pistons are not directly powered. Been out of the redstone game too long I guess.
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 6 points ยท Posted at 19:11:58 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Interestingly you can do what you described with detector rails.
voltaek ยท 5 points ยท Posted at 20:17:36 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Not sure what you mean. Detector rails below the pistons with a cart running back and forth to power the pistons? The mobs would just fall through the piston when they're pulled through.
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 3 points ยท Posted at 20:34:21 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Exactly this.
I don't think the mobs would fall through the observer honestly.
[deleted] ยท 2 points ยท Posted at 19:34:47 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Yeah, redstone dust doesn't emit power above itself or to areas it isn't pointing into, unless it is a single dot, which acts like a + shape (because they're essentially the same thing and they even used to look the same back in the Beta days). It emits strong power in every direction it is pointing into, though. (Interesting note, though, redstone dust will not be powered by a strongly-powered block if the strong power is coming from redstone dust. This has been in the game since Alpha 1.0.2_01, which was only shortly after redstone was added in Alpha 1.0.1. The change is the only reason why you can cut off redstone wire going up a block by placing a solid block above the dust on the lower of the 2 blocks, and also why redstone dust that is underneath a block that has more redstone dust on top of it won't be powered by the dust on the top. This makes redstone dust unique in how it reacts to strongly powered solid blocks... it only accepts it if the power is coming from something that ISN'T redstone dust, such as a repeater, comparator, and etc.
Acaran ยท 7 points ยท Posted at 19:01:32 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Instead of using clock, use tripwire. Put tripwires above all the spawnable spaces and hook them up to a single line of redstone. Then hook up the redstone to a comparator clock and voila, it only runs if there are mobs in it.
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 3 points ยท Posted at 19:13:29 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
In that case, I guess your single line of redstone could be wired to the repeaters directly, without a clock.
Acaran ยท 5 points ยท Posted at 19:21:58 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
That could cause problems though. Imagine this case:
A mob spawns. Redstone gets powered. Pistons start moving. First few rows of pistons activate and move the mob that started it backwards. At the same time new mob spawns in the area that was already cleared. The redstone is still active. The rest of the rows of pistons finish moving, the redstone is powered and any new mobs that spawn in the machine will not get moved because the pistons activate only when the redstone goes from unpowered to powered.
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 3 points ยท Posted at 19:35:10 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Ah yes, true.
Then I think using a slow global clock is simpler than tripwires, but it's a matter of preference :)
Acaran ยท 2 points ยท Posted at 20:34:48 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Global clock runs even when in unloaded chunks, causing unnecessary lag. Slow clock means lower farm effiency.
But preference...
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 2 points ยท Posted at 20:57:19 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
That's why there is a lever!
ilmango ยท 10 points ยท Posted at 16:19:11 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
nice. replacing the redstone dust with rails will reduce lag.
Julton0 ยท 3 points ยท Posted at 16:54:30 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Is this a lag machine? All those pistons... I would be wary to build this on a server
lare290 ยท 3 points ยท Posted at 17:09:09 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Pistons don't lag the game itself. They just slow redstone ticks.
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 2 points ยท Posted at 17:10:02 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Decrease the clock speed to whatever you want.
I set it to a high frequency just to show what it could do, but a pulse every 30s would work.
scratchisthebest ยท 2 points ยท Posted at 16:25:53 on October 3, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Redstone dust causes more block updates than pistons do. Like... a lot more.
A three long piece of redstone dust causes 144 block updates when you turn it on, and 1,782 block updates when you turn it off.
ShaneH7646 ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 19:41:10 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
wouldnt it be cheaper to use a block and redstone torch?
voltaek ยท 2 points ยท Posted at 04:52:23 on October 3, 2016 ยท (Permalink)*
I built it, and it's cheaper in quartz (only needed for the comparator for the clock), but not cheaper in redstone, and not nearly as compact and pretty.
EDIT: Now with a pulse-shortener so the mobs are swept off immediately like the observer-having one does.
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 19:54:42 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
No idea. I find this way more elegant.
voltaek ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 04:53:46 on October 3, 2016 ยท (Permalink)*
See my reply. In short, yes it is possible, but yours is much more elegant.
Addicted_To_Spanking ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 20:24:41 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
What is an observer?
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 2 points ยท Posted at 20:33:00 on October 2, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
It is a new block added in the last snapshot. Essentially, it detects any "update" (block placing, redstone being powered, tree growing) and outputs a short signal.
Addicted_To_Spanking ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 03:38:34 on October 3, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Nifty
[deleted] ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 16:13:51 on October 4, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Does this also move players?
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 16:31:14 on October 4, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Sure.
GrakAttack ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 20:49:05 on October 11, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Is there a tutorial to make this?
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 21:11:25 on October 11, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
There is no tutorial, but I believe you can build it by looking at the pictures.
GrakAttack ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 21:49:38 on October 11, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
I created it, and it doesn't move mobs
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 22:47:28 on October 11, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
It only works between 1.9 and 16w39.
The translocation bug has been fixed by Grum in 16w40, that is right after I posted this contraption.
xEkyrn ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 14:33:02 on October 21, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
This does not work anymore (16w40+)
๐๏ธ Koala_eiO ยท 1 points ยท Posted at 14:41:48 on October 21, 2016 ยท (Permalink)
Yep