Redstone timer expert required

Discussion in 'General Minecraft Discussion' started by Mob_Meal, Feb 29, 2016.

  1. I am currently building a slime farm that uses dispensers to flush the slimes off of their spawn platforms. For me, redstone falls somewhere between theoretical physics & witchcraft. I'm looking for a redstone clock system that would allow the water to be off longer than it is on. I'm familiar with the typical hopper clock or the multiple repeater clock, but these have the water on the same amount of time as it's off. Effectively cutting my spawn time (rate) in half. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
  2. You can use a rotary hopper clock .
  3. Ice ever heard of a rotary hopper clock, I'll look it up.
  4. Maybe something like this:


    We used something similar at our old slime farm.
    Mob_Meal and tuqueque like this.
  5. I don't know of any available designs, but this sounds quite intriguing. I'm pretty sure it should be doable with a dual timer where both signals trigger the main on/off. And if we use hoppers for it you'd even be able to fine-tune the timing yourself.

    I'll hop into creative in a few hours to test my plans out, if it works then I'll PM you. Building costs: you supply the materials and I'll try to make things fit (that's also often a challenge in itself: its easy to build something in creative, but to actually make it fit an existing space... that's also a cool thing to do!).

    And if I didn't manage then I'll just tell so here. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of stuff to be found on Youtube but that's not my style; I like to be creative, not a copier ;)
    Mob_Meal likes this.
  6. Also if I get a chance I will head out to my old slime farm and take some screens. It's exactly what you are looking for and works perfectly.
    Mob_Meal likes this.
  7. I forgot to mention, I'd also like an on/off switch to lock the system. I had a simple switch wired to one of the hoppers, this would power the hopper and lock the farm in whatever state it was in. This way, I could lock it when the water was flowing, effectively shutting down the farm.

    ShelLuser, I prefer to figure these things out on my own as well, but I'm totally stumped. Space is not really an issue at all. If you come up with something maybe you could show me sometime on my 2nd res. Sorry, but the slime farm location is top secret. The reason for the on/off is that I have several spawnes crammed into a small area and want to be able to isolate them sometimes.
    ShelLuser likes this.
  8. Mob go take a look at the clock I have for my stone gen. That would probably be your best bet because you can mess with the timing on it to make it longer or shorter. The teleport is /v hacmi10 Cobble on smp8
    Mob_Meal likes this.
  9. Whatever you do with the clock, make sure to use pistons for controlling the water. Dispensers are too buggy for that.

    And if everything else fails about the clock, I know of a very old school design involving tones of repeaters to accomplish an asymmetric control cycle.
    Mob_Meal likes this.
  10. Well, I finally managed to figure out something that will work for me (with my dispensers). I use a hopper timer. The power output goes through a monostable circuit which then has 2 routes. The first goes straight to the dispenser, the other goes through a series of repeaters on long delays. I used a repeater where the 2 circuits meet to keep it from looping. The delay on the repeaters is how long the water runs & hopper clock is how long it's off (minus the repeater time). Both times can be easily adjusted.
    Kaizimir likes this.
  11. Pistons buggy? How so?
  12. Sounds pretty smart, like a fusion of very old and rather modern redstone :)

    It is the dispensers that are buggy, at least in my experience. Pistons are much more reliable, but also a pain to place and it will make the design more bulgy involving more blocks than the dispenser design.
  13. Pretty much what ours was :p At least you got it now :)
  14. I meant to say dispensers & you responded b4 I posted my edit.

    Well, I would have to completely change my timer design for Pistons & I already have dispensers laid in for the first 2 levels (it's a double chunk). So I think I'll stick with the dispensers until they give me trouble.

    Yes, I know I probably could do something other than the repeater extender (perhaps a comparator based version) but I have plenty of space & repeaters are pretty cheap to make. I have plenty of redstone from clearing an area larger than 2 chunks from y40 to bedrock :D.
  15. Guess I'm too late but c'est la vie. I'm going to show off anyway :)

    The design isn't perfect but does what was intended here: providing different on and off stages.


    What you see here are two hopper based timers. The one on the left is self-triggering, meaning so much that when it finished its cycle it'll reset itself so it provides a constant on/off cycle (provided the main on/off switch (seen in the lower left corner) isn't set). In its current state the device is off by the way.

    Apart from triggering itself it also triggers a second hopper timer, the one on the left. This one does not self-trigger but when active it does block the main triggering signal. This prevents disruption of the timer when it is running. When active it blocks the main on/off signal (seen in the bottom).

    Two timers, two different delays.

    Back of the machine.

    There is a small caveat. It is possible for the "off timer" to finish in the middle of the main cycle, so it could cut the on period off too drastically. I also got a solution for that: only allow the second clock to be triggered on "main cycles". In other words: using the redstone block on the first timer to block triggering of the second timer if it is in the middle of its cycle.

    Anyway, this is my entry ;)