Fixing comparator sorters?

Discussion in 'Community Discussion' started by WayneKramer, Apr 19, 2016.

  1. So I had this setup where items would flow in via hoppers and it'd sort out into separate chests for each item. Somewhere along the way the system broke and now it's no longer sorting.

    How do you fix it so it starts sorting properly again?
  2. All slots of the hopper next to the comparator should be filled with something, and add up to 22 (I think) (assuming you're using items that stack to 64) :)
  3. So the hopper next to the comparator is filled with the item I want to sort and yet it keeps putting other items into it.
  4. Is it this type of sorter? If so, what I think happens is that the Hopper next to one of the Comparators gets enough items in it to cause the Redstone signal to strengthen enough to activate its neighboring sorter modules and potentially release the items in them and allowing new items in.

    I haven't ever figured out exactly how this scenario gets set up and have never been able to intentionally cause it to happen. Normally you should have very few items flowing through the Hoppers above the Comparator Hoppers. We may periodically get lag or maybe it happens when chunks are loaded or unloaded.

    Since I haven't been able to figure out the cause, I did a couple of things to avoid the problem. The most important is that I add a second Repeater underneath and extend the back by one block. This forces the number of items needed to activate the neighboring Hoppers to be larger than what will fit in the Hopper which will never happen.

    I also started using renamed blocks for filler rather than an item I THINK will never flow through.



    I have not experienced this problem(yet) since changing to this design.
    Mob_Meal and WayneKramer like this.
  5. Put one item of something you'll never sort into each of the for slots to the right. I use sticks renamed to "sorting stick". Then in the far left slot only, top it off with the item you wish to sort. If you use all of one type of item, it'll all flow out & break the sorter.
  6. I tried that too and it doesn't work.

    What happens is the items I don't sort on the right side end up flowing down to the hopper below
  7. Does the redstone mechanism consist of 1 comparator, 2 redstone dust, 1 repeater, and 1 redstone torch?

    Is the hopper next to the comparator faced any direction that's not downwards? (it shouldn't be faced downwards)
  8. there isn't a repeater, just the redstone dust leading into the comparator which leads into a hopper and a redstone torch under the hopper

    the hopper is connected to a chest[/quote][/quote]
  9. I will post of a screen of the system I use. It's doesn't normally have issues. The only issue, from when EMC changed hoppers, is that the hopper connected to the comparator sometimes refuses to flush items out, eventually filling and messing everything up. But it only seems to do this when I get disconnected but not when the servers reboot for the night.
  10. Here's what I use:
    The reason the hopper chain is like that is so the hopper at the level of the redstone torch, it won't get frozen when the torch is one; trapping the items inside. So I do it like this so nothing stays in the hoppers.

    Top view.

    This is what the sorting hopper should look like at all times (when items are not going through it :p) Doesn't need to be feathers. I just use those as there will never be a chicken in my witch farm. You can also rename any item and use that as well to be super safe.

    This setup at my current outpost never fails at all, not once. When my storage chests are full, all new items are sent to lava so nothing gets stuck anywhere. This also works at my old base except the hopper issue I mentioned above that I occasionally get.
    Nickblockmaster, Pab10S and kevmeup like this.
  11. ok that's the same setup I have, the issue is that things got borked so how do you reset it so it starts working again?

    What I did was break all the hoppers feeding into the system. Then I cleaned out all the other hoppers. Then I filled in the hopper connected to the comparator like you showed there with just the one item I want to sort + 4 unrelated ones. Then I re-attached all the hoppers.

    The system then almost immediately ignored the item and started filtering in the wrong items into the chest.
  12. I use Nims item filter exclusively (like TheKloned version just with signs as filler). I don't think there is an emc functioning filter that will let you tile without 1 space in the middle. They all break eventually under heavy load (even the piston version).
  13. To reset, replace redstone torch.
  14. When my hopper builds up instead of funneling down the hopper line, all I do is pickup half of the 41 items and place back. This seems to get items moving again. That single issue is the only issue I have ever had as far as sorting. Back in the day me and Dektirok were fixing our sorters daily because the filter items would either flush out or it would jam up along the way somewhere. Since we switched to this.. all smooth.

    Can you screenshot your system? I think I might have an idea of what your issue might be.

    Here's 2 screens:
    This is the way you should be feeding your items from the farm; traveling horizontally.

    This setup will always mess up the sorter. Items cannot be fed directly into the sorting hopper. Instead start the downward hopper trail a few blocks back from first sorter like image 1.
  15. Yeah it's feeding horizontally like in that first screenshot. My issue isn't items not flowing, it's the wrong items flowing where I don't want them to.

    I think what happened was I accidentally emptied out the main hopper at some point and since then I haven't been able to get them sorting properly again. I need to figure out how to reset the whole system so the order is respected again.
  16. Pab is correct. This one should never leak and is completely EMC compatible.
  17. By your picture, it looks like adding the extra repeater also makes the system tileable so that they can be placed directly side by side with no gap between. Is this correct?
    Pab10S likes this.
  18. Like this?:


    This is what I have at my witch farm. Tileable and without fail what so ever. What does the extra repeater add to this Pab?
    Nickblockmaster likes this.
  19. *Needs a good witch hut to farm* ;)
    ThaKloned likes this.
  20. Both yours and the one I'm using will not overflow because the Comparator signal will never be great enough to reach the neighboring Chest's Redstone Torch. You can test this by blocking out the Chest and Hopper in one of the modules with dissimilar items, then filling the Comparator Hopper with items.

    Both use 41+1+1+1+1 items in the filter Hopper instead of 18+1+1+1+1 from the more common design. We are just doing it in two different ways.

    I found yours interesting since it uses only one Repeater and has the same footprint, but you also said that it sometimes breaks still but not as often. I've never had a problem with mine but am mainly using it in Town for a small number of item types and the locations I used it in weren't already having the problem(I just knew other people were so I wanted to avoid it.).

    I would like to try it in a location that has a known problem to see if it really does work around whatever it is that is causing the problem or not. If you or WayneKramer try it I would be interested in hearing what results you have.

    Both the one ThaKloned posted and the one I did have the same footprint, avoid overflow in the filter Hopper, and are tileable. He says that his improves on the problem. I think I need to test mine more before I can say anything more than that I haven't had a problem since I started using it which has been a lot of use over a month but limited to only a few items.
    Mob_Meal likes this.