PC Liquid Sensors and Exponential Decay/Growth

[Alaron]

I just started playing around with the Liquid Sensors, and I'm intrigued by the possibilities now that we can use liquid physics in our designs. So far, I've got one thing, but it has potential: a machine that activates at an exponentially decreasing rate.

The output of the machine is a tower of torches that turn on and off, one at a time, slowing down as the lit torch nears the top. I lack the skills to make a gif, but here are a couple screenshots.

The reverse would be doable pretty easily. You just have to change the shape of the tank with the liquid sensors, so that it has a wide bottom and narrow top. That would result in a system that activates at an exponentially increasing rate, which would likely be more useful.

If you want to build one of these for yourself to test,I advise leaving out the XOR Gates and just connecting the torches directly to the Water Sensors. The only difference is that torches wouldn't turn off when the next one lights up.

 

[Houyami]

This could probably automate liquid duplication to an extent for obsidian/honey farms.

 

[IndyWendieGo]

This could probably automate liquid duplication to an extent for obsidian/honey farms.

It's actually pretty interesting that you mention that. I made a set of lava, honey, and water generators with their respective sensors hooked up to a 1 second timer (one for each sensor). Other than building it, dumping the base liquid to duplicate, and then withdrawing about 10 or so buckets of liquid, I really haven't seen a situation where it required player input like it did before (whether it be activating the timer, activating a pressure switch, or a lever). It's been doing it all itself. It was pretty refreshing actually, because I hated that I had to flip a switch every time something got low. This did it for me.

Though, right now how I've tested it, it's pretty small scale. I haven't managed to break it yet. I really don't have any idea on how to break it aside from adding more mechanisms to it, destroying it with bombs, or draining all the liquid.

Some things that COULD present a problem is how the liquid acts in terms of speed. So say if you were making a bunch of crispy blocks, it's possible that the honey could run out faster than the lava. I think that could break it, but that could be easily rectified if you had the inlet pump below those blocks being converted and mined. I'll tinker more and see if I can't post a screenshot in a separate thread.

 

[Houyami]

My hopes is to automate something of this scale: http://imgur.com/a/IUeJP#0 to the point where I wouldn't have to flip switches and what not

 

[IndyWendieGo]

My hopes is to automate something of this scale: http://imgur.com/a/IUeJP#0 to the point where I wouldn't have to flip switches and what not

It might be doable! The generation part of it, right? Not the draining for lava lake creation?

 

[Houyami]

It might be doable! The generation part of it, right? Not the draining for lava lake creation?

The duplication is the main part that I wanna automate, although idk if the sensors would work.

 

[IndyWendieGo]

The duplication is the main part that I wanna automate, although idk if the sensors would work.

They do, though it really depends on the method used. Here's some screenshots of my very basic generator so far, just for duplication. Also, I apologize in advance for really low resolution (yet large pictures, since I'm using tumblr to embed the images).

Edit: Also, since this is a reeeeeeeally small and compact build, I'm sure someone could make this much more sophisticated than what I have currently. Hope this helps at any rate!

The first showing that it's already filled to it's set capacity

The second showing the wiring

The third showing displacing fluid from the chamber, firing a signal from the sensor's state to the timer to begin pumping fluid

The fourth and fifth, showing the water filling back up until it reaches the sensor, at which point it automatically shuts off. Also showing the wiring of it as well.

 

[FairyPrincessSerenity]

Seems I wasn't the only one who thought to use a 1 Second Timer as an inversion repeater for a Liquid Sensor attached to Inlet and Outlet Pump tanks.

But you don't actually need a different wire color running from the timer to the sensor. My tank runs just fine with one color.

 

[IndyWendieGo]

Seems I wasn't the only one who thought to use a 1 Second Timer as an inversion repeater for a Liquid Sensor attached to Inlet and Outlet Pump tanks.

But you don't actually need a different wire color running from the timer to the sensor. My tank runs just fine with one color.

View attachment 112776

Yeah, I knew that part. Mainly, the reason why I used the red from the timer to the sensor was because I used the liquid specific ones and they're rather hard for some to see since it's a pretty small scale build. I'm still trying to figure out if there's even a way to break it (I'll have to do that when I make larger builds of it). Seems like the sensors are pretty solid from what I've experienced, but I haven't tinkered much with them since Diceman posted about the giant logic gate.

 

[FairyPrincessSerenity]

Yeah, I knew that part. Mainly, the reason why I used the red from the timer to the sensor was because I used the liquid specific ones and they're rather hard for some to see since it's a pretty small scale build. I'm still trying to figure out if there's even a way to break it (I'll have to do that when I make larger builds of it). Seems like the sensors are pretty solid from what I've experienced, but I haven't tinkered much with them since Diceman posted about the giant logic gate.

I took the design when I figured it out and applied it to making a complex automatic coral farm that harvests the coral, collects it, and refills the displaced water. The design also had a pair of announcement boards attached to the function of the liquid sensor turning on and off.
And wouldn't you know it: coral stays put on inactive blocks. That was a waste of six hours. Fun little story to share, though.

 

[IndyWendieGo]

I took the design when I figured it out and applied it to making a complex automatic coral farm that harvests the coral, collects it, and refills the displaced water. The design also had a pair of announcement boards attached to the function of the liquid sensor turning on and off.
And wouldn't you know it: coral stays put on inactive blocks. That was a waste of six hours. Fun little story to share, though.

That would have driven me mad. Hahaha! I didn't know that about coral though. Normally I just collect it and stuff it a chest, but that's handy to know. I'd have probably tried that. Thanks for that!

 

[FairyPrincessSerenity]

That would have driven me mad. Hahaha! I didn't know that about coral though. Normally I just collect it and stuff it a chest, but that's handy to know. I'd have probably tried that. Thanks for that!

Coral is primarily used in making Gills Potions and Sonar Potions. The latter of which I've been using to fuel my fishing endeavors. Otherwise you can sell it, but you won't get a lot of coin unless you're selling a whole bunch of it.

Out of habit, I tend to make farms that are a little larger than they probably should be just so I don't have to use them as often. I just didn't want you to follow the same logic that I did and get stopped by a farm-breaking bug.

Well, technically coral is more of an animal than a bug, even though people think it's a plant, but I digress.