Question Question: Actuator & Timer

OddGirl

Dungeon Spirit
I have an easy one for you smart people :) I am making a farm and I am looking to use a 3 sec and 5 sec timer to actuate blocks, the part I am having trouble with is I'd like to turn on the switch to trigger the actuators, have them left open for their 3 or 5 seconds then close... only once. Seems easy but when I switch it off they go wonky. What am I missing?

Thanks!


Edit: Its done, yay! The pics are very tall and I had to take them in 2 parts each, the in game camera function gave me a big NOPE on the size lol so excuse the background

farm.jpg

tree-farm-wired.jpg

I added bubble blocks so you didn't have to RoD inside to collect and replant. If you start replanting at the Palm/Sand level then Boreal/Snow, since there's no grass, by the time you get to the rest the grass is ready for you. You need about 20 acorns per level to replant using Auto, a few more if you do it by hand. I did end up moving the switches down to a building off the pic so I didn't have to fight so many wyverns. As a bonus you can get strange plants and dye ingredients on occasion too.
 
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Thanks DownsPath! I'll try that and get back to you with a pic of what I'm making too, its just a tree farm using Lava and I only wanted it to dribble out a certain amount from the reservoir before closing.
 
Something like this?

Here is how it is wired:
o7izv5k.png


Each timer is connected to the switch with it's own color wire. This keeps the timers on seperate circuits so they don't trigger each other. Next to each timer is an AND gate with a single lamp. When you flip the switch it actuates the blocks and turns on both timers. When a timer fires it toggles the lamp on the AND gate next to it. This causes the AND gate to fire which in turn turns off the timer and actuates the block back.
[doublepost=1464819848,1464819823][/doublepost]I need to start refreshing before I post.... I've been ninja'd twice today! lol -- Also please note that the logic gate with a single lamp is usually referred to as a diode in the TMEC world. Any gate will work. I used an AND, the other example is using a NAND. they serve the same purpose here
 
Thanks DownsPath! I'll try that and get back to you with a pic of what I'm making too, its just a tree farm using Lava and I only wanted it to dribble out a certain amount from the reservoir before closing.
I read about lava-based wood farms earlier. You're the second person to mention using a timer to dribble out a small amount. As a suggestion, I would split the lava reservoir in two: one reserve, one production.

Make the "production" one (the one you'll release lava from) about the size of the amount of lava you want to release per use. You can then rig the timer-release circuit to both cut off the production reservoir from the reserve one and auto-close (and re-connect) the production one after the time lag. This makes sure you always release a controlled, predictable amount of lava each time. (Or at least it should.)
 
when I switch it off they go wonky.
You do mean that the timers go wrong, rather than the actuators? Large blocks of which tend to crack up in multi-player (this thread on known multiplayer problems):
(A) These most commonly manifest when only part of a large number of actuated or active stone blocks change state, leaving hard to fix tears between block states, jumbling things up and being a disheartening nuisance to fix. Example image posted to the sub-Reddit by kheftel:
Bu2FBCT.png

the logic gate with a single lamp is usually referred to as a diode in the TMEC world.
Or maybe a "relay".
[doublepost=1464823724,1464823544][/doublepost]
I read about lava-based wood farms earlier.
Yes, Semi-automatic Tree Farm, with this setup (and 2 teal plates triggered in quick sucession by a dart trap to really only let out a little dribble):
 
Thanks Crawlr and Downspath! That worked perfectly for what I was after :D I didn't realize someone had already posted about it, sorry for the double up. I wanted to convert my already standing tree farm into something more auto, I do a lot of building so like the stockpile of wood. Mine isn't, obviously, finished but here's what I have:

Capture 2016-06-02 07_17_10.png

Capture 2016-06-02 07_17_28.png

Capture 2016-06-02 07_25_39.png

Its funny how the ideas are similar. I thought of the big tall reservoir due to how I already had it set up. I had noticed since it was flat, that all my lava wasn't making it to the end, hence the lava dup at the top where the outlet pump is. The design ZeroGravitas showed probably makes up for that with the staggering. I used the grid pattern of dirt/grass so the grass regrows very quickly, the platforms below the grass are just to prevent vines. I'll extend the function from the top row now to the rest and set up the return pump too, I wanted the release part working before I worried about that portion. I have that extra block in my release as during my first attempts the block didn't want to reactuate with the lava so I added the secondary opening as a safety to prevent a flood. I RoD everywhere so hadn't considered how it may be a pain for anyone else to get back in to replant/collect but I'll think about that too.

What I meant by "wonky" earlier is that when I used the switch the second time the blocks would reactuate at different times and it was a pain. I'm definitely a beginner engineer at best, you can tell by my professional terminology... wonky :)

Thanks guys! You're awesome! I'll post the finished one here when I'm done.
 
Hmm... Correct me if I'm wrong (been a while since I dealt with lava on grass), but doesn't lava only destroy the grass on blocks it's directly contacting? If so, I would think it would be more prudent to have only a 2-thick grass growing area. I'm pretty sure grass can spread up/down like that. (Rather than just crawling along the surface with thicker sections.)Again, I THINK. It's been a while since I did gardening. Last time I did grass growing it was for placing Sunflowers and I used the Staff of Regrowth.
 
Hmm... Correct me if I'm wrong (been a while since I dealt with lava on grass), but doesn't lava only destroy the grass on blocks it's directly contacting? If so, I would think it would be more prudent to have only a 2-thick grass growing area. I'm pretty sure grass can spread up/down like that. (Rather than just crawling along the surface with thicker sections.)Again, I THINK. It's been a while since I did gardening. Last time I did grass growing it was for placing Sunflowers and I used the Staff of Regrowth.

In my experience if the dirt is solid and more than 1 block thick, the grass then has to creep around the edge and then across the top to recover the area. When it is one block thick if you cover the bottom with grass the top is also affected. The grid pattern gives every other dirt block contact with new grass so it'll spread faster to the bottom of the open block which in turn also recovers the top. Its pretty dang speedy.
[doublepost=1464888101,1464880896][/doublepost]All done! I edited the original post with the pics, thanks for everyone's help! it works so well!
 
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