Guide Timer Cascades with Logic Gate Control

Batman67

Terrarian
This guide is an extension to the awesome work done by DicemanX in this thread.

I wanted to replicate the timer cascasdes as shown in his video, but did not want to use dummy ghosts or hoik tracks.

As I am not an engineer by education, this took multiple failed attempts as I learned through trial and error.

Auto-shutoff single pass timer cascade

Simple Timer Cascade.PNG


I used six 1-second timers as shown in the original guide, but am employing a single faulty logic gate as the shutoff.

The red wires are the input/output and the blue/green wires alternate as per the original. When the last timer fires, it sends a signal to the faulty logic lamp via the green wire. This activates the faulty logic gate which sends a signal via the yellow wire back to the timer shutting down the cascade.

Single Pass.gif


Cyclic Timer Cascade with shutoff

This timer was much more difficult to recreate. I failed multiple times until I essentially recreated exactly what DicemanX had created but replaced the actuated hoiks with faulty logic gates and the pressure plates with single lamp AND gates.

Repeat Cascade no wire.PNG


The wiring is convoluted so I'm showing two pictures; the first without the red wires and the second with all wiring.

In this picture, the yellow wire controls input/output and the blue/green wires alternate as per the original.

Repeat Cascade with wire.PNG


This picture adds the required red wires which prevents the switch from changing the state of the ON/OFF lamps.

Repeat Cascade with red wire.PNG


Cyclic.gif
 
I'm not sure I understand quite what this would be used for. Is it a sort of 'repeater' effect? (I'm an old redstoner). What kind of machines would you hook this to?
 
In Diceman's original thread, he was using both the single pass cascade and the continuous loop cascade as part of a large recursive AFK auto-farm for the Moon Lord events. In my case, I'm not certain the continuous loop will be required in the build I have planned but I wanted to see of I could wrap my non-engineer head around how to eliminate the use of hoiked dummy ghosts to control the shut-off feature.

In my case, the single pass auto shut-off timer cascade will be used in an AFK auto-farm. The farm only needs to run for about 30 seconds so the timer cascade will be used to delay transport out of the farm for 30-seconds (six 5-second timers). On reaching the end of the delay, the timer cascade will shut down the farm and transport my character to another location.

The continuous loop could be used for any machine that requires a repeating pulse at intervals exceeding 5-seconds.
[doublepost=1478174265,1478086925][/doublepost]***UPDATE***

The one design flaw in the continuous loop timer cascade that bothered me was if the timer were shutoff by the payer, it would resume from that point rather than start at the beginning. I have reworked the design to include a reset. I'm not sure if this is the most efficient design but it does work as intended.

The upper row of faulty logic gates control the reset of the lower row of gates.

Repeat Cascade with reset no wire.PNG


Showing the wiring.

Repeat Cascade with reset with wire.PNG


In operation.

Cyclic with Reset.gif
 
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In Diceman's original thread, he was using both the single pass cascade and the continuous loop cascade as part of a large recursive AFK auto-farm for the Moon Lord events. In my case, I'm not certain the continuous loop will be required in the build I have planned but I wanted to see of I could wrap my non-engineer head around how to eliminate the use of hoiked dummy ghosts to control the shut-off feature.

In my case, the single pass auto shut-off timer cascade will be used in an AFK auto-farm. The farm only needs to run for about 30 seconds so the timer cascade will be used to delay transport out of the farm for 30-seconds (six 5-second timers). On reaching the end of the delay, the timer cascade will shut down the farm and transport my character to another location.

The continuous loop could be used for any machine that requires a repeating pulse at intervals exceeding 5-seconds.
[doublepost=1478174265,1478086925][/doublepost]***UPDATE***

The one design flaw in the continuous loop timer cascade that bothered me was if the timer were shutoff by the payer, it would resume from that point rather than start at the beginning. I have reworked the design to include a reset. I'm not sure if this is the most efficient design but it does work as intended.

The upper row of faulty logic gates control the reset of the lower row of gates.

View attachment 146430

Showing the wiring.

View attachment 146431

In operation.

View attachment 146432

Actually... You could just hook up a 1-second timer to a resettable counter. The last bit of the counter would be your output, and then it could also loop back to the first bit. This method would use less timers, and it might look a bit nicer as well.
 
Actually... You could just hook up a 1-second timer to a resettable counter. The last bit of the counter would be your output, and then it could also loop back to the first bit. This method would use less timers, and it might look a bit nicer as well.

Two questions;

1. For which timer cascade? Single pass or Loop or both?
2. How to you build a resettable counter?

Sorry if these questions have been answered. . .as I stated, I'm not an engineer and although I've read a lot of this section of the forum, I missed the counter.
 
Two questions;

1. For which timer cascade? Single pass or Loop or both?
2. How to you build a resettable counter?

Sorry if these questions have been answered. . .as I stated, I'm not an engineer and although I've read a lot of this section of the forum, I missed the counter.

1. Well, mostly the loop, but both of them are possible.

2. Here is a slightly crummy looking one:

3dHLSJ6.png
RYebkme.png


Large lever counts, small swich resets.
I used this in my passcode lock, and I needed it to be a bit larger than usual. You could probably make a much more compact design by building it horizontally.
I don't really think anyone has made a dedicated thread about this since logic gates came out.
 
1. Well, mostly the loop, but both of them are possible.

2. Here is a slightly crummy looking one:

3dHLSJ6.png
RYebkme.png


Large lever counts, small swich resets.
I used this in my passcode lock, and I needed it to be a bit larger than usual. You could probably make a much more compact design by building it horizontally.
I don't really think anyone has made a dedicated thread about this since logic gates came out.

That looks very interesting; I'll try that out later to see if I can incorporate it in my design.
 
Why do so many players seem to be averse to hoiks and dummy ghosts? they make so many wonderful farms possible. I thought hoiks were weird at first but after seeing the uses for them, and the insane farms made possible, I am not even jarred by screen tremors anymore. They were kind of limited on loot delivery, but it doesn't matter now with conveyor belts.

That being said, the logic gates look like they are a fantastic way to compact alot of designs that really took up an alarming amount of real estate in the world. I don't understand logic gates, but I want to learn them so I can start seeing what's possible with them. While I don't have a problem with dummy ghosts, my only issue is the amount of space they take up, but seeing how logic gates can eliminate the need is pretty interesting.

Mappy made me open my eyes to how the horseman's blade is still a viable way to solo the frost moon on expert. Which is nothing short of spectacular. The arena is different, but after the 1.3.1 update, Joe's mimic arena made it look like the blade was nerfed, and this hits really close to home with me because i love the melee play style.

One thing still bothers me though. In your design, is using ALL the wire colors absolutely necessary? I would like to omit just 1 wire color if possible. Its not because I don't care for one: I want 1 wire to be a master toggle and don't want to litter my world with junction boxes.
 
Why do so many players seem to be averse to hoiks and dummy ghosts?

In my opinion hoiks are still pretty nice for player transportation, and things like that, but logic gates have basicly made hoiktronics obsolete. Logic gates are a bit wierd and it's hard to wrap your head around them at first, but they are really neat to work with.

is using ALL the wire colors absolutely necessary?

Which design are you talking about exactly? And why would you need to get rid of one of the wire colors? I don't quite understant...
 
Mostly, I play in a multi-player environment and switchable actuated surfaces are a bit problematic due to latency; some surfaces actuate/de-actuate correctly and some do not. I have had hoiktronic mechanisms that work perfectly in a single-player world not function as intended in a multi-player world. For me, using logic gates is a means to eliminate the use of actuated hoiks when creating multiple logic paths.

That it is also smaller and cleaner appeals to me as well.

Which design are you referring to with regards to eliminating wire?
 
I was referring to the auto-shutoff single pass timer cascade. can I get away with only 3 wires there? If it is possible would the workaround clutter this mechanism?

@DRKV: Its not a critical issue, but it would be really nice if I could omit just 1 wire so I can have less junction boxes in my world. I love junction boxes and they are great and all, but I don't want to litter the skies of my world with them if I can help it.
 
I was referring to the auto-shutoff single pass timer cascade. can I get away with only 3 wires there? If it is possible would the workaround clutter this mechanism?

@DRKV: Its not a critical issue, but it would be really nice if I could omit just 1 wire so I can have less junction boxes in my world. I love junction boxes and they are great and all, but I don't want to litter the skies of my world with them if I can help it.

Ahh gotcha; yes, it is.

Single pass 3-colour wiring.PNG


What I've done in my world is run a 15 tile high tunnel the width of my world at the top of the cavern layer. This is my mechanical tunnel and is where I have all my wire bundles and junction boxes.

colour change.PNG
 
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That's wonderful. Thanks a ton man.

Also that thing about hoiktronics was really fascinating. I sometimes play multiplayer and had no idea about the actuation problem, also never really played a map that used them in multiplayer either. Kind of a shame Diceman's world wouldn't work right in that environment.
 
It mostly applies to long strings of activated blocks like in a crystal shard farm or Diceman's Truffle Worm farm. I managed to get that running but it was intermittent and I had to fix the actuated hoiks on a regular basis.
 
Just with that reference, I can see quite a fair bit of his contraptions breaking. Really a shame about the truffle worm factory. . . would conveyor belts eliminate the need to use the hoiking? It would mean alot less truffle worms an hour, but wouldn't that be more suitable in a multiplayer environment? the worms can't be teleported, can they? And those plant things are a pain with the trap nerfs and the ability to kill the worms. . . It sounds like quite the sacrifice any way you slice it. Pretty unfortunate that MP works this way.

I wonder if the pumpkins from the horseman's blade would kill the worms. . . it probably would, but if it didn't, that would be REALLY nice.
 
It's just a function of latency. . .unfortunate but a reality in multi-player.
[doublepost=1479894861,1479894507][/doublepost]
1. Well, mostly the loop, but both of them are possible.

2. Here is a slightly crummy looking one:

3dHLSJ6.png
RYebkme.png


Large lever counts, small swich resets.
I used this in my passcode lock, and I needed it to be a bit larger than usual. You could probably make a much more compact design by building it horizontally.
I don't really think anyone has made a dedicated thread about this since logic gates came out.

I messed around with this finally and made a one minute timer that uses a single 5-second timer and 12 FAULTY logic gates (plus one more for the timer shutoff)

I've spread the gates out to make it easier to see the wiring but the last picture shows the compact version albeit with a 1-second timer but the functionality is the same, it just makes a 12 second timer. (I only had one 5-second timer in my inventory)

Single pass one timer.PNG


Single pass one timer wiring.PNG


Single pass one timer compact.PNG


12-second in operation.

Timer in operation.gif


In this case, I don't think it's possible to reduce it to 3 wire colours due to the compactness of the design.
 
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with that many gates, I perfectly understand. That timer cascade victory is good enough for me. Really interesting stuff here. Keep up the good work.
 
Oops!

12 gates make a 70-second timer not a 60-second timer. I've redone it with 10 gates but that has created a wiring issue with the shutoff.

With my current wiring scheme, I have to leave the last logic gate with a blue wire but the first gate also has a blue wire leading to a conflict. I didn't see an other option but to use another gate to swap wire colours for the shutoff/reset.

Single pass one timer wiring.PNG


Single pass one timer.PNG


*UPDATE*

Converted the two reset gates to single lamp AND gates and I think this is as compact as I can manage.

Single pass one timer compact.PNG
 
i need a looping cascade that will keep going along separated lines of wires. I want to make it flow from one end to the other like a wave. I want to use this system to make a cool lighting effect in a dungeon i'm making. The rooms will be fairly long so i want it to loop from point A to B till the player leaves triggering the shut off. So what to i do to hook this up the one way cycling cascade?
wires showing
spiral build 2.JPG
without showing wires
spiral build 3.JPG
 
12 gates make a 70-second timer not a 60-second timer. I've redone it with 10 gates but that has created a wiring issue with the shutoff.

With my current wiring scheme, I have to leave the last logic gate with a blue wire but the first gate also has a blue wire leading to a conflict. I didn't see an other option but to use another gate to swap wire colours for the shutoff/reset.

I've used a couple of these, and they are wonderfully compact timer builds. Thank you so much for posting them!

Now, I'd like to add one feature to them, and I'm getting stuck trying to figure it out, sadly: I'd like to be able to reset the timer to zero, but leave it active. It seemed like adding a reset faulty logic gate set that tracked the same state as the timer logic gates would work, and getting that present wasn't super-difficult.

For some reason, though, I couldn't manage to figure out how to turn an activation into setting the timers back to their original position (eg: first faulty logic gate in the cascade active, all others inactive) from that. If anyone has solved this, I'd love to know about it.

My use case is to start some automation when a pressure plate is triggered, and then stop it again automatically ten seconds from the last time the plate was triggered. Hitting the plate while things are running should reset the ten second countdown to "stop"...
 
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