Redstone for Writers and Artists Part 1: The Basics
Very long post ahead peeps. I tried to put just...as much information as I would want to refer to if I was writing a redstone mechanic into a fic, so. Here it is, along with future links to the other two posts [or three posts, depending on how many questions I get] and the Google Form to send in questions. <3
Let's start with the basics - Redstone dust, or as it will look for the rest of these posts -
I'm using Vanilla Tweaks resource pack addons to make all of the redstone stuff easily visible for the purposes of explaining. the mechanics. The reason there's a big 0 in the middle is because, as you may or may not know, redstone power can only travel 15 blocks before it has to be re-strengthened. Think of redstone dust as the wiring for an electrical component.
Here I demonstrate the distance redstone dust can be powered using both a Redstone Torch and a Redstone Block
A Redstone Block is a permanently on power source for redstone.
A Redstone Torch is a power source for redstone that outputs level 15 power and can both be toggled off and burn out, as shown below. The reason the torch burns out is because the redstone is activating and deactivating the blocks around it too quickly [8 times in ~3 seconds].
This image helps to show what's going on. The bottom torch is attached to an 'off state' block [the powered off redstone lamp] so it can be in an 'on state'. That torch then powers the block above it into an 'on state' [the powered redstone lamp] which then sends a redstone signal to the torch attached to it to put it in an 'off state'. This is one method to power redstone vertically. In the above video, the blocks surrounding the torch are cycling through these on and off states too quickly, causing the torch to burn out.
The next thing to cover is the Redstone Repeater. This little doohickey has 4 different states: a 1, 2, 3, and 4 tick delay, as seen from both the back and side in the below images. A Tick is a measurement of time in Minecraft, defined as 0.1 second for redstone purposes. The repeater puts out a redstone power level of 15 regardless of how strong the power going into it is.
In comparison, a Redstone Comparator maintains the signal stretch coming out of it. As seen below, when comparators are used in place of repeaters, the line no longer full powers.
Comparators can also be used to read the fullness of containers like chests. It's a little hard to see in the video [since I only have 1 computer and 1 account, I can't film this from two angles] but in the right-hand side you can see the redstone number ticking up as more items enter the chest.
Next up, Pressure Plates. There are 4 different kinds of pressure plates in the game - Stone [and blackstone], Light Weighted, Heavy Weighted, and Wooden.
A Wooden pressure plate is a standard pressure plate - drop an item on it, stand on it, or get a mob to stand on it and it will turn on to a power level of 15
A Light Weighted Pressure plate [gold] recognizes all entities but it ticks the number it outputs up by 1 every time there is another entity on it.
A Heavy Weighted Pressure Plate [iron] recognizes all entities but it ticks the number it outputs up by 1 every 10 entities.
[for reference, in the above image there are 9 items on the gold pressure plate and 11 [bc the first 10 count at '1'] on the iron pressure plate]
A Stone pressure plate only recognizes Players and Mobs, not Entities, but when activated also puts out a power level of 15.
Onto Buttons and Levers. In Minecraft, there are two kinds of buttons, Stone and Wood. The main different between them is that a Stone button is depressed for 1 second whereas a Wooden button is depressed for 1.5 seconds. The other difference between the two button types is that Wooden buttons can be interacted with by Arrows and Tridents but a stone button cannot. If you shoot a wooden button, it stays depressed until the arrow or trident despawns. A lever can be flicked on and off to act as a switch for a minecraft circuit.
Other methods of outputting a redstone signal include things such as:
Turning a page in a book on a Lectern[it involves some very complicated math so just know the more pages a book has, the weaker the signal it puts out so you have to flip more pages to output a stronger signal][a book with 1 page outputs a level 15 signal, a book with 15 pages outputs a level 1 signal on page 1 and a level 15 signal on page 15]
Being in the vicinity of a Sculk Sensor [the closer you are when it triggers, the higher the power level it outputs],
Shooting a Target Block[Most projectiles output a signal for 0.4 seconds, whereas an arrow or trident output for 1 second, and the closer the projectile hits to the center the higher the power level it outputs]
A Daylight Detector changes its signal strength based on the time of day, whereat noon it is a full strength signal and it goes down in eithe direction from there. A daylight sensor can also be reversed, wherein it checks for darkness and at Midnight outputs a signal strength of 11 [because of how the game checks the internal skybox] [I am not gonna lie to you. It is more complicated than this. Just know that if its cloudy or raining or storming the signal strength weakens. We're not actually building redstone mechanisms here]
A Lightning Rod outputs a level 15 signal when struck by lightning
A Tripwire acts as a pressure plate if there are tripwire hooks to either side of it. They output their signal into the block they are attached to.
Pistons and Sticky Pistons are fairly simple contraptions. They can push blocks and entities, and sticky pistons can then also pull them back. This list tells you everything a piston cannot push or pull though. We're writing fanfiction and drawing fanart with this information and I tend to...ignore it at my whimsy. There is a very popular mod which a lot of the Hermits have used in their one off videos that allow pistons to interact with containers, for example.
Related to Pistons are Honey and Slime blocks. Functionally these items are identical. They can be pushed by pistons and sticky pistons, and any blocks stuck to their sides will come with them. They do not stick to each other, so they're often used for making things like doors and flying machines[which are redstone mechanisms that move themselves, generally used for more complicated machinery] Below they are combined with sticky pistons in order to move back and forth.
Dispensers and Droppers are both items that can disperse entities into the game. The difference here is that Droppers will always spit out the item and Dispensers can dispense certain items like water [seen below], lava, arrows, and eggs, along with placing Shulkers. Droppers can deposit items into containers directly infront of them, including other Droppers, and make a thing known as a dropper pipe to move items around in a system. You can remember which one is which because a Dispenser looks like an :O face whereas a Dropper looks like a :> face.
Hoppers are containers that can pull items from containers above them and push them into other containers. They can receive a redstone signal in order to 'lock' them and keep from moving items around. <- More information about these specifically will be in the Adjacents post.
Trapped Chests are containers that output a redstone signal when they are open. If you place a trapped chest on top of a hopper, the hopper wont pull items until you close the chest. This can also be used to effectively make traps, hence the name 'Trapped' chest.
Observers are a block which can observe changes to blocks in front of them. The little face on an observer is where it's 'looking', and the little red dot on the back of an observer is where it outputs the redstone signal based on the changes it observes. This list tells you what an observer can and cannot detect, though I also play fast and loose with this list as I need to.
And that about wraps it up for the basics. Don't see what you were hoping to see in this post? In the next day I will be doing - Redstone Adjacents are things like 'Why do Redstoners use so much wool?','How do minecarts interact with Redstone?', and other fun tips and tricks
Part 2: The Adjacents can be found here
