An excessively fancy door

[Andellmere]

Months ago, right after I started using BTW I discovered the wondrous world of Youtube and it's many Minecraft contraptions. One such contraption was a 3x3 block door that opened at the press of a button. The maker stated with absolute certainty that getting it to close would be nearly impossible. I decided to build a door that would open and close at my whim!

Instead, I have an almost horridly complex door mechanism that has 4 buttons(As opposed to the one of the original), practically requires a combination and is harder to open than close. But it's mine. And that makes it all worth it.

The door open, seen from the corridor.

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The door closed, seen from the corridor.

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View of the door closed and mechanisms that are readily visible.

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View of door open and mechanisms that are readily visible.

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There you have it. I realize that the screenshots aren't very good, but it's a door. It'd be easier to show off with video, but I don't have a video program, nor a video editor. If you ever need a combination lock door, you can use this one freely.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'm not afraid to tear the edifice out to show off the inner workings if someone want to see them.
If you have suggestion on how to make my wiring more efficient(Or, even better, make it all one button), or where I might find a good video recording program, please share!

[steveman0]

That's pretty cool. I wonder though if you could use the double length piston trick I saw someone post a youtube video of in some way that could do the same thing and possibly hide all of the pistons.

[Andellmere]

If you can point me to something that will let me hide that last piston, I'll be very grateful. I originally wanted to use a drop down piston-block combo but that proved... complicated. Namely, powering the piston once it reached the middle of the door.
I do use a double-length piston for the bottom-middle piston set-up. Which is why it's a combination lock to close and open. It's five button presses to close (Four of which are the bottom middle set-up) and it's 8 to open the thing. I just set up a massive wall-dialing-thing to help me cope with keeping the buttons straight. I wasn't joking when I said it was harder to open than close.
On a side note: that (what I believe to be a)double length piston set up is actually four pistons all designed to move two blocks the way I want. If I weren't so darn proud of the door actually doing what I want, I'd think that was excessive.

[Whisp]

CNBMinecrafts youtube channel is a great source for mechanisms like that.
I built my 3x3 door in my nether base after his design:


Really advanced redstone circuitry, but he explains every part of it, so that you understand why it's working like it's working. :)

[DreamsofFury]

Doors...where it all starts....

[Andellmere]

Ouch, Whisp. Talk about blowing my door out of the water. But at least it gave me what I needed to hide that last piston.

Actually, Dreams, elevators are where it started, back when BTW was still in the Forge. Elevators with automatic doors, in a faux office building complete with light that I was trying to to isolate to light one room at a time and maintain the ability to light the whole thing at once. You'd be pretty amazed what you can do with enough time, space, and patience using only a t-flipflop.