Teach me to Buddy Block?

[IowaGuy]

Been playing the mod off and on for over a year. Every time I try to use a buddy block in a build I end up using a detector block. I know I'm missing out on something.

Can someone explain the buddy block and its function vs a detector block?

Getting frustrated with my hemp-sticky (pulse limited) piston farm (seeds keep falling on planted block and not being pushed) and looking towards melons for seeds.

[skrat6009]

I can't say much about the buddy block other than that it detects block updates, like for instance cobblestone turning into mossy cobblestone. Regarding your problem with pistons and seeds, I had a similar problem but I was able to fix mine by have the piston push a glass block into the plant to break it. The reason I used glass was that when I used an opaque block, sometimes the bottom hemp plant would "break" because of the brief moment of darkness it was in.

[IowaGuy]

Oh, so the BB detects block changes, where as a DB detects new obstructing objects and passing entitys?

[SterlingRed]

There are several ways to automate things. Most basicly and simply, you use timers to determine when to harvest whatever resource you're automating. This is inefficient. Detection based automation can advance/harvest whenever either a detector block sees something or a buddy block detects a block update. Even still at this stage with timers and detectors it's possible to automate everything without using a buddy.

However there are some systems that you must use a buddy to create the most efficient machines.
A detector outputs a constant signal whenever anything is in the space in front of it.
A buddy outputs a pulse whenever anything adjacent to one of its faces updates. Updates are everything from a block being places, block being removed, Redstone turning on or off, sapling growing, cobblestone turning into mossy cobblestone etc.

The easiest situation to show where a buddy is useful would be a mossy cobblestone farm. A detector would always see a block and would always output a signal. Nothing different would happen when the cobble changes to mossy. A buddy however produces a pulse when the cobble turns into mossy. Then you can use that pulse to do something like harvest and replace the mossy with cobble again for example.

Another common application for the buddy is in builds where you need a pulse and not a constant signal. Let's use a soul urn bottler for example. You need a pulse to spit out ground netherrack or soul dust as well as a pulse to place a new empty urn. You could use a detector, but the Redstone gets longer as you would have to turn a constant signal into a pulse. If the buddy is next to the urn, the buddy will pulse an update whenever the urn is placed and whenever the urn pops off. The challenge is that you only want one of those pulses to dispense netherrack or soul dust. So you have to damp out one of the pulses. I usually do this with a block dispenser counter spitting out a signal every second time it gets a pulse from the buddy. There are other ways to do this though.

Black cat (noir) has a tutorial on buddies in his videos.

[BlackCat]

I wrote most of this page
http://sargunster.com/btw/index.php?title=Buddy_Block

I also started this thread
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6602

And made two videos here
Http://YouTube.com/illogicallycompact

All about buddy blocks

[Battosay]

Rawny also has a quick and nice video about it, with wheat as an exemple :

Spoiler

Show

[Rianaru]

I've noticed that BUDdy blocks work well for some reactive builds(that is, the redstone reacts to its surroundings instead of preforming a function repeatedly and without taking the surroundings into account), especially kilns and soul bottlers. Also, auto tree farms, and some other farm designs, depending on your preferences. And all of my bioclocks rely on BUDs, but that's just the way I like to design them.

[IowaGuy]

A lot to absorb, from great builders. Thank you! I'm enjoying noire's let's play right now, but I'll check out the vids soon. Also, the soul urn stuff makes sense to me. In my last world I built a auto pottery-kiln-bottler and it did use a lot of redstone and some odd piston action to break signals. Plan to do better this time.


Edit: hemp farm on back burner. Cured 2 villager Zeds and made a small village. Then realized 2 things...
1. The village is real close to my mob tower/saw grinder
2. I don't like some villager trades.

Now I'm working on a "Promotion to Floor 500" tunnel.

My town is full of half done projects.