Disappearing Gearbox

[LupusExMachina]

I wonder if it is a bug or if I missed something about gearboxes.

I had one in the middle of a setup seemingly disappearing. I had a constant on/off redstone wire on top of it to operate some bellows. I put some Cobblestone in my crucible to smelt it, saw the progress bar rising and left to do something else. When I came back not a single block in the cricible had changed and after a short look I found that said gearbox was missing.
The redstone which was originally on top of it was there as an item, but nothing else. As far as I know a gearbox broken due to a storm leaves some remains, but I found none in this case.

So.... a bug or did I miss something?

[walker_boh_65]

How close it is to the fire?

[Ethazeriel]

If its close to the fire, make sure all the sides are covered so it doesn't burn. Gearboxes tend to catch fire.

[LupusExMachina]

5 blocks Manhatten distance to the next fire block, altitude of 2 counted in, completly isolated by a wall of stone.
I also just noticed, that the cobblestone is not smelted, it's just the progress bar moving, but no conversion takes place.

edit: I tried to replace the crucible to see if it fixes the smelting thingy... no luck there

[FlowerChild]

Walls don't matter to Minecraft fire. Only surrounding the block directly will help.

[Mason11987]

In case you don't know, you can save some space for moving around in your machines if you surround it with moulding/siding instead of full blocks, they don't burn either.

[RezDev]

In case you don't know, you can save some space for moving around in your machines if you surround it with moulding/siding instead of full blocks, they don't burn either.

Really, they don't?

Is there a technical reason for that? Because it seems like a bit of an exploit.

EDIT: Oops, nvm, somewhat ninja'd by the man himself.

[FlowerChild]

In case you don't know, you can save some space for moving around in your machines if you surround it with moulding/siding instead of full blocks, they don't burn either.

FYI, the new wood ones do.

[FlowerChild]

In case you don't know, you can save some space for moving around in your machines if you surround it with moulding/siding instead of full blocks, they don't burn either.

Really, they don't?

Is there a technical reason for that? Because it seems like a bit of an exploit.

The old wood sidings used the same blockID as the stone.

[RezDev]

Really, they don't?

Is there a technical reason for that? Because it seems like a bit of an exploit.

The old wood mouldings used the same blockID as the stone.

I see, thanks for clearing that up for me.

[LupusExMachina]

Thanks for the information. I will check if it is completly surrounded tomorrow and make sure it is.
Also thanks for the tip with the moulding. Stone moulding should still work close to the fireplace.
One last thing though.
There is still the issue with the cobblestone to stone smelting in the crucible. I got the information from the wiki and the progress bar makes me believe that actually something should happen.
Am I too impatient and the progress bar has to fill up several times for a single cobble to be converted or is there something else I need to do so it actually gets smelted?

[Mason11987]

In case you don't know, you can save some space for moving around in your machines if you surround it with moulding/siding instead of full blocks, they don't burn either.

FYI, the new wood ones do.

Oh wow, I didn't realize, I thought the rule was that all microblocks can't burn. There goes my plan or a fireproof wooden ship.

[Ethazeriel]

What setting is your bellows turntable on? If you have it set to something too fast, the fire may not be stoked properly. The ideal setting for the turntable is the third tick. If your bellows is pumping to fast, it may appear to be working, but instead letting the fire go unstoked occasionally.

[LupusExMachina]

I succesfully produced soulforged steel with the setup, so I assume the fire is stoked correctly.

edit: I use a very simple redstone cycle for the stoking. 4 redstone repeaters in pairs of two, supplying each other circular with a signal.

[Psion]

Don't use that. use a powered turntable set to the third setting, a solid block above said turntable, a redstone torch attached to one side of the rotating block, and a redstone current that peridically connects to the redstone torch that leads to whatever gearbox before your bellows is. (but make sure it's not also powering the turntable heh.)

[LupusExMachina]

After a closer look too short pulses might really be the problem. There seems to be some sort of bug in the calculation anyway. The setup was able to produce several pieces of soulforged steel as well as firing a kiln without problems until the gearbox broke. (I used the same one and just switched blocks to use it for several purposes)

After some fiddling with the pulser it's working properly now and should do so in the future.

I try the turntable variant for my next setup to see how it compares to redstone in terms of space and material usage.

Thanks to everyone for help with the troubleshooting :)

[FlowerChild]

Ok, that's it. I've decided to bump up adjusting the timing on the Bellows to make this kind of shit impossible, as it's just retarded, and will likely lag the shit out of SMP servers if a lot of people are doing this.

[Battosay]

I don't understand what you mean by the above man, could you explain a bit more please ? :)

[FlowerChild]

I don't understand what you mean by the above man, could you explain a bit more please ? :)

Basically using pulsars for Bellows timing and just relying on the MC gods that the interval just happens to be correct so that they're in the proper on/off state when the Bellows updates to change state.

I'm going to change it so that the mechanical power has to be continuously on or off for the entire length of time it takes for the Bellows to change state in order for it to actually do so.

I'm also going to slow down how long it takes for it to change state, like I mentioned I'd do in the past, to help reduce SMP lag by forcing people to use slower Turntable settings on their Bellows rigs.

Basically, I want to make it so that it *requires* the third Turntable setting (or an equivalent redstone timer) to work right, so I'll probably change the update rate for it to the neigborhood of 1.5 seconds.

[The Phoenixian]

-Changes snip-

Small question regarding this: Given that you mention requiring continuous power, will this affect handcranks' ability to power bellows?

[LupusExMachina]

I see the point of MP lagging. Won't do it there, even if it should work after the update. (Good to know altogether that RS Pulsers are CPU intensive, I'll stay away from these in MP)
But I'm pretty sure it will and am exited to see. The setup provides a continuous signal over about a second and is in an off state for about the same time. On and off times are perfectly adjustable for any duration of ticks with the setup, so I'm pretty sure it's going to work in the future.
I think I'm entitled to do as I please in my SP world, but as I said... nono in MP. :)

[FlowerChild]

The setup provides a continuous signal over about a second and is in an off state for about the same time.

Then I misunderstood what you were saying. I was getting the impression you had setup a redstone timer that had an extremely short period, and was switching on/off states multiple times with each pump of the Bellows.

That's the kind of setup I need to prevent, as it only works based on chance, and doesn't represent an understanding of how the Bellows actually work.

[LupusExMachina]

Sorry then for not pointing it out clear enough.
I guess I misused the term "pulser" here.

This mod is beautiful and trying to cheese one of its concepts just feels wrong.
Gratulations to making it work as smooth as it does with the frame you're working in.

I'm still waiting for someone to take it and code the whole thing in a proper language. Hope you feel up to the task one day :)

[Foxy Boxes]

Although your setup *is* technically a pulsar, the term pulsar is commonly used to describe very brief signals. Perhaps add a time adjective, for example, a 2-second pulsar.

[FlowerChild]

Although your setup *is* technically a pulsar, the term pulsar is commonly used to describe very brief signals. Perhaps add a time adjective, for example, a 2-second pulsar.

Yeah, a "pulsar" generally refers to an extremely fast timer, which is why I got confused. If it's not flashing on and off like crazy, then I think "timer" is the appropriate term.