Archimedes' screw using turntable

[Riveter]

Sorry I can't get to my Minecraft to make this myself right now, but I wanted to throw this out there as the idea just hit me like lightening.
We've always had issues moving items vertically up, but with the addition of the turn table, I think we have a solution.
Using Block Dispensers to force items up one block, with a redstone spiral behind them. this would be in it's own shaft of course, and you would need 2 torches to be lined up at the same time to keep the items from dropping, but I think it would work!

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[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/ ... .jpg[/img]

[Glox]

Dude thats genious. Although it uses alot of BD and thus moss cobble which is hard to find, and i believe this was already possible with the use of pulleys and platforms (haven't done it myself tho). But this is waaay more badass, i'm going to try it out later. Thanks :)

[gftweek]

Nice! I would so make one of these if it didn't require so many BDs. However no reason it shouldn't work with (sticky?) pistons instead, unless the items pop out into the shaft area of the piston instead of rising, in which case you'd need another row of pistons to reset it afterwards (one normal pushing two blocks, opposite another sticky piston with it's own block, which retracts to form the shaft.

Oooh, using sticky pistons with stair blocks, this will form a nice compact piston elevator!

[Riveter]

Argh! I referenced the wrong block in the graphic, it's supposed to be Block Dispensers, not Detectors!
I'll change it asap.
Edit:fixed

[JammerUno]

You can do this with regular pistons right? End the waterfeed on one, push up 1 block, push to next piston, up 1 block, etc. Or do lose items pass though pistonheads?

edit: conversely, a hopper & storage minecart would be far superior. Send down the MC, empty hopper, recall minecart.

[gftweek]

You may have problems with the items popping out into the water stream, rather than jumping straight up, so another piston or BD would have to be employed to shut off the side entrance to the vertical shaft, before the lifting of items started.

Yes, this could be done with a storage minecart, but this design is cooler, continuous and cheaper (if pistons are used instead of BDs), the amount of iron and gold required to move a storage minecart is considerable, plus the redstone is more complicated if it's automated.

[Riveter]

Well, I got a chance to mess with the design in game. I got it to work up to 5 blocks, past that wiring them to not trigger the one above/below got a bit messy. I'm no redstone expert though, and having the one below stay on isn't really a problem, as long as there is a gap for the next bunch of items.
I know this may not be the most efficient design, but it seemed like a nice use for the turn table. I'll try it with pistons and see if I get better results.

gtfweek was right about the item popping back into the stream, Ill rig up a BDsp to block it when needed.

[gftweek]

You might also benefit from alternating the side the BD or piston is attached to. This should prevent having multiple actuators fire from the same signal. Having them on alternate sides of one corner of the shaft might simplify the wiring.

Or to complicate the wiring, you could have them arranged in a spiral so they fire like a true Archimede's screw!

I'm definitely making this over the weekend, going to use glass, so I can see it in action.

[Riveter]

You might also benefit from alternating the side the BD or piston is attached to. This should prevent having multiple actuators fire from the same signal.

Wow, how did I miss that?! I got so worked up over the idea I forgot the placement of the BD doesn't matter. I was trying to feed the redstone into the sides, like I said, redstone noob here. That will solve the timing issue, now I just need to get the thing built!

[Riveter]

It works! It HAS to be made from an opaque block. Glass allows items to be pushed too out of the center block for lift. I used wool for the lifter-blocks, but I'm assuming you need opaque blocks for those as well. There is quite a bit of bounce when they reach the top, and I think this may be a way to "push" them into a hopper.
The turntable needs to be timed on the third setting, allowing the items to be pushed into the screw by the water, too fast and they just stay outside.
I also added a "gate block" to the end of the stream as gftweek suggested, it works perfectly!
There are two torches per block, one right after the other, staggered up the column. Funny enough, it looks like the torches need to rotate opposite the lifting block(this may be an optical illusion from the torch spin).
Anyway, I would record this in video, but I can't track down a decent desktop recorder(I'll try fraps later tonight).
Here are some screen caps.

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I'm really excited to see what other people do with this idea. If you set the turntable to opposite spin, there is enough room to "ride/drop" the lift blocks, lol.

Edit: it definitely looks possible to use this same set up to make non-glitching piston/stair lifts, as mentioned above.

[Riveter]

Ok, so you don't need the bounce at the top. A simple stream of water can be placed over the top, and the last lifter block simply pushes the items into the stream. This is an incredibly simple solution to get items into a hopper. Big thanks to FC for an incredible addition to BTW!

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[Riveter]

Ok, last update from me for this, this was too much fun to not make. Thanks everyone for your input and ideas!

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[Marmalade_Smile]

How do you feel about posting a save or (better!) a construction video?

I think I can tell what's going on in the pictures, but this sounds like a really useful tool, and I can imagine this being something worth referencing.

[gftweek]

Awesome, thanks for the pics Riveter. I'm still setting up where I want to make one of these, and thanks for noting about the glass, I was cooking some up in preparation, now I don't have to waste it.

I think I will try pistons instead though. I'm not sure, but it may not work with plain pistons in which case I'll try sticky pistons with a block on the end, which will actually simplify the wiring as the pistons will be back an extra block and can be powered directly from the torches on the turntable shaft.

I figured I'd have to do something funky with water at the end, as I'm assuming the turntable has a similar limitation to the pistons and will only affect 8-16 blocks above it (I see you have 8). I was planning on having the top piston/BD push items horizontally into a water stream instead of lifting them, so I'll see how it works.

I'm planning on a chain of these going from my diamond layer mines to my storage room at about level 80. Think I'll tie in my dung, hemp and slime farms, and will get my tree farms relocated to use it and then work on a mob grinder.

Then I can make use of hoppers properly and have a full sorting system in place. Should just be able to dump inventory loads of mined goods into it too.

So many ideas! Maybe I'll just make a glass one anyway for the looks, or to push slimes around?

[Riveter]

How do you feel about posting a save or (better!) a construction video?

I will be sure to post a construction video as soon as I get the right desktop recorder. The few I've tried (free), had horrible compression/quality issues.
I may have to spring for the full version of fraps, as I hate having to splice together a bunch of smaller vids.

[BinoAl]

Haha, now this is a sweet idea. I'm loving some of the things people are doing with turntables

[Riveter]

Aw, I'm kinda disappointed, actually. Here I'd just finished making a system of counters using redstone and pistons that could effectively turn a 1-second clock into a 1-minute clock and a 1-hour clock, and now it's obsolete because of the super-modifiable turntable. =(

Sigh. You're absolutely right.

I've been increasingly bothered by the power of the Turntable since I put it out, not only for the reasons you mention, but also due to what it does to the tech-tree of the mod itself.

I'm going to have to severely nerf it both in terms of the number of settings allowed, and the height to which it operates (which is the other aspect that's bugging the shit out of me right now), and probably piss a lot of people off in the process. The type of accuracy and power it has right now is MUCH better suited to the next full tech-level. At present, it's just way overpowered, regardless of what I do to the recipe.

So, sorry guys, but for the long term good of the mod I'm going to have to take some drastic measures here.

Note to self: If you're tired and about to release a new feature, leave it to the next day when you have had a chance to properly evaluate its impact on the game.

To those of you who haven't started building a screw yet, keep in mind the turn table will be getting an update soon, that lowers the number of blocks it can support. This will make timing the thing quite a bit more complex. It's still a great idea, and I hope some of you will still make one, but I'll wait until we get a stable version of the turn table. I totally agree that the current version doesn't fit the current tech tree in BTW, but it will still be a wonderful tool to work with.

[Glox]

(Not trying to be a necro but i do believe this topic is still usefull)

To those of you who haven't started building a screw yet, keep in mind the turn table will be getting an update soon, that lowers the number of blocks it can support. This will make timing the thing quite a bit more complex. It's still a great idea, and I hope some of you will still make one, but I'll wait until we get a stable version of the turn table. I totally agree that the current version doesn't fit the current tech tree in BTW, but it will still be a wonderful tool to work with.

That update made me realise that it is actually really simple to make such a screw.
Instead of using a turntable to rotate a 10 block or so high column like the previous designs, you could let it rotate 2 blocks (or even 1 block) and use 2 torch towers to send the signal up.

Front:

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The wooden blocks is where the items get lifted. (Offcourse the 8 blocks around that column have to be filled up with something or else the items get pushed to the side.)
Back:

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The turntable is at the bottom in the middle.

This thing is 5x5xwhateveryouwant, not counting the space needed for the mechanism that lets the items enter the screw at the bottom or exit it at the top.

[magikeh]

(Not trying to be a necro but i do believe this topic is still usefull)

-SNIP-

Soo simple... and it all makes sense... and it only needs one clock... ... i am amazed at how simple and effective this solution is, it is quite the contraption and it does not have a limit (as the turntable and the pistons have limits)... when i get home this is one thing that will be immedatly implemented into my world!! Thanks for the idea and insperation!! ^_^/

[Riveter]

Thank you for finding a work around with the updated turn table. I was having issues with the faster block placement not moving the items up the screw, maybe my timing is off. Have you built the blocks around the lifting blocks to see if this does in fact do the trick? It's great to see people expand on the original idea!

[FaceFoiled]

Could you perhaps make a short video of the workings? I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this one, but it looks like a really cool feature to use, to move items upwards. :)

[Glox]

Thank you for finding a work around with the updated turn table. I was having issues with the faster block placement not moving the items up the screw, maybe my timing is off. Have you built the blocks around the lifting blocks to see if this does in fact do the trick? It's great to see people expand on the original idea!

Yea there have to be blocks around the lifting blocks, otherwise the items get pushed to the side instead of upwards. I removed them to take pictures so everything would be clearly visible. I tested my design with filling up the blocks around it and an auto item intake at the bottom and outtake at the top and everything works perfectly.

Could you perhaps make a short video of the workings? I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this one, but it looks like a really cool feature to use, to move items upwards. :)

Sorry but i don't have any software for making videos and i'm not really in the mood to look for some and figure out how it works. I'd be happy to provide more pictures or even my world save if you want so you could see it in action tho. What's the part that you don't understand actually? The general concept of the screws or my particular design?

[Riveter]

I'll get one built tonight and get a vid of it running up on youtube asap.

Edit: Here it is. Sorry for the darkness of the video and lack of sound, I'm still getting down how to properly make vids. Added stages to show the progression to a full system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S45ySPXbiVM

[FaceFoiled]

Thanks for the video, it is very clear and understandable. :) Great mechanism!

[magikeh]

I'll get one built tonight and get a vid of it running up on youtube asap.

Edit: Here it is. Sorry for the darkness of the video and lack of sound, I'm still getting down how to properly make vids. Added stages to show the progression to a full system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S45ySPXbiVM

thats pretty good, it really gets the point accross of how you need to box it in to keep the items going up, rather than to the sides!! ^_^/