User:Munin295/Transmission circuit

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Transmission types
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Digital
A digital transmission is a transmission where all that matters is whether it is on or off.


 * Redstone wire


 * 1-wide, flat, silent
 * circuit delay: 1 tick per 18 blocks
 * A line of redstone dust is a simple and flexible transmission method.


 * "Smart wire"


 * 1-wide
 * circuit delay: none (rising edge) and 3 ticks per repeater (falling edge)
 * Moving an entity (such as a minecart) into a tripwire line can activate a tripwire hook up to 40 blocks away.
 * While a piston moves a block, it effectively doesn't exist for redstone purposes (it won't provide or conduct power, etc.). However, when a piston moves an entity (like a minecart), the entity is moved at each game tick the piston is moving. Because of this, the minecart in smart wire moves up into the tripwire immediately, instantly activating the far tripwire hook, so there is no circuit delay on the input's rising edge. However, when the piston retracts, the minecart isn't pulled by it, but simply falls due to gravity, thus imposing a 3-tick delay per minecart to the input's falling edge. This difference between rising edge and falling edge behavior can cause on-pulses to lengthen and off-pulses to shorten, possibly even erasing short off-pulses over a number of smart wire repeaters. This makes smart wire less useful for rapidly changing states.
 * Smart wire should be built where it won't be triggered by mobs or other undesired entities: in the air, below ground, etc.
 * Earliest Known Publication: March 28, 2013

Numerous other methods exist for moving a redstone signal from one place to another. These methods may not be efficient or appropriate over long distances, but can be useful in compact redstone structures as their interaction with other components differs from redstone dust and smart wire.
 * Sticky pistons pushing blocks of redstone, or pushing regular blocks into a powered state, or pushing blocks between containers and comparators
 * Droppers pushing items into hoppers facing back into the droppers, with comparators to detect the item pushed into the hopper
 * Moving items through hopper pipes and reading locations with comparators

Transmission crossing

 * Redstone bridge


 * silent
 * circuit delay: none
 * The fastest method for crossing wires is by building a bridge to take one wire over the other.
 * Variations: A common variation is to drop the center block one level, and cut a three-block passage into the ground under it for the north-south wire.


 * Repeater bridge


 * silent
 * circuit delay: 1 tick
 * A repeater bridge takes up less space than a redstone bridge, but it adds 1 tick of delay to both wires.

Analog
An analog transmission (a.k.a. "hex line") is a transmission which outputs the same signal strength it receives as input. Because power levels can vary from 0 to 15, an analog transmission can convey 16 states in a single line.


 * Analog comparator line


 * flat, silent
 * circuit delay: 1 tick per 4 blocks
 * tl;dr: best option for short distances and tricky turns
 * The simplest analog line is a line of redstone comparators. However, like repeaters, comparators can draw a signal from an opaque block and push a signal into an opaque block, thus it is usually more efficient (in resources, and in signal delay) to place comparators every four blocks.
 * The analog signal in this line can be reduced or suppressed at some point along its length by feeding another signal into one of the comparators in subtraction mode. The signal can be overridden by feeding a stronger signal into one of the opaque blocks.
 * Because the redstone dust is not adjacent to any power or transmission components, only opaque blocks, it will not configure itself to point in any particular direction. This will cause the dust to also power any opaque blocks or mechanism components to the side of the analog line. Transmission components (redstone dust, redstone comparators, etc.) should not be placed adjacent to the line's dust because that would cause the dust to configure itself in a way where it doesn't power the rest of the analog line.


 * Analog repeater line


 * flat, silent
 * circuit delay: 1 tick per 14 blocks
 * tl;dr: fastest option for long distances
 * Signal strength can also be retained by using repeaters to repeat every possible signal strength at the correct distance from the output to convey the correct signal strength.
 * A single segment of analog repeater line consists of exactly 15 repeaters connecting an input line to an output line. To connect multiple segments together without additional comparators, the segments must be arranged so that the output dust of the last repeater is the same as the input dust of the next segment (i.e., block B of the previous segment is block A of the next segment). This causes each segment to be offset to the side from the previous segment by two blocks.
 * Variations: To keep the segments in-line, use a block-comparator-block segment of analog comparator line between the segments, and alternate the direction the repeaters are facing. However, this increases the circuit delay to 2 ticks per 18 block.
 * Earliest Known Publication: November 21, 2012.


 * Analog subtraction line


 * flat, silent
 * circuit delay: 1 tick per (18-N) blocks (see below for N)
 * tl;dr: complicated, infrequently useful
 * If fewer than 15 states need to be transmitted, it may be more efficient to encode those N states in the higher levels of signal strength, and then repeatedly subtract the transmitted value from 15 after (17-N) dust, an even number of times.
 * Variations: The chests can be replaced with regular power components (redstone torches, powered levers, etc.) if the redstone dust next to them is raised or lowered by one block, or if the subtraction comparator and its power source are moved so that the redstone dust runs straight into the comparator's side with the comparator perpendicular to the line still facing into the same block.
 * Earliest Known Publication: January 26, 2013

Binary
A binary transmission consists of multiple digital lines run in parallel, with each line representing a different digit in a single binary number. For example, three lines might individually represent binary 001 (decimal 1), binary 010 (decimal 2), and binary 100 (decimal 4) -- allowing them together to represent any value from decimal 0 to 7 (by summing the represented values of the powered lines). An individual digital line of a binary transmission is referred to by the value it can add to the total number (for example, the 1-line, the 2-line, the 4-line, the 8-line, the 16-line, etc.)

When a binary transmission is intended to output a decimal value (such as with a 7-segment display), it is known as "Binary-Coded Decimal" (BCD).


 * 4-bit binary bus
 * A 4-bit binary bus can carry the same amount of information as an analog line. …

Unary
A unary transmission consists of multiple digital lines run in parallel, where a value is represented by which line is on (for example, the number 5 might be represented by having only the fifth line on). Unary encoding is rarely used for transmitting values, but may be used for inputs (e.g., which, or how many, levers are turned on) or outputs (e.g., which, or how many, dispensers are triggered), with conversion to or from a more efficient transmission method in between.


 * 16-state unary bus
 * A 16-state unary bus can carry the same amount of information as an analog line. …

Transmission conversion
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Converting analog to 4-bit binary
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Converting analog to 16-state unary
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 * Redcoder
 * Earliest Known Publication: November 21, 2012
 * Earliest Known Publication: November 21, 2012


 * Grizdale's A2U decoder


 * 4&times;16&times;3 (192 block volume), silent
 * circuit delay: 4 ticks
 * Earliest Known Publication: March 17, 2013
 * Earliest Known Publication: March 17, 2013

Converting 4-bit binary to analog
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Converting 4-bit binary to 16-state unary
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Converting 16-state unary to analog
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Converting 16-state unary to 4-bit binary
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Vertical transmission
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Vertical digital transmission
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 * Redstone staircase
 * 1xNxN, 1-wide, silent
 * Variation (Circular Staircase): By turning 90 degrees in the same direction each time the wire goes up a block, a "circular" staircase can be created in a 2x2 footprint. This variation is 2-wide tileable in both horizontal directions as long as the rotation direction is alternated in each direction (clockwise, anticlockwise, clockwise, etc.).
 * Variation (Circular Staircase): By turning 90 degrees in the same direction each time the wire goes up a block, a "circular" staircase can be created in a 2x2 footprint. This variation is 2-wide tileable in both horizontal directions as long as the rotation direction is alternated in each direction (clockwise, anticlockwise, clockwise, etc.).


 * Redstone Ladder
 * 1x2xN, 1-wide, silent


 * Torch tower


 * 1x1xN (upwards) or 1x2xN (downwards), 1-wide, silent


 * Piston tower


 * 1x1xN, 1x1-tileable

Vertical analog transmission
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Diodes
Another important aspect of signal transmission is making sure a signal doesn't go the wrong way. "Diodes" are redstone components or circuits which allow signals to propagate in one direction but not the other.


 * Component diode


 * 1-wide, flat, silent
 * circuit delay: 1 tick
 * Both the redstone repeater and the redstone comparator behave as diodes, but add 1 tick of delay.


 * Transparent diode


 * 1-wide, silent
 * circuit delay: none
 * Some transparent blocks can support redstone dust: glowstone, upside-down slabs, upside-down stairs and hoppers. These blocks have the property that redstone dust on them can propagate signals diagonally upwards, but not diagonally downwards (transparent blocks which cannot support redstone dust cannot be used for this purpose). Thus, simply jumping the signal up one block to one of these transparent blocks creates a diode circuit (to get it back to the same level, run the line over an opaque block before dropping it).
 * Upside-down slabs are the transparent block most commonly used for this purpose, but glowstone is used where light would be useful (to suppress mob spawning, etc.), upside-down stairs can be used where a full-side solid surface is required without light (for example, alongside a water channel transporting items over ice), and hoppers may be used in this way where they are already being used for item transport.