Talk:Hopper

Name
The name "hopper" does not "get it's name from" the hopping behavior of items. Hopper is a very old term, used in all sorts of machinery and industry. It's the basket you throw stuff in on the top of a woodchipper, or the thing on a paintball gun that holds the balls and feeds them into the gun. Basically, a hopper does exactly what this one does. 216.160.90.19 19:58, 3 January 2013 (UTC)
 * The hopper looks kinda like the Cauldron yet the hopper is stone and the cauldron is iron Zigzagar 21:55, 3 January 2013 (UTC)
 * The hopper can interact with a redstone comparator and outputs a signal of equal strength to the 'fullness' percentage of the hopper. 94.172.54.244 03:45, 7 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Why not call it a funnel Zigzagar 19:18, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Version history
The hopper was not added in classic, and classic did not have snapshots, the link needs fixing. Pokechu22 23:18, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

Gallery links
The second picture down on the left links to a completely different picture. Someone who knows how should try to fix this. --96.237.54.85 03:02, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

Edit: Problem solved. --198.228.201.146 14:33, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Mod Mention
There shouldn't be a mention of the Allocator mod? The hopper has pretty much same functionality as the block. The only difference is that hopper can be placed in any direction and the allocator works with furnaces and can have filters. (A similar situation with Trapped Chests, by the same modder) Mod page: Pfaeff's Mod- -187.126.48.40 22:05, 7 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Not without a source from a Mojangsta stating that the original idea or implementation came from a mod. Specifically, if a Mojangsta were to only say that the idea/implementation of the hopper (or the trapped chest) came from a mod, that would be all we could say, but if they pointed out the specific mod, then we could do the same. 「 ディノ 奴 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 02:20, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Timing questions
The article mentions a rate of 3 items/second. Is this exact? As I recall, there are 20 ticks/second, and 3 doesn't go evenly into 20. I'm wondering if it's one item every 6 ticks, or even 7. However, I'm not sure of a good way to verify this. Generilisk 20:48, 10 January 2013 (UTC)


 * The code says it's one item every 7 ticks. Therefore the exact rate is 3 items per 1.05 seconds or about 2.86 items/second. --mgr 01:29, 11 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Update: in 13w04a snapshot speed was changed to: one item every 8 ticks. Exact rate is now 2.5 items/second or 1 item every 0.4 seconds. --mgr 15:05, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Inventory access
Can you access the hoppers 5-slot internal inventory by right-clicking on it? --96.237.54.85 03:23, 11 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, just not while holding shift. #trigger_hurt (I 12:40, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. This should probably be put in the actual page somewhere. --198.228.201.156 21:11, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Forking to Different Item Pipelines
I discovered a way to fork items into different item "pipelines" using redstone. Suppose you wanted to have one input--a chest, hopper, etc., that piped items to multiple outputs--a bank of furnaces, for example.

Place down two hoppers adjacent to each other. On top of each, place a minecart track (with shift + click)--I find that powered track (turned off) works best since it gives friction. Place a minecart with chest on top of the rails, and push it so that it is roughly in the middle of the two hoppers. Then, place a hopper on either side above the cart, so that it loads into the cart.

With this setup, items will pipe into the cart from above, and you can select which output hopper they go into by turning them on/off. This way, you could, for example, load one coal into each furnace, and then 8 iron ore into each, by getting the timing right.

It's not very space efficient and I'm trying to make a better design, but no luck so far.

EDIT: As of 13w02b, hoppers will pull from either side of a double chest, so, forking just requires a double chest now. Much easier.

Containers required or optional?
Can a hopper scoop up free-floating entities, such as objects swept in by a water flow? The wiki entry gives the impression that all hopper interactions require other container blocks such as chests and dispensers. The hopper's shape, however, suggests the possibility of scooping up stuff from outside. Curious, but w/o access to Minecraft at this time, so can't test for myself.
 * Yes, any item entities which fall on the top side of a hopper are transferred into the hopper's contents. It seems to sometimes take some time for the hopper to realize they're there (fractions of a second, usually, but it's not instantaneous), but once it does it will transfer entire stacks at a time (rather than the transfer rate it uses to push or pull items to or from containers).
 * This is described in the article's introduction, but it's easy to miss since there are a lot more details to cover about the container transfer mechanics.
 * &mdash;Munin295 &middot; Grid_Book_and_Quill.png Grid_Stone_Pickaxe.png &middot; 20:27, 7 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks! 66.249.173.235 19:22, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Transfer rate changed?
The "one item per 7 game ticks" was confirmed in the code by mgr on Jan 11. But the transfer rate seems to have changed in 13w04a (Jan 24). A hopper clock I built in 02b required about 85 items to maintain a 1 minute period (consistent with a 7-tick rate), but starting in 04a it requires precisely 75 items (I only recently went back to find where it changed). This makes me think the transfer rate has changed to one item per 8 game ticks (precisely 2.5 items per second). Can someone confirm this change in the code (in any recent version), or tell me I'm wrong?.

&mdash;Munin295 &middot;  &middot; 20:19, 7 February 2013 (UTC)


 * You're right. Source now says 8 game ticks per item. --mgr 15:10, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

What happens to experience from furnaces?
Apparently, a hopper below a furnace will take finished product. But when a player takes the finished product, they also get experience... what happens to the experience when a hopper empties it instead? --Mental Mouse 23:30, 15 February 2013 (UTC)
 * As of 13w07a, the experience just disappears. I have no idea if this is "working as intended" or will be changed at some point. 142.68.177.220 14:37, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Creating Filters
How do you create a hopper that retains its original items so you can use it as a filter? Sparx13 12:02, 20 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Use a redstone comparator to measure how full it is, and turn the hopper off if it starts to get low. For example (though the hopper should be facing the chest), this will keep the number of items in the hopper from falling below 22:


 * The forums may be a better place to ask questions like this, you'll get more responses and faster.
 * &mdash;Munin295 &middot; Grid_Book_and_Quill.png Grid_Stone_Pickaxe.png &middot; 17:17, 20 February 2013 (UTC)