User:LordTeague/sandbox

= Omnidirectional TNT Cannon Circuits = My omnidirectional TNT Cannon design has several distinct parts, many of which can be adjusted so long as you follow the rules for each part's design. From the bottom, the tower starts with an Observation Deck, then a Directional Reverser is built on top, then my extremely compact 'Radio Button' latch is built on top of that, then comes the outer Fire Control mechanism and the inner Propellant Clock mechanism. On top of the Propellant Clock mechanism is the delay circuit and Projectile Clock, and finally there is the Firing Mechanism at the very top of the tower.

This setup allows this TNT cannon design to not only operate as a fully automatic TNT cannon, but also allows it to fire at the incredible rate of once per 4 ticks in your choice of 16 different directions: N, N-NE, NE, E-NE, E, E-SE, SE, S-SE, S, S-SW, SW, W-SW, W, W-NW, NW, and N-NW. There is some unavoidable delay between each button press and the cannon firing in that direction due to the time it takes TNT to explode, but efforts have been made to make the avoidable delay a constant amount. Additionally, the extremely compact size of the firing mechanism leaves next to no room for automated reloading of its dispensers, and makes it difficult to even manually adjust the launch power of each shot. It is, however, possible to manually adjust the firing arc by adjusting the delay time.

The best part about this cannon is not only is it buildable in survival mode on the PC, but it can also be built in survival mode on the console editions. However, in at least the PS3 and XBOX 360 editions, this cannon runs into the max TNT limit so quickly it doesn't allow the firing mechanism to dispense any TNT at a full 4 propellant, 8 projectiles per shot, and minimum 2 tick clock. You'll either need to increase the delay on the firing clocks or decrease the amount of propellant and projectiles fired, and possibly both, if you want to get a consistent full-auto fire rate. Regardless of what edition this cannon is built in, LordTeague's designs make the tower look good, because a TNT cannon this insane deserves it.

Note: Many of these schematics are designed for a circular blockspace. D# is used to specify the area is circular, and how many blocks wide the circle's diameter is. The total size of the redstone component is about D25*20 blocks, assuming a 1 block wall has been built around them to protect them from the outside world (highly recommended). The tower is designed so the Observation Deck can use the bottom of the redstone component as its ceiling, which means you can expect an additional D25x5 or 6 blocks of volume at the bottom of the tower, assuming two floors are built.

Additionally, many parts of this cannon are designed to be radially tiled, so unless otherwise specified, you only need to know how to build a fourth of the cannon to know how to build the whole thing, rotating each section 90 degrees around the center. The schematics are designed with this fact in mind, with the center of each one specified by a C. (While no even diameter schematics are used here, the center of those would be marked by 4 C's in a square, unless there's some way of marking a point connecting squares in a schematic.)

There are two schemes for displaying radial schematics used here. The first is the 'Edge and Center' method, used where the center would benefit from being displayed on its own. Here schematics will either be captioned as an edge or a center of their current layer, with matching connection descriptors between them, that may be indicated via white wool. These descriptors overlap when combined as shown. By contrast, the Leaf method is used when the center isn't complicated, and shows an entire fourth (or half) of the circuit, including the center. Each leaf, however, does not include blocks that would normally be shown extending from the center in any other direction. Example schematics for this convention are shown below.

Observation Deck
The Observation Deck is where you'll spend most of your time when using this TNT cannon design. It has extremely little redstone wiring involved, but it's also where all your inputs are going to be placed. The only really difficult wiring task is setting up the reset signal in the center of the room, and that can be accomplished with a torch tower through the center, so long as the top and bottom torches are powered by default. Because of this, no official schematics are provided for this area, and the height of this area is approximated when calculating the height of this tower.

You can have as many floors below the Observation Deck as you want, but it is recommended that the Observation Deck be built at a height where it has a clear view of the surrounding landscape, and that it has blocks that can easily be seen through to observe where you should fire the cannon next.

Because of this, only the ceiling of the Observation Deck is counted in the official height for this tower, with any additional height being approximated. Besides the location of the reset button, the only real architectural requirements are that there be a way to easily see out of your tower in all directions here, and that buttons only be placed flush or one block lower than the top layer of the ceiling to make wiring up the Reverser easier. Recommendations include the floor space being at least D21 wide, and placing your entrance(s) below the Observation Deck somewhere.

Other than that, make this part of the tower work for you.

Sample Deck Design
This design is D23x4, excluding the lower floor, which adds 2 to 3 extra blocks of height. Stone Slabs are located on the lower half of the block unless otherwise specified. The staircase design I made to connect this with the first floor cannot be shown due to limitations of this particular template, but is designed to be traversed diagonally from under the center. Any building blocks may be used in place of stone bricks and stone slabs, and the buttons on layer 4 are ceiling buttons. The central column with the buttons surrounding it is the reset column, to be wired up as you desire.

It can be expanded to D25x5 by adding an extra block around the perimeter, moving all the windows and pillars out one block orthogonally, expanding the diagonal windows by 1 block in width, and keeping the button placement the same.

Directional Reverser
When you're in the observation deck below the firing mechanisms, chances are you'll want to press the button in that direction to start launching the TNT that way. However, in order to launch the TNT one direction, the propellant must come from the exact opposite direction. A Directional Reverser, situated above the observation deck and below the 'Radio Button' directional latch, enables this to take place.

However, to ensure proper functioning of this TNT cannon, the Directional Reverser wiring must correspond to the Fire Control wiring. If the cannon is designed to be radially symmetrical, then only four identifiers are needed, rather than a full sixteen. Looking out from the center in one of the four cardinal directions, the identifiers are:


 * (M)iddle: The input/output directly aligned with a cardinal direction.
 * (L)eft: The input/output to the immediate left of that cardinal direction.
 * (R)ight: The input/output to the immediate right of that cardinal direction.
 * (D)iagonal: The input/output at a 45 degree angle of that cardinal direction.

Each reverser design can be identified by what input/output each piston in one of the four 'faces' of the Radio Button latch corresponds to, in the same left to right order as if you were looking at it from the center.

There is also one final identifier for every Reverser and Fire Control wiring setup: Whether the Diagonal is wired to/from the left or right of the Middle input. This is specified as "Diagonal Left" or "Diagonal Right" before the component name.

The completed design for both the Reverser and Fire Control must have matching designations in order for this TNT cannon to function correctly. The default assumed input method for every Redstone Reverser is a ceiling button on the underside of the input block, and a redstone dust on top of it, unless specified otherwise. The outputs are designed to directly power each input of the Directional 'Radio Button' latch, which is quite possibly the most compact design possible for this tower.

R-D-M-L Diagonal Right Reverser
This Directional Reverser adds up to 12 ticks of delay between button press and latch activation, but is extremely compact at D21x4 blocks, being flush with the floor and almost flush with the ceiling, the latter of which will be hidden by the directional latch anyways. If you are okay with variable delay, then you need not set any repeaters to any specific delay times. Otherwise, follow the delay times shown in the schematics for a constant 12 tick delay.

This design is broken up into 3 parts to eliminate redundancy and reduce whitespace, as the N/S part works for both sides of this build, as long as they're rotated 180 degrees relative to each other. Same goes for the E/W part. All parts can be mirrored with no ill effects, turning this latch into a R-M-D-L Diagonal Left Reverser. Just make sure to mirror the Fire Control mechanism as well if you do.

Directional 'Radio Button' Latch
Rarely does Redstone look this round! Not only is it aesthetically pleasing to look at, but it also holds each directional button input until another directional input or the reset button is pressed down in the Observation Deck part of this TNT cannon. However, all versions of this design have the limitation that the input and output always come from the same direction, even as the input is in a higher level closer to the center.

The term 'Radio Button' is used to describe this latch's functionality as working like radio buttons, such as those seen on online multiple choice questions, where only one option can be chosen. The main difference is that while most Radio Buttons store each option as a distinct numerical output, a Radio Button latch stores each option in a distinct input position. Logically, a Radio Button latch can only have one active input at a time, although it can also have none active. Electronically, a Radio Button Latch is equivalent to an array of Data Latches set up so that every Data Signal also powers the Clock Signal, without accidentally powering any other Data Signals.

A Radio Button latch of some type is required to control which pistons activate, for more than one set of pistons activating propellant leads to a greater chance of a misfire.

An alternative name for this type of latch I saw while browsing the forums is a 'Last On' latch. This design almost works as one, except you need to wait for the last button to deactivate before pressing the new one.

Unless otherwise specified, Any Blocks (Stone Bricks) indicate blocks which may be placed for aesthetic appeal. Lighter Stone Bricks indicate places where a placed block may not add much aesthetic appeal, but can still be placed there.

Teague's Compact Directional Radio Button Latch
A minimum of D15x5 blocks in size if inputs 2 and 3 are activated by redstone dust powered by torches, the exact diameter varies depending on where your inputs are wired on your reverser design (or lack thereof). As alluded to earlier, certain designs may replace some or all input repeaters with a redstone dust, powered by a redstone torch from below, which is not connected to one of the blocks supporting the reset line. It should be noted this design is specifically intended to be powered from below by torches, although Observers may work too when placed to power the repeaters.

The reset pulse generators should be set to 2 ticks, to turn the torch off for a single tick. Each of the repeaters going into the pistons should be set to 3 ticks, so that the powered piston will still be extended when the signal comes back on. A stands for Active in this circuit, and all of the top slabs marked A in this circuit have a single redstone dust placed on top of them. If one of the pistons is raised in this design, one of the A lines will also be active, making setting up a compact clock significantly easier.

While stone bricks are optional in many of these designs as described above, here the lighter stone bricks are also good candidates for the placement of light producing blocks of your choice.

Fire Control Wiring and Clock Designs
The Fire Control Wiring is where you wire up your circuit so that when the clock signal is sent to activate all the pistons at once, only four pistons in whichever direction will activate. Because this TNT cannon is designed to fire at an absurdly fast rate, no torches may be used to propagate the clock signal to its destination, as they will burn out if joined to a two-tick clock. As single pistons can only oscillate up and down on a period of every 4 ticks, a two-tick clock is the minimum which can be used for this design, so it is what I used. While torches may not be used to propagate the clock signal, they can be used to control it.

Good designs for the Fire Control wiring have an equal delay for every control signal and an equal delay for the clock signal reaching every set of pistons. The former helps to ensure only one set of pistons can be activated at a time, while the latter ensures that any set of pistons is activated at the same time any other set would be. The best designs take two more considerations into account: That the wiring looks good from inside the tower, and that it is possible to move around through some parts of the wiring to enact repairs. The former can actually help aid repairs, especially if block placements are symmetrical. To accomplish the latter, it must be possible to replace any part of the circuit without flying, although not all areas need to be walkable to do so.

This section uses the same terminology as the reverser section for designating which inputs go to which outputs, which will not be repeated here. A friendly reminder: in order for the buttons to line up properly with the outputs, the reverser's designation must match the piston wiring's designation. If you are considering making your own wiring scheme, it is highly advised to design the control wiring and clock first in creative mode, then a matching reverser. Once you've done that, then you're set to build your own design in survival mode.

Additionally, because each compact clock design often has to match up with the clock inputs of the control wiring, while usually residing within the same layers, clock designs for each control wiring scheme are included as subsections for each Fire Control scheme.

Unless otherwise specified, these designs build directly off of Teague's directional radio button latch, and the pistons and slimeblock towers are built to match the spacing of the Compact Automatic Omnidirectional Firing Platform, which is D11 wide.

R-D-M-L Diagonal Right Fire Control Wiring
Fairly compact at D17x8 blocks (or 15x15x5 blocks if the outermost any blocks on layer 8 are excluded), the bottom two of these layers overlap and connect directly to the compact directional radio button latch above.

This design is not only the most open design I've built (in terms of walking along the bottom), but it also features an element of redundancy in the clock signal being sent in from four places when it only needs to be sent from two of them in opposite corners. The schematics above number their layers to correspond directly with the directional radio button latch.

The repeater/comparator setup near the bottom is the biggest factor in why this design looks so open, and it actually does take only one tick to activate the opposite comparator from the block triggered. Additionally, it does not matter what mode the comparators are set to for this circuit--all comparators work equally well on subtraction or comparison mode.

Comparator Clock
Built directly on top of the directional latch design mentioned earlier, this design is 5x5x5 and is one of the most open, walkable, and reliable clock designs I could come up with that is only active when any input from the latch is active.

A superb way of getting a two-tick clock that oscillates on a signal, a redstone comparator set to subtraction mode with a one tick repeater is a great and reliable way to make a 1 tall clock design. Additionally, if all comparators used are set to comparison mode, a TNT tower with this clock mechanism can fire on semi auto, which is great for testing the timing of the shots being launched. However, firing on semi-auto is a bit awkward when doing this, as the reset button needs to be pressed after each shot goes through.

While the PC has the Observer Clock as an alternative, the Comparator Clock is the best-looking reliable option for console players. This is a good thing, because console players may very well need to set the repeaters used in the clocks to a four tick delay for a sustainable full-auto fire rate.

Observer Clock
Only buildable in editions which have Observers, Teague has figured out a mechanism to activate/deactivate it but hasn't yet figured out how to join it to the rest of the circuitry in a pleasing manner, as he built the original design in Console Edition. The basic design is shown below, and as observers are not yet available on the sprite sheet (alongside 'pillar' iron bars), dispensers have been used to mark their locations and facings instead, with the face of the dispenser matching the face direction of the observer.

To be fair though, it's likely possible to make this design work by placing the sticky piston in place of the torch tower, placing another slime block on top of the first, and placing a redstone block on top of that. Also, the two-tick repeaters can be placed anywhere connected to the observers via redstone wire, but can only be set to two or three ticks for proper oscillation.

Launching Mechanisms
The launching mechanism consists of the delay circuit, the projectile clock, and the actual firing mechanism. The delay circuit should trigger the projectile clock from 35 to 38 ticks after the pistons are triggered. (This range allows for a manually adjustable fire arc, with 38 ticks producing a low arc, and 35/36 ticks producing high arcs.) However, there's a difference between the time the propellant clock activates and the time it takes for its signal to activate one of 16 possible piston arrays. This difference must be added to the delay time of the delay circuit, which in the case of the only fire control design currently up on this page, is three ticks.

The projectile clock is once again a comparator subtraction clock, due the limited 5x5 block wide space all three of these circuits need to be built in. It is easily the most walkable clock design that can be used in this situation as well. Whatever kind of clock is used, however, it must have the same clock period as the propellant launchers, and must easily and reliably turned on and off.

The "Overload" glitch is a very dangerous one to try and use in a TNT cannon, so if you're considering using it, it's advised to make a test design with a simplified launcher and a single propellant, which is the same thing LordTeague used to test whether his firing mechanisms worked or not. From his tests, it may work for the launcher, but definitely does not work for the propellant. And now for a fun fact: At least on the console edition, a dispenser feeding into a single obsidian block is just as effective as a dispenser feeding into a water block for launching TNT.

Hourglass Launcher
Designed to be built above the clock, the Hourglass Launcher is fairly compact at 5x5x8 blocks, while also being aesthetically pleasing and walkable. It packages the delay circuit, propellant clock, and launcher into a single package that can be triggered from the center of the bottom layer in a number of different ways. The centermost repeater is the one that is meant to be adjustable in this design, and it can be horizontally or vertically mirrored with no ill effects. The middle 3 rows of layer 5 can also be horizontally mirrored with no ill effects either.

Overall, while there may be many less resource-intensive designs that could be made, it'd be hard to make one that balances form, function, and ease of repair so well. Signs may be added on layers 1 and 4 for damage control purposes, especially if a water block is placed two blocks above the central slime block on layer 9. This design is actually specifically made so a water bucket can safely be placed in the center without it damaging the redstone wiring (unless it receives a hit from a block of TNT), so that if this design accidentally activates with no propellant to launch it, it won't just self-implode on itself.

If using a sticky piston with slime blocks and a redstone block to trigger this circuit, and it does not simultaneously activate the propellant clock, a delay of 1 tick should be factored in for the time it takes for a piston to fully extend. In either case, the centermost blocks in layer 1 of this design should be replaced with obsidian or another immoveable block.

The lighter colored dispensers are optional, as are the glowstone blocks (which can be replaced with any form of lighting). While the bottom dispensers seem to work on the console edition, the design hasn't been tested on the computer edition.

Firing Platform
The firing platform was the first thing I designed, and designed specifically so that the propellant would not be jostled around by propellant from earlier shots. The key to that is trapping TNT in a 1x1x1 block area so that multiple stacks of propellant can be ready to explode in an interval at the same time. To hold the TNT in each of the 8 propellant chambers, iron bars were chosen for their small profile and for not needing to be attached to a block. This design has actually gotten buffed with recent updates to the console edition, as iron bars now can be 2x2 "pixel" pillars when on their own.

Thankfully, due to the construction of the fire control mechanism, it's really easy to vary the height of the tower by a block or two so long as you save building the firing platform for last. The top of the launcher can be located either 2 or 3 blocks below the top of the platform, with minimal differences in timing and small differences in firing arcs. Placing the mechanism 3 blocks lower makes it easier to construct a firing mechanism that won't accidentally be triggered by the redstone blocks.

Compact Automatic Firing Platform
D11x3 blocks big (excluding the supporting circuitry which makes this tower work), this firing platform is the most compact omnidirectional firing platform that won't give you headaches trying to design it so that it does fire omnidirectionally every 4 ticks. While D11 is the minimum diameter required for this design, adding additional building blocks around the outside of layer 2 is highly recommended, especially if you want ladder (or maybe even staircase) access to the top from outside the sticky piston trigger mechanisms.

As seen on the schematics above, the bulk of this design is on layer 2, with supporting blocks below to hold the water, and iron bars above to hold the TNT. Like any automatic TNT cannon designed to fire faster than it takes TNT to detonate, the propellant must be held within a 1x1x1 block space so it does not move when propellant that propels previous shots detonates, which this design does.

The lighter colored ladders and trapdoors are a recommended access method for getting to and from the firing mechanism and the firing platform.

= Other Cannon Ideas = Adjustable Angle/Power Fully Automatic Sniper Cannon (and possibly modular too!). Not omnidirectional though.

Splash Tower. Instead of propelling the TNT in the chosen direction, why not put the propellant in the center and the launchers in a circle surrounding it? For the sake of my sanity, it'd only be 8 launchers though. And give it a 4 or 6 tick firing rate, because why not?