Daylight Detector

"We're big fans of the daylight sensor, seeing as it can sense when night falls and automatically close your doors, stopping mobs from getting in. Very handy if you're crafting in your basement and lose track of time!"

- Tom Stone

A daylight detector is a block that outputs a redstone signal based on sunlight (or lack thereof).

From block loot
Daylight detectors can be broken fairly easily by hand, but can be broken faster by using an axe.

Breaking
Daylight detectors can be broken fairly easily by hand, but can be broken faster by using an axe. Inverted daylight detectors cannot be collected directly; they drop a regular daylight detector. In Bedrock Edition the inverted sensor may be obtained via inventory editing.

Redstone component


A daylight detector can be used to produce redstone power in proportion to the daylight or night time.

A daylight detector is 0.375 blocks high (3/8ths of a block). Daylight detectors can be moved by pistons. Water and lava flows around daylight detectors without affecting them.


 * Placement


 * To place a daylight detector, use the "Use Item/Place Block" control.


 * A daylight detector can be "inverted", which reverses the power levels produced by the daylight detector. To invert a daylight detector, aim at the placed daylight detector and use the "Use Item/Place Block" control.


 * Activation


 * A daylight detector activates when exposed to sufficient daylight (daylight detector mode) or when exposure to daylight is low enough (inverted daylight detector mode).


 * Sources of block light (torches, glowstone, etc.) cannot activate a daylight detector.


 * Behavior


 * An active daylight detector:
 * powers adjacent redstone dust, including below it, and redstone comparators facing away from the daylight detector, to a power level that depends on the time of day, the weather, and the internal sky light level (see tables below)
 * powers adjacent redstone repeaters facing away from the daylight detector to power level 15
 * activates adjacent redstone mechanisms, including above and below, such as pistons, redstone lamps, etc.


 * A daylight detector has no effect on other adjacent blocks (for example, it cannot power a block the way a repeater can).


 * The output signal of daylight detectors in the loaded chunk is updated every 20 gametime/daytime. Block update have no effect on daylight detectors.

Daylight Detector
The daylight detector power level depends on the time of day, the weather, and the internal sky light level.

Inverted Daylight Detector
a daylight detector inverts it. However, the output of the inverted detector is not a simple inversion of the daylight detector's output; it uses a much simpler algorithm that depends only on the internal sky light level. Specifically, it outputs a signal strength of 15 minus the current internal sky light level, where values over 15 or below 0 are taken as 15 or 0 respectively. This means that an inverted daylight detector actually outputs a strength of 11 at midnight when it's clear wheather, if it has line of sight with the sky. The effects of shade are applied before inverting, so shade increases the signal strength when it isn't already full, and prevents it from reaching zero.

The inverted daylight detector cannot be obtained as an item $$. Mining an inverted daylight detector simply drops a regular daylight detector.

Fuel
Daylight detectors can be used as a fuel in furnaces, smelting 1.5 items per block.

ID




Block data
$$, a daylight sensor's block data stores its power level:

Block entity
A daylight detector has a block entity associated with it which stores only its entity ID and position (the minimum data for a block entity). Although the daylight detector's block entity stores no additional data, the block entity ensures that the daylight detector is updated every game tick.