User talk:Sorceror Nobody

Nice clocks!
That hopper clock and the multiplier look very promising -- long-period clocks have classically been a PITA, and these are comparatively small for clocks that can go up into multi-minute cycles. Once you're sure of them, feel free to add them (via LoadBox) to the Clock circuit page. --Mental Mouse 12:46, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I've put together a draft for the hopper clock entry in my second sandbox, if you want to go over it and check I've not messed up on style guide or anything. I've displayed it as a h4 under the existing hopper section, but maybe that's just me :P
 * As for the multiplier, I could add that as well, but I have an alternate suggestion. A state cycler -- that is to say, a circuit that always has exactly one of its outputs high, and when triggered, moves to the next output in the loop -- is something I spent much time trying to find on this wiki. Obviously we have plenty of memory circuits, but nothing I could readily identify as a direct state cycler. So I'm wondering if it might not be an idea to make that the main thing we add, and then for the clock page, point out something of the form, "and you can multiply clock periods using a slightly modified state cycler" -- Sorceror Nobody 14:08, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
 * It mostly looks good, I have a few suggestions for tweaks:
 * I don't know what the  bit is about, can you explain that to me?
 * For the headers, I would suggest changing the h3 header to just "Hopper Clocks" (that is, now a proper category), and adding an h4 "Basic Hopper Clocks" for the existing one, all before the h4 for your clock. Also the circuit variations should be set off with "Variations:" (that is, not a header, just a paragraph label), there's a couple of examples of that in the existing pages.
 * I'd have no problem with seeing both the state cycler in Miscellaneous circuits, and also the clock multiplier in with Clock circuit, with a note to the effect that one is a simplified (and more compact) version of the other. They're both important contributions!
 * Under variations for the hopper clock and the multiplier, you might briefly note that the pulses can easily be reduced to a short pulse with an edge detector or monostable circuit, or extended to 50/50 (with a period doubling) with a toggle.

Thanks for your work on this! --Mental Mouse 20:18, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
 * And looking back, I see two moderately big things I missed above: The smaller is that the hopper clock is flat, but not 1-high, it's 2 high counting support blocks.  The bigger thing is that the text should go into the main article, with just the schematics in a LoadBox. --Mental Mouse 20:36, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
 * The  is just because my sandbox is transcluding itself; it wouldn't be used in the actual thing. Onlyinclude means whatever is inside the tags is the only part included, so the transclusion doesn't attempt to transclude the transclusion itself ad infinitum (it's basically the inverse version of the   tag, if you're familiar with that). Includeonly means it only shows up when transcluded, otherwise there would have been two copies of the section on the page.
 * Makes sense.
 * I'll probably work on that tomorrow or Thursday, then.
 * Well, the hopper clock design, as noted, already has an edge detector built in, but I can comment on a pulse lengthener, sure. As for the multiplier, an edge detector is actually entirely requisite for chaining multipliers, so it would definitely get mentioned. Not entirely sure what you mean by "50/50", but yeah, toggles are easy enough; I can add that.
 * Two high; use loadbox. Got it.
 * -- Sorceror Nobody 21:57, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks for explaining the directives, that's a cool trick. By "50/50" I just meant a clock cycle that's half-on, half off, which you'd get by toggling on your chosen edge.  Can you clarify needing an edge detector for chaining multipliers?  I haven't built one yet, but it looks to me like it's passing the pulse between latches on the pulse edges.  --Mental Mouse 22:32, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Trust me, build two multipliers, then feed the unmodified output of one directly into the latch-powering line of the other. You'll see exactly what the problem is :P
 * Basically, the latches have to be on all the time apart from when the input circuit triggers. So the input has to be a short pulse (or rather, inverse pulse). But the multiplier output is not a short pulse, because each latch in the loop is high for a duration exactly equal to the input clock's period.
 * EDIT: On reflection, I'm being an inconsistent derp in what components I'm referring to when I talk about the multiplier. Okay, so, the multiplier itself is technically only the two rows of repeaters and the surrounding redstone, i.e. the adapted state cycler. The schematic in my sandbox, however, shows an inbuilt edge detector/short (inverse) pulse generator attached to the latch power line. And yes, the design including that part is totally chainable with no additional modification. So I guess that's my bad for forgetting the schematic >.>


 * EDIT AGAIN: In fact, the chain can be made fairly compact, since you can place the solid block that holds the torch right on the output of the last latch, and pull the repeater next to it from the adjacent wire. So you actually save three pieces of redstone per chained multiplier that way: one that is replaced by the solid block, and two that would otherwise have been used in constructing the edge detector -- Sorceror Nobody 16:49, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
 * *reduces indent*
 * Also, isn't the 50/50 and period doubling with a toggle something that applies to all clocks, and therefore should be added as a section on the clock page dedicated to externally rather than internally modifying the output of a clock? Hell, that's precisely the kind of section the multiplier would belong in, too -- Sorceror Nobody 17:36, 5 June 2013 (UTC)
 * In Memory circuit notes period doubling with TFFs, but if you're already using multipliers (especially chained), I suspect their main use would be regularizing the period. Period doubling with TFFs probably should be mentioned in the Clock circuit intro, if it isn't already.  I can't check or compare diagrams now (heading off to work) but I'll try to check later.  Indeed, there's at least four ways here to boost a clock's period: expand the repeater loop, expand the multiplier, chain the multiplier, or add a TFF.  And that's not counting factorial combination.... Mental Mouse 13:07, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it definitely sounds like clock period boosting (or our knowlege of it, anyway) is rapidly becoming a broad field to cover, and I really think it deserves a whole dedicated section, since fundamentally speaking it isn't part of the design of any one clock, it's a general set of methods for all clocks. In any case, my sandbox has been edited, so if you want to give it another look over when you get back, be my guest. You can tweak some of the wording as well if you want to, I don't mind -- Sorceror Nobody 13:33, 6 June 2013 (UTC)