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 Piston 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Piston 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 Piston 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 Piston 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 eleven 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. The E/W half is constant, but NS Line 2 has only 8 ticks, NS line 3 has only 10 ticks, and NS Line 4 has only 9 ticks. Adjusting one of the repeaters in those lines to 4 ticks, 2 ticks, and 3 ticks, respectively, is enough to ensure a constant delay between all buttons.

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 piston 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.

Teague's Compact Directional Radio Button Latch
Each input block has to either have a repeater powered on it, or a redstone dust that is lit by the block below it being powered, in order to trigger the reset pulse. 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.