Minecraft Engineering

A blog about true engineering in the world of minecraft.

[minecraft-engineering-blog]

Elevator

I wanted to prove to myself that I could build a mechanical elevator, and now I can prove it to you. Here is my first prototype of an elevator that can move from one level to the other. 

It uses a cage made of support frame to move the player up and down. The cage is moved by frame motors hidden behind the scene. A lever inside the cage lets the player decide to move the cage up or down.

So far the elevator can only go all the way up and all the way down. Levels in between will therefore be passed. To make this possible I'm thinking of using some computercraft like in real elevators for later versions.

The wiring on this one is actually quite simple. I was messing around a bit only to discover my mistakes and that the first idea I had worked fine if only it didn't short-circuit at some other place. All together it took me about half an hour to figure it all out and build the system. And here it is.

Obviously the tower can be made as high as wished, connecting any two levels directly above each other. 

[minecraft-engineering-blog]

Uranium Powercell

To really ensure a city of power, why not use the most reliable power source there is? Uranium! The double uranium powercell is boxed in with reinforced stone and glass due to a chance of,, nuclear explosions...  Worry not, I've tested a single bomb against a wall and it contained pretty decently. Still, caution is advised in making these. The power that is generated is of the highest form, which means you'll need all the transformers to scale down to usable and safe voltages. The MFSU give off a redstone signal to power the uranium cells when activated. A lot of solar panels are added as well to use as much free energy as possible to keep the supply up. The Uranium is only used as backup in case of heavy energy usage.

The cells are full with uranium except for a very specific amount of ice for cooling. In tekkit classic I can still make use of the alchemical chests to ensure an unlimited supply of ice, because the system needs a lot of it when reacting (producing). The system has a failsafe thermometer which will give off a signal to shut the system down as soon as it reaches critical heat levels. The system can be put out of order manually as well. When the system is shut down without notion (a second lever) an alarm will sound through the entire city, as well when the system in online without notion. 

This building has two of these cells to ensure the readiness of at least one when the other has its uranium depleted. 

[minecraft-engineering-blog]

Trashcans

A city needs trash cans to let the people get rid of unnecessary stuff. Placing trashcans can ensure recycling of products and the harvesting of energy! The trashcans are made of obsidian transport pipe connected to a teleportpipe. the other end of the teleportpipe is connected to a refinery. 

The incoming products will be sorted out to discriminate useful products like buckets. All the other stuff will be stored in a buffer chest to clean out the teleportpipe. From there on all burnable objects (like planks and sticks) will be put in a generator to add energy to the cities supplies. All other objects will be put in a recycler, which turns them into scrap.

[minecraft-engineering-blog]

Streetlights

Streetlights ensure proper lightening in the streets when it's dark. This can be at night or when it's raining. The lights react on darkness using a light sensor that can be set to different sensitivities. This way combinations can be made, like lights on when rain, night, evening or all of them.

[minecraft-engineering-blog]

Farming

To make sure the city is supplied with all the stuff cattle can give I made a special island to harvest all the cattle’s products. Using feeders I keep the animals happy which causes them to breed progeny. The feeders are directly supplied by the wheat fields using retrievers. Deployers are integrated in the field and are send buckets which are retrieved with milk (works pretty well actually). In the middle is The Pit.

Using a tesla coil at exactly the right distance assures any animal falling in of a certain death. Water moves all drops to the center where they are sucked up by an obsidian transport pipe. Cows drop meat and hide, pigs drop pork, sheep drop wool and chickens drop chicken and feathers (I have a separate system for eggs). The bigger the population grows  the more likely the animals are to fall in the pit, thus maintaining a balanced population and harvest.

This was build in tekkit classic, which explains why I didn’t use the Minefactory Reloded mod. The tesla coil can be turned off for safety. The entire system works on solar power.

[minecraft-engineering-blog]

Battery station

With this battery station I can make sure I never run out of full batteries. Several battery boxes are linked to the solar panels outside to fill them up with energy for during the night. Empty batteries are automatically removed from the enderchest after which they are placed in one of the battery boxes to charge up. Only fully charged batteries are then put back in the enderchest.

[minecraft-engineering-blog]

Lighthouse

A fire house made with incinerators. I ran into the problem that the incinerators don't stay on forever, so I had to re-activate them every time while the system as a whole was activated and unattended. I managed to build in a counter and a statecell that together re-activate all the incinerators periodically so that they never go out. The system can be shut down with a simple lever. Excluding the roof the system takes a total volume of 3x3x3 blocks.

[minecraft-engineering-blog]

Automatic harvest fields

One of the new things I found in tekkit lite was the Steve's Carts pack. With this I was able to make solar powered carts that would work the field automatically. They water the crops, plant them and harvest them. It is even possible to let them use bonemeal as a fertilizer, which I didn't do here because things were growing too fast. With an automatic solar powered retrieving system I made sure the carts are always full of what they need. And the carts are being unloaded of all the crops they took from the field.

With a special watering system I fill buckets of water automatically that then will be divided over the carts to their needs. The empty buckets will be retrieved to be filled up again.

Here is a picture of the retrieving and storing system. The chests make sure there is enough storage room and keep all the goods divided. Here I'm harvesting carrots, potatoes and wheat (the last row is for seeds).

The field is quite big, but can be left unattended and will produce and store food automatically, which then can be retrieved by another system. The carts store energy during the day which allows them to partly work at night. At the rise of the sun the dead carts will automatically charge up and continue their work. The entire system is solar powered.

[minecraft-engineering-blog]

Window wall

This is an idea I had while looking at a bunch of empty space. A tea house with several rooms at the ground floor and a grand balcony at the top. During the day the house would be closed, but at night it will open up. The walls sink in the ground and give the windows a new room. The balcony now has a grand view into the woods.

[minecraft-engineering-blog]

Greenhouse in valley

A greenhouse that periodically and automatically sweeps the fields and harvest in this case sugar canes and flax seeds. With its own solar system it will work as long there is enough sun. The time it waits for the plants to grow can be set to any extend.

To be honest this is not my best field yet. I was sluggish in the height of the field as where flax seeds tend to grow two blocks and sugar canes three blocks. My honest mistake. I was able to fix this though. While maintaining the same ground level of both crops I made the head sweep both plants at the same time with a height difference in the system itself, adjusting it to the crops.