Redstone - Brand new elevator?

[Romedy]

Hi again all!

I apologize for spamming the project threads. I am currently working on the design stages of a new elevator. (There is a working model on display outside of my bank - quite the eyesore.) I have seen at least 3 different elevator styles but I have been unhappy with all 3 for one reason or another.

- Zipper elevators require the player to stand in a specific spot and are not idiot proof. Also subject to lag issues.
- piston elevators are very expensive (Many repeaters) and, again, are not idiot proof. These can be slowed down to compensate for lag issues.
- Inchworm elevators are repeater-intensive and are disrupted by lag. These require very precise redstone pulses and, in my tests, anything under 17/20 ticks breaks the elevator.

So! The goal is to create a reasonably cheap elevator that can operate in lag conditions and is usable by someone not familiar with the design. Initially I will be happy if it is a point A-to-B elevator (2 floors max) but ideally you will be able to select from multiple floors.

Since I am not aware of this elevator ever being built, I am going to use this thread to track progress, post updates, keep a record of my many failures, and of course celebrate the breakthroughs. I will do my best to keep the redstone at an elementary level, but please do not hesitate to ask questions.

[Romedy]

Here is the first, crude working model. The image is poor and confusing - my apologies. The model only goes up 4 blocks currently.



First is the elevator "car" from the inchworm elevators. One goal was to make this user-friendly. The car allows a player to simply step in and ride. The car is made up of 6 trapdoors. Pistons push blocks above or below the trapdoors to make the car move.

Second are the pulse limiters on the left and right. These are the current up and down switches. Click the spoiler for a closer look at how pulse limiters work.

Spoiler:

A pulse limiter is a simple redstone machine that limits how long a redstone signal is. For example, pushing a button sends a signal that is 4 ticks long. In the image above, the pulse limiters are reducing the signal down to a single tick. This is useful with pistons as the piston will extend and retract very quickly, allowing pistons to run in sequence without much delay.

Finally, the most complex part of the machine - modifying a memory array to carry an elevator cart. The black wool gets cycled around in a square via pistons. Originally this setup was used as a memory device and could be read by feeding a monostable redstone signal through one of blocks and using either solid or transparent blocks to turn the output "on" or "off". This is the basic idea behind a 7-segment digital clock.

We have to further modify the design by adding pistons to both sides of the corner blocks. This allows us to run the array in both directions - allowing the elevator to go up and down. Currently I have the up and down signals split into 2 using pulse limiters.

The next step will be getting a 3-story working model so I can learn how to control the floors. I have a decent idea that it is as simple as a button flipping an RS-Nor latch. The latch will then control a series of pistons that will allow a signal to be carried and the elevator to continue on. Assuming a floor is 10 blocks tall, the elevator will need to be 32 blocks high (One added above and below for pistons) and 5 blocks wide. (A 5-wide array allows a monostable signal to be carried through the back of the elevator without interfering with the trapdoors in the car. Clever use of glass with a very precisely placed solid block will allow the back of the car to stop the elevator at the correct floor when coupled with an RS-Nor controlled sticky piston.)

You'll notice the signal is carried up by torches. This will not work in a large elevator since each torch will add a delay of 1 tick. If we assume a 40-block elevator (4 floors) that means a 20 tick (5 second!) delay. This does not make a fast elevator. The signal will need to be carried up via slabs and redstone dust. This should be doable in a 1x3 size and still be reasonable inexpensive. It will involve a repeater every 15 blocks, so at most 4 repeaters will be required to carry a signal 40 blocks up. (1 second vs 5 seconds.)

So. That's where we stand currently. Let me know if you have any questions or have seen this design before.

[modded_pizza]

Wow that seems like a lot of work but still very kewl

[Romedy]

No more work than building any other elevator.

Thanks to snowbrdd for pointing out a couple of detail things I had missed.

[Romedy]

Hokay, so after a few days of doing other projects and some detail work around the bank I finally was ready to start the install of the elevator. The initial goal is to get it working for one floor - both up and down. I am not concerned with making it small and compact for now. I will do my best to offer explanations of the machinery, particularly the memory array. (If you are familiar with how to build a digital clock, you can skip that section.)

Again, many thanks to Snowbrdd for his insights. This project would have hit some major snags had he not offered advice.

So we'll start with a couple images. This is, as snow affectionately calls it, the first floor of the "Belt Elevator"





I've been calling it "The Beltevator".(Like its a super villain.)

The yellow blacks at the top represent the eventual "car". The goal is to get these to move from the top floor and stop on the bottom floor. Originally I thought I would be able to extend this elevator indefinitely, but Snow pointed out that pistons can push, at most, 11 blocks. (Pistons cannot push 12 blocks) With a car height of 3 blocks, that leaves us an 8-block floor.

Originally I did this math incorrect. I knew I had an 11-block belt, so I raised the bottom floor by 1-block, and built a 10-digit memory array to move the 10-block belt. However, I was off by 2 and the car would move 2 blocks too far and begin moving horizontally. (This would break the trap doors.) Snow correctly figured that we actually had an 8-block belt (11 blocks - 3 for the car = 8.) So we redid the memory array and created a 16-bit version. (The smallest I know how to make and decode is a 10-bit) The 16-bit version stopped the car perfectly and just runs twice in loop.

[Romedy]

Explanation of the memory array -



Here is a 16-bit memory array. This is the same idea as the "belt" for the elevator - it simply pushes blocks around in a square. We can then "decode" the array by using a monostable circuit (Always on or always off - in this case always on) In the middle of the picture, on the black wool, you see torches feeding a repeater which then feeds into the lime wool or glass. The lime wool will allow the signal to carry through and into a repeater (Outside on the left) or a piston (on the right). Glass will not carry the signal like the wool, so as the array turns the signal will be turned on or off depending on what is in front of he monostable.



Here is a picture of some very scary looking things. (Or just confusing.) You can see the lime green of the memory array. The dark blue blocks leading out and up are the output from the array. These blocks affect a piston (pushes black wool, very top left.) This piston interrupts a piston-clock that is the motor of the array.

The motor is made up of the light blue wool and the piston with black wool (Lower left). Basically this piston just powers itself on and off and sends a pulse out through the light blue wool and into the orange. The orange wool is simply a pulse limiter set to a 1-tick pulse. This pulse is sent in 3 different directions.

For the purposes of this post, we will only look at one - back to the memory array. (Via the partially hidden repeater at bottom right.) So we have created a closed circuit that power itself (light blue wool) and turns itself off after cycling through 8 blocks. The memory array turns the signal to the control piston off. This signal is inverted by a torch, so the control piston at top left extends and interrupts the light blue motor, turning the array off.

The push of a button will set the array in motion for another 8 blocks. The array will then turn itself off. This button may be an "up" or "down" button placed outside the elevator car...

[Romedy]

The other 2 directions of the orange circuit plus what's next -

We'll examine the other 2 directions of the orange circuit now. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of them. The orange signal carries the 1-tick pulse up and down to the pistons on the top and bottom of the elevator belt. The signal get appropriately delayed so the horizontal pistons run first, then the vertical pistons run. (Nothing fancy - just spiraling orange blocks running into repeaters. set to 1-tick or 3-tick delays.)

So the elevator successfully runs down! The next step is to have it run back up.

This is actually a simple step. The elevator belt has pistons already placed to run in the other direction. Real elevators have call buttons for "up" and "down". Similarly, our elevator will use an up and down button to select which direction the belt runs. These buttons will both be hooked into opposite outputs of an RS-Nor latch

Spoiler:

An RS-Nor latch is simply a memory device that holds the input state. Thus a button, which emits a pulse, will give a constant signal. (Much like a lever) For our purpose there I opt for a Nor latch instead of a lever to "keep it real" so to speak. Who wants to walk up to an elevator and pull a lever?

This Nor latch will simply control a piston that will allow the signal to be carried to the "up" pistons or the "down" pistons on the belt. Once this is complete, the next step is building the frame around the elevator shaft and installing the trapdoors for the car.

[Romedy]

Update!

But without pictures.

The elevator is now fully functional and will run both up and down. It is a bit fragile as, if the car is at the top and the "up" button gets pushed, the car will break when the trapdoors no longer have blocks on the left and right. There is a reasonably simple fix for this, although actually building it will be tricky given the mass of redstone already in a small area.

Basically the signal for the "up" button needs to be interrupted when the car is already at the top. We use a similar idea to the monostable in the memory array - using the back of the elevator belt to read a redstone signal and operate a piston that interrupts the up signal. The same can be done with the down signal and the car at the bottom.

I will try to get some pictures of the finished product. The bottom portion is not completely done and will require some aesthetic work. It may be a bit before I come back to this as my attention is currently on another redstone project.

[maxmmm1501]

Yeah I saw this, it works great and even looks like a real elevator. Nice job!

[TimmyTopHat]

I love the elevator, was nice of you to show me around your place :>

The only flaw I can potentially see is the limit of the pistons being able to push only 12 blocks. I'm maybe gonna do some testing to see if I can't find a workaround for ya. :/