Mods/basic machines

basic_machines
A mod
Mod Type	Tools
Author	rnd
Latest version	?
Forum topic	12033
Source code	GitHub
ContentDB	N/A
Technical name	basic_machines

Intro

basic_machines is a Minetest mod used for automation and building logic circuits and adds a collection of tools and machines that can be combined to carry out and automate various tasks. For the complete (but outdated) documentation, see the GitHub wiki.

Examples:

• Press a key to turn lights on/off.
• Change text on a sign.
• Open and close doors.
• Move materials, such as harvesting plants and moving them into a chest.
• Automate farming and crafting.

While some of the machines are rather expensive (i.e. requiring blocks of gold, diamond, and/or mese), there are others that are both cheap and useful.

Note

The new version (as of 2017-12-29) introduces new textures and gui,
as well as some changed recipes, most notable for battery, generator and their upgrades.

!! The following text does not reflect these changes (yet) !!

Servers

The following servers have basic_machines installed:

• Banana Land - daconcepts.com:31009
• Cash's World - 67.212.45.191
• Extreme Survival - turtletango.duckdns.org:31003
• ManElevation World - ??
• ROBOTS-server - 46.150.38.198

...

List of machines

Basic machines

Constructor

The constructor works like a special crafting table that is used to make the other "basic machines".

Name	Ingredients	Input → Output	Description
Constructor	Steel Ingots (8) + Copper Block		Used to make the other basic machines.

Light

Lights are cheap light sources that are stronger than mese lamps.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Torches (4)		Light	Used to create light.

Input and signal processing

Keypad

A keypad is a big button that can be set with a password and send a signal/text to activate a device.
It can also be used for keyboard entry with basic_robots.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Stick Wooden Planks		Keypad	Used to send a signal/text to activate a device.

Distributor

A distributor can forward an input signal to up to 16 other devices.

Example: forward the on/off-signal from a keypad to several lights in a room or corridor.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Steel Ingot Mese Crystal Keypad		Distributor	Used to forward an input signal.

Detector

A detector can detect and measure conditions (e.g. players, objects, blocks, light level) and activate machines.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Mese Crystals (4) Keypad		Detector	Used to detect conditions and activate machines.

Setup:

• For interactive setup, punch the detector and follow the chat instructions.
• For advanced setup, right-click the detector.
  • There are four modes of operation: node, player, object, and inventory detection.
    • Inside node/player/object, write the node, player, or object name.
    • If detecting players or objects, a range of detection can be specified.
    • If the mode is inventory, it will check for items in the inventory of the specified source node.
  • If the detector activates, it will trigger the machine at the target position.
  • To activate a detector when not triggered, set NOT to 1.

Examples:

• Write air to detect empty space.
• Write default:tree to detect a tree.
• Write farming:wheat_8 to detect ripe wheat.
• Write default:water_flowing to detect flowing water.

Advanced:

• You can select a second source and select AND/OR from the top-right dropdown list to do logical operations.
• You can also filter the output signal:
  • -2 = only OFF
  • -1 = NOT
  • 0/1 = normal
  • 2 = only ON
  • 3 = only if changed
  • 4 = if target keypad set its text to detected object name

Clock generator

A clock generator periodically activates the device on top, every 5 seconds.
Example: keep a furnace running.

In multiplayer, this only works when a player is near.

With a distributor, several devices can be activated from one clock-generator.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Diamond Block Keypad		Clock generator	Used to periodically activate other devices.

Power

Generator

A generator produces fuel, which is used to recharge batteries.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Diamond Blocks (5) Battery		Generator	Used to produce fuel.

A generator requires a gold block and a diamond block per upgrade.

Upgrade	Level(s)	Fuel	Power
Low	0-19	Power cell	1
Medium	20-98	Power block	11
High	99	Power rod	100

The process of recharging can be automated by using a mover to take fuel from the inventory.

New since 2017-12-19:

• Recipe: "default:diamondblock 5", "basic_machines:battery 5", "default:goldblock 5"
  • This is a major increase in price
• Upgrade: upgrade with generators: low level (0-4), medium level (5-19) and high level (20+).
  • Upgrades also got much more expensive

Battery

A battery can power other devices, such as a furnace, mover, or grinder.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Steel Ingots (3) Mese Block Diamond		Battery	Used to power other devices.

A battery requires a mese block and a diamond block per upgrade.

Upgrade level	Max power output	Capacity	Comments
0	1	10
1	2	30
2	5	50	Provides enough power to grind iron and copper and to use mover to teleport.
3	7	70	Provides enough power to grind gold.
4	9	90	Provides enough power to grind Mese Crystals.
5	11	110
6	13	130
7	15	150
8	17	170	Provides enough power to grind Diamonds.
9	...

New since 2017-12-19:

• Recipe: "default:bronzeblock 2", "default:mese", "default:diamond"

So, the price has increased a bit, from 3 steel to 18 bronze.

• Upgrade: diamond/mese block for power/capacity, max. 200 gold/diamond blocks

So, power and capacity now can be upgraded independently.

Processing

Mover

The mover is the most complex of the basic machines. It can dig, harvest, plant, teleport, or move items from inventory to inventory.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Mese Crystals (6) Stone (2) Keypad		Mover	Used to dig/harvest/plant/teleport/move items in inventories/chests.

The mover can be upgraded by putting up to ten mese blocks in its inventory. This increases the mover's range by 10 per block and divides fuel consumption by one plus the number of blocks. Fuel consumption depends on the blocks to be moved and the distance. For example:

• Stone or tree is harder to move than dirt.
• Harvesting wheat is very cheap, while moving lava is very hard.

Setup (version 01/17/2017):

• For interactive setup, punch the mover and follow the instructions in the chat.
• For advanced setup, right click the mover.
  • Positions are defined by X,Y,Z coordinates, where 0,0,0 is the position of the mover itself. (See the top of the mover for its orientation.)
  • Modes of operation:
    • normal: teleports a block.
    • dig: digs a node and gives you the result, which is good for harvesting farms.
    • drop: drops a node on the ground.
    • object: teleports a player or object in a teleport radius defined by the distance between source1 and source2. Move time for objects or names for players can be specified by setting filter.
    • inventory: exchanges items between node inventories. The inventory name for source and target must be selected from the dropdown list on the right. By setting filter, only selected nodes are moved.
• Activate the mover by a keypad, a distributor, a detector signal, or mese signal (if mesecons is installed).

Advanced:

• The start/end position can be reversed by setting reverse to a nonzero value. This is useful for placing stuff at many locations-planting.
• If you put reverse=2/3 in transport mode, it will disable parallel transport but will still do reverse effect with 3.
• If you activate mover with OFF signal, it will toggle reverse.

Grinder

The following description from the GitHub wiki is probably an understatement:

"Grinder processes mining resources for more efficiency"

A grinder grinds materials into dusts, which doubles the output when smelted.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Diamonds (13) Mese Blocks (4)		Grinder	Used to grind materials into dusts.

Grinder recipes

Miscellaneous recipes:

Input	Grinder	Output	Battery-power req.
Ice		Snow (4)	1
Stone		Sand	2
Obsidian Shard		Lava	199
darkage:silt_lump		darkage:chalk_powder	1

Cobblestone → Gravel → Dirt → Clay Lumps:

Clay can be smelted into clay bricks and then crafted into brick blocks, which make a nice building material for houses.

Input	Grinder	Output	Battery-power req.
gloopblocks:basalt		Cobblestone	1
Cobblestone		Gravel	1
Gravel		Dirt	0.5
Dirt		Clay Lump (4)	0.5

Materials → Dusts:

The grinder allows grinding a lump or ingot into dust with "purity 33%", smelting that dust in the furnace into "purity 66%", and finally smelting that into two ingots. As a result, you get double the amount that is usually outputted from smelting a lump directly into an ingot (but requires work and time).

For the setup that does this, see the Factory section.

Input	Grinder	Output	Battery-power req.
Iron Lump		basic_machines:iron_dust_33 2	4
Steel Ingot		basic_machines:iron_dust_33 2	4
Copper Lump		basic_machines:copper_dust_33 2	4
Copper Ingot		basic_machines:copper_dust_33 2	4
Gold Lump		basic_machines:gold_dust_33 2	4
Gold Ingot		basic_machines:gold_dust_33 2	6
Mese Crystal		basic_machines:mese_dust_33 2	8
Diamond		basic_machines:diamond_dust_33 2	16

Note: when the mod moreores is installed, these recipes also work for tin, silver, and mithril.

Extreme Survival:

Input	Grinder	Output	Battery-power req.
es:aikerum_crystal 1		es:aikerum_dust 2	16
es:emerald_crystal 1		es:emerald_dust 2	16
es:purpellium_lump 1		es:purpellium_dust 2	16
es:ruby_crystal 1		es:ruby_dust 2	16

Autocrafter

An autocrafter is used for automatic crafting. To use it, set up a recipe in the crafting grid, add items to its inventory, and activate it with a keypad.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Steel Ingots (5) Mese Crystals (2) Diamond Blocks (2)		Autocrafter	Used for automatic crafting.

Recycler

A recycler is used to recycle old tools (yields 75%).

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Mese Crystals (8) Diamond Block		Recycler	Used to recycle old tools.

Special

Enviroment block

An enviroment block can change physics settings (e.g. gravity) and the skybox for nearby players.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Generators (8) Clock generators		Enviroment block	Used to change physics settings and skybox for nearby players.

(Note: "enviroment" is a typo for "environment".)

Ball spawner

A ball spawner is used to spawn an energy ball that can activate stuff and bounce around when moved with a mover.

Input	Constructor	Output	Description
Power cell Keypad		Ball spawner	Used to spawn an energy ball.

Examples

Lamp

Simply place it somewhere, like a torch or mese lamp, and the light will be on.

Lamp with a switch

• Place a keypad on the ground.
• Place a lamp on top of the keypad.
• Right-click the keypad to set it up:
  • For "target", enter 0,1,0 (which means the block above the keypad).
  • For "OFF/ON/TOGGLE", enter 3.
  • Press OK.

Now, every left-click/punch on the keypad will switch the lamp on/off.

With a right-click on the lamp you can specify a time (in seconds)
to turn off after receiving the signal from the keypad.
So, this works just like a lamp in a stairwell.

Switch several lamps with keypads and a distributor

• Place a distributor somewhere.
• place keypad #1 somewhere,
• place keypad #2 somewhere else,
• place several lamps.

...

Collect power cells from a generator

and move them to a chest or battery

...

Power a furnace from a battery

Battery-powered furnace - Overview

Battery-powered furnace - Battery setup

Battery-powered furnace - Keypad setup

Battery-powered furnace - Output of furnace

• place keypad on the ground
• place battery on top of the keypad
• place furnace on top of the battery

• put a power cell into the battery
• put some ore in the furnace, but no fuel

• set the keypad's target to the battery, set mode to 2 (ON)
• and activate the furnace by punching the keypad

Now, the furnace will run on the power provided by the battery and smelt the ore.

Automate a furnace

• move ore from chest to furnace
• activate furnace
• move ingots from furnace to chest

Factory

• Mods/basic_machines/Factory : Basics, Example-setups, Automation
• Example-Factories : Farming, Factory1, Factory2, Factory3
  • Mods/basic_machines/Factory1 - Starter Workshop
  • Mods/basic_machines/Factory2 - Minimum factory, to process diamonds
  • Mods/basic_machines/Factory3 - maxed, and automated
  • Mods/basic_machines/Farm - Automated farming