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Cette page fait partie du projet de mise à jour des pages de redstone 
Sa traduction est en cours, votre aide est la bienvenue.

Une horloge est un circuit de redstone qui produit un signal d'horloge : un schéma d'impulsions qui se répète.

Introduction[]

Les générateurs d'horloge sont des dispositifs où la sortie va basculer de on à off et vice versa en permanence. Le nom usuel de x-clock est dérivé de la moitié de la durée de la période, qui est aussi, généralement, la largeur d'impulsion. Par exemple, un 5-clock classique va produire la séquence ...11111000001111100000... sur la sortie.

En utilisant seulement des torches de redstone et de la poudre de Redstone, il est possible de créer des horloges aussi courtes que d'une 4-clock, parfois en exploitant un bug. L'utilisation de répéteurs ou de pistons permet de construire facilement toutes sortes d'horloge jusqu'à la 1-clock, d'autres objets peuvent être utilisés pour faire des horloges plus petites. Il y a aussi des circuits spéciaux appelés « impulsions rapides » (en anglais : "rapid pulses") qui produisent des impulsions rapides d'1 tick, mais ce système n'est pas possible à réaliser avec des torches car elles brûlent. En effet, la torche de redstone, quand elle reçoit une impulsion, peut brûler si l'impulsion est trop rapide. Même en utilisant des répéteurs, les signaux 1-clock sont difficiles à manipuler dans certains circuits comme de nombreux composants, et les circuits ne sauront pas réagir de façon opportune.

La création d'horloges longues (plus de quelques ticks) peut être plus difficile, car les ajouts de répéteurs finiront par être difficiles à manier. 

Cependant, il y a un certain nombre d'approches ici, qui sont examinées dans des sections distinctes. Une horloges sans une bascule explicite peut souvent avoir un réajustement, par le câblage d'un levier ou un autre interrupteur pour l'allumer et l'arrêter ou même contrôler le nombre de boucles de Redstone. En général, forcer le délai finira par arrêter l'horloge, mais la sortie ne peut pas répondre jusqu'à ce que l'impulsion de courant ait fait son chemin à travers la boucle. La puissance de la sortie de l'horloge quand elle est arrêté dépend de l'horloge et où dans la boucle que vous forcez. Une autre option consiste à utiliser un piston à commande de levier pour ouvrir ou fermer l'une de ces boucles, en utilisant soit un bloc solide pour transmettre la puissance, ou (à partir de la 1.5) un bloc de redstone pour alimenter.

Bien qu'elle ne soit pas beaucoup mentionnée dans les circuits construits ci-dessous, il y a une notion supplémentaire qui est parfois importante : la phase. La phase d'une horloge de fonctionnement est le point qu'elle a atteint dans son cycle. Par exemple, à un moment une 5-clock pourrait être à 3 ticks dans sa phase ON, 4 ticks plus tard, il sera à 2 ticks dans sa phase OFF. Une horloge de longue période peut faire en sorte que la phase ON ne s'active qu’après deux minutes passées le début de celle-ci. Le début d'un cycle exacte dépend de l'horloge, mais le début de la phase est habituellement OFF ou ON. Dans la plupart des cas, la phase n'a pas beaucoup d'importance, en fait vous avez juste besoin d'une impulsion tous les 7 tick ou autre. Toutefois, les circuits informatiques (les gros systèmes) dans le jeu sont plus exigeants, et si vous faites une horloge jour/nuit, vous vous souciez sûrement si l'ON phase est active le jour ou la nuit!

Horloges avec des torches[]

Rapid pulsar (En français:impulsions rapides)[]

Schéma de Rapid Pulsar

Les répétitions peuvent être utilisé pour maintenir une 1-clock, utilisé plusieurs torche de redstone comme sa si il y en a une qui brûle les autre seront toujours de fonctionnement ; le résultat est le soi-disant "Rapid Pulsar" (dessins X, Y et (vertical) Z). Toutefois, le signal peut ne pas être cohérent.

Le dispositif R crée de l'énergie de façon irrégulière. Il est une variante du modèle "Rapid Pulsar" ci-dessus, sauf que chaque torche donne une impulsions dans un motif pseudo-aléatoire irrégulier et que chaque torche tourne en fonction des trois autres (et elle-même). Parfois une torche sera brûler pendant quelques secondes (jusqu'à réinitialisation par une mise à jour du bloc), au cours de laquelle d'autres torches clignotent. Depuis la version 1.5.1, ce système est possible de ce faire qu'avec 2 torches au lieu de 4, les torches « est » et « ouest » clignote pendant que les autres restent sombres. La sortie peut être pris n'importe où sur le circuit.

Bien que "pulser" est l'orthographe correcte (en anglais) pour tout circuit général qui produit des impulsions, l'orthographe traditionnelle d'un circuit d'horloge créé à partir d'un petit système de torches de redstone est "pulsar rapide".

Torch loop (en français : torche en boucle)[]

2015-05-16 08.44.19

L'utilisation de torches d'impulsions est la methode la plus ancien pour former une horloge dans Minecraft, tout simplement un nombre impair d'inverseurs (pas d'entrée) rejoint dans une boucle. Le design a été essentiellement remplacé par des répéteurs, mais fonctionne toujours. Le modèle ci dessus représente une 5-clock, qui est l'horloge la plus courte qui peut être facilement réalisé de cette façon. Sa longueur d'impulsion peut être étendue par l'ajout de paires de lampes et / ou des répéteurs. Les répéteurs peuvent être ajoutés dans la boucle, ou peut remplacer toute paire d'onduleurs. L'ajout de répéteurs permet également de créé des horloges paires tels que 10-clock. L'intervalle total sera "le nombre de non entrée" + "delay des repeteur total".

Torches Verticale en 5-clock (G)

Système Torch Loops compacte

L'utilisation de torches pour faire un 5-clock peuvent être utilisé pour faire un système plus compact, comme les dessins B et C. Toutefois, ceux-ci ont moins d'endroits où l'on peut introduire des répéteurs sans utiliser plus d'espace. En utilisant cette méthode,la 1-clock et la 3-clock sont possibles, mais ceux-ci seront instables et irrégulier car les torches vont régulièrement brûler. Comme avec l'horloge de base, les horloges compactes peuvent être étendues en faisant la chaîne d'onduleurs, ou avec des répéteurs. La 5-clock peut également être faite vertical, comme dans le dessin G.

Torches en 4-clocks

La conception du dessin D utilise une méthode différente pour produire une 4-clock. (La 4-clock est l'horloge la plus rapide de ce genre qui ne fera pas brûler les torches.)

La conception du dessin E peut être obsolète dans la version 1.7. En faisant usage de la North/South Quirk,il était possible de produire un 4-clock plus compact avec une régularité on /off de la largeur d'impulsion, comme on le voit dans la conception du dessin E. Cette conception utilise cinq torches, mais si les torches sont empilés et qu'une pointe le sud et l'autre le nord, elle a une largeur d'impulsion de 4 tick.

Horloge avec répéteur[]

Un signal d'horloge peut être généré par l'introduction d'une impulsion dans une boucle menée par des répéteurs.

Repeater Loop 1-Clock (En français 
1-clock répéteur en boucle)

[[2015-05-17 07.45.20|thumb|Repeater Loop 1-Clock – Le bloc de redstone et la torche peuvent être cassé après l'activation de l'horlogoe. ]]

2×3×2 (12 bloque de volume)
plat et silencieux
production de l'horloge: 1 tick on et 1 tick off
L'horloge avec répéteur est tout simplement deux répéteurs connectés avec de la poudre de redstone en formant une boucle.
La partie la plus dure est l'introduction d'une impulsion de 1 tick dans la boucle. Si l'impulsion est trop longue, les répéteurs seront tous deux alimentés en permanence et la seule façon de la remettre a zéro c'est de casser une poudre de redstone afin que la boucle ne soit plus alimentée.
Une solution simple pour réussir la manipulation est d'utiliser un levier, vous posez un levier activé puis vous posez la torche et l'impulsion serra parfaite. La méthode la plus courante semble être de placer une torche de redstone côté de l'horloge, puis de la casser rapidement . Cela peut prendre plusieurs tentatives pour réussir correctement, sans compter que l'horloge va être bloquée à chaque fois que vous échouerez votre tentative. Une méthode plus simple (à droite) est de placer la torche sur un bloc activé ( à l'aide d'un bloc de redstone ou tout bloc alimenté par une autre torche ou d'une autre source d'énergie) - la torche s'éteindra 1 tick plus tard lorsque vous la placerez car elle est attachée à un bloc alimenté. Le bloc activé et la torche peuvent être ensuite cassés cependant ça n’arrêtera pas l'horloge, si vous voulez l’arrêter il vous faudra la casser par vous même.
Variations: La poudre, à la sortie des répéteurs, peuvent être remplacés par des blocs pour économiser de la poudre de Redstone.
Des répéteurs peuvent être ajoutés dans la boucle pour augmenter la période d'horloge. Tant que tous les répéteurs sont maintenus à un retard de 1-tick, l'impulsion restera seulement à 1 tick de longueur, peu importe combien de répéteurs sont ajoutés. Si vous augmentez la longueur d'un répéteur , la longueur de l'horloge serra plus grande.

Switchable Repeater Loop 1-Clock (En français 
1-clock répéteur en boucle contrôlable)

[[2015-05-17 08.09.40|thumb|Switchable Repeater Loop 1-Clock – C'est un piston collant. ]]

3 × 4 × 2 (24  bloc de volume)
plat, silencieux (sauf et uniquement au moment de l'activation)
production de l'horloge: 1 tick on, 1 tick off
Cette boucle de répéteur peut être allumée ou éteinte, en déplaçant un bloc (de diamant à droite).
Comment cela fonctionne: Lorsque le levier activé (t=0) le piston collant commence à s'étendre. A t =1, la lampe s'éteint, mais le répéteur gauche reste alimenté pendant 1 tick de plus. A t=1,5, le piston termine son extension et le bloc déplacé obtient l'alimenté par le répéteur gauche.  A t=2, le répéteur gauche est éteint.  A t=2,5, le répéteur droit reçoit la puissance qui lui est transmise par le bloc. A partir de là, il continue tout comme une 1-clock jusqu'à ce que le levier soit éteint, brisant ainsi instantanément la boucle.

Repeater Loop 10 Hz Clock (En français 
boucle de répéteur 10 Hz clock)

[[2015-05-17 08.20.46|thumb|Repeater Loop 10 Hz Clock]]

3 × 4 × 2 (24 bloc de volume)
plat, silencieux
production de l'horloge: 1 tick on, 0 tick off
Cette horloge produit un signal d'horloge de 10 Hz (10 activations par seconde) constitué de 1 tick sur des impulsions séparées pour former 0 tick d'impulsions (il y a une impulsion en sortie mais elle est remplacer par l'autre impulsion ce qui fait qu'il n'y en a pas).
Lancer l'horloge avec une impulsion de 1 tick (par exemple, en plaçant une torche sur un bloc alimenté, comme sur la première horloge de répéteur vue). Arrêtez l'horloge en cassant un morceau de la poussière de pierre rouge (ou utiliser la méthode décrite ci-dessus avec le levier et le piston collant).
Une horloge de 10 Hz tourne trop vite pour certains composants de Redstone. Les blocs de commande et des blocs-notes peuvent gérer l'activation rapide. Les portes, trappes et portillons produiront des sons comme si elle était activées et désactivées très rapidement, tellement rapidement qu'on la voit seulement activée (les sons sont présent comme dit avant) . Les pistons vont agir comme si constamment activé, mais le 0 tick impulsions va produire l'apparence d'un piston désactivé en même temps que le piston activé. D'autres composants redstone vont tout simplement agir comme s'il était alimenté en permanence.

Horloge avec torche et répéteur (Torch-repeater clock)[]

Depuis l'introduction du répéteur, les horloges Torch-loop ont généralement été remplacées par des Torch-repeater clock. Dans ces horloges, la plupart du délai provient des répéteurs et la torche produit l'horloge . Ces horloges ne peuvent pas être inférieures à une 3-clock (sinon la torche brûle), mais ils peuvent être étendus presque indéfiniment (sa seule limite est le manque de place ou de matériaux). Cependant, une fois que la boucle atteint 16.9 répéteurs (retards de 36 à 64 tic), un multiplicateur d'horloge ou TFF peut augmenter la période en utilisant moins de ressource (et de façon compacte) que d'ajouter un grand nombre de répéteurs.Ces exemples sont tous (R+1) -clocks ,où R est le délai total des répéteur , ces horloges utilisent R+1 ticks OFF. Tous ont au moins une entrée potentielle qui fera tourner l'horloge en OFF dans un demi-cycle (tout les courant ON-phase passe par la sortie). (Alimenter un signal ON à la sortie ferra arrêter l'horloge, mais la sortie serra ,à ce moment, plus grande.) Lorsque l'alimentation est coupée, l'horloge redémarre automatiquement.

Basique Torch-repeater Clock Le dessin A montre une horloge de base. Les répéteurs doivent avoir un retard total d'au moins 2 tiques, ou la torche brûlera. Si vous activez le block, l'horloge se mettra en off. Autant de répéteurs peuvent être ajoutés, et la boucle peut être étendue si nécessaire avec de la poudre dans les virages. Le circuit montré est plat, mais de grandes boucles peuvent être exécutées sur plusieurs niveaux, pour réduire l'étalement urbain.

Horloge verticale étendue Le dessin E est une horloge verticale extensible. Sa taille minimale est de 1×5dsques. (Ceci peut être réduit à 3 ou 4 en remplaçant répéteurs avec de la poudre, ou en utilisant le dessin D à la place.) Un signal de levier ou redstone derrière la torche arrête l'horloge avec une sortie OFF (une fois que tout courant ON phase est passé à la sortie).

2015-05-23 08.15.28|thumb|La laine rose et mauve ainsi que les fil de redstone peuvent être utilisé pour l'éteindre.]] Horloge verticale compacte Le dessin D est une horloge minuscule verticale, une forme compressée de E, qui peut émettre un cycle de 2,3,4, ou 5-tick.

Publication connu : vers le 30 Juin 2011[1]

La période sera le délai des répéteurs plus 1, mais le répéteur doit être fixé à au moins 2 tiques ou la torche va brûler. Ce circuit est formellement 1 x 3 x 3, mais est le plus souvent construit comme un "V" sur le sol, et peut facilement être entièrement enterré. Un levier, ou un signal de Redstone à, l'un des quatre blocs solides peut arrêter l'horloge. La torche sera forcée "off", tandis que la poudre sera allumée. La sortie peut être prise à peu près partout, à quelques exceptions près:

  La blocs "transversal" de la poudre de redstone (les pistons fonctionnent, mais la poudre ou un répéteur est susceptible de bloquer l'horloge).
  Le bloc sous le répéteur (un répéteur ou un piston à côté du répéteur sera hors de la phase de l'horloge, et la poussière ne pourra pas s'activer).

La sortie du côté de la poussière sera phase inverse.

Comparator clock[]

Comparators can be used to make fast clocks and slow pulsers.

Subtraction clock[]

Subtraction 1-Clock
inputrd-ew
rs-e
SB
rd-nse
rd-ew
outputrd-ns
2×2×2 (8 block volume), flat, silent
clock output: 1 tick on, 1 tick off
A subtraction 1-clock toggles on and off every tick. It uses a redstone comparator in subtraction mode, with the output feeding to the comparator's side input.
When the comparator first receives full power, it outputs strength 15 to the block in front of it, which passes the same signal strength to the dust next to it. The signal strength then declines by 1 (to 14) as it moves to the dust next to the comparator. In the next tick, the comparator subtracts 14 from its it 15 input to output only signal strength 1. This is enough to barely power the block and the dust next to the block, but isn't strong enough to reach back to the dust next to the comparator, so on the next tick the comparator subtracts 0 from its input and the cycle starts again.
Only the redstone dust next to the comparator will actually toggle between on and off -- the comparator, the block in front of it, and the dust next to the block only toggle between signal strength 15 and 1. Add additional dust lines to these points to take output from them and allow the signal strength to decline to at least 14 and 0.
A subtraction clock doesn't require full power for input -- it will work even with an input strength as small as 2.
Variations: You can use any full container as the "input" if a power source would be inconvenient in that location (such as right next to the output).
Earliest Known Publication: 9 February 2013.[2]

Subtraction N-Clock
inputrd-ew
rs-e
SB
rd
rd-ne
rr-w1
SB
2×3×2 (12 block volume), flat, silent
clock output: 2-5 ticks on, 2-5 ticks off
With the repeater set to a 1-tick delay, this is a 2-clock (2 ticks on, 2 ticks off). Increase the repeater delay to slow the clock down, or even add additional repeaters. If the input strength is higher than 1, the block behind the repeater can be replaced with redstone dust; if higher than 2, the block in front of the comparator can also be replaced with redstone dust. Output can be taken from anywhere.

Fader pulser[]

A fader pulser is useful for making small clocks with periods less than 15 seconds (for longer periods, hopper clocks can be smaller), but they are difficult to adjust to a precise period. They use a fader circuit (aka "fader loop" – a comparator loop where the signal strength declines with every pass through the loop because it travels through at least one length of two or more redstone dust), renewed by a redstone torch every time it fades out.

Fader 9-Pulser
rd-$!
rd-$!
SB
rd-$!
SB
rd-$!
SB
rc-$w
SB
rt-$w
rd-$
input
GB-$
SB
GB-$
GB-$
output
1×4×4, 1-wide, silent
clock output: 1 tick on, 8 ticks off
When the input turns off, the redstone torch initially "charges" the fader loop at signal strength 15. There's only one comparator in the loop so each cycle through the loop takes only 1 tick, and the signal strength declines by 2 each time through the loop, so the fader loop will stay charged for 8 ticks. The redstone torch then turns on for only one tick because it short-circuits itself (the torch won't burn-out because it's held off most of the time by the fader circuit).
Fader 29-Pulser
inputrd-ns!
rd-se
rc-e
SB
rt-w
outputrd-ew
rd-ne
rc-w
rd-ew
rd-nw
2×4×2, flat, silent
clock output: 2 ticks on, 27 ticks off
When the input turns off, the redstone torch initially "charges" the fader loop at signal strength 14 at the dust next to the block (the signal strength declined by 1 getting there from the torch). There are two comparators in the loop so each cycle takes 2 ticks, and the signal strength declines by 1 each time through the loop, so the fader loop will stay charged for 28 ticks. One tick later, the redstone torch turns back on, re-powering the fader loop (it stays on for 2 ticks so it overlaps the fader loop's on time by one tick).
Variations: Add more comparators to increase the clock's period, or run one side of the fader loop above the other to reduce the clock's footprint.

Hopper clock[]

A hopper clock (aka "hopper timer") uses the movement of items in hoppers to create a clock signal.

Schematic Gallery: Hopper Clock

Single-item hopper clock[]

A single-item hopper clock simply moves a single item in a loop of hoppers.

Hopper-Loop Clock
Hopper-loop clock

Hopper-Loop Clock[schematic]

1×3×2 (6 block volume), 1-wide, flat, silent
clock output: 4 ticks on, 4 ticks off
clock period: 8 ticks
This clock just bounces an item back and forth between the two hoppers every 4 ticks. This clock runs while the input is off, and turns its clock signal output off when the input turns on.
Technically, the pulse is only 3.5 ticks long (and 4.5 ticks off), but for most purposes this can be treated as a simple 4-clock.
Variations: Another comparator can be added to the other hopper to get another clock signal inverted from the other.

N-Hopper-Loop Clock
N-hopper-loop clock

N-Hopper-Loop ClockShown: 4-Hopper-Loop Clock. [schematic]

2×(N/2+1)×2 (2×N+4 block volume), flat, silent
clock output: 4 ticks on, 4×N-4 ticks off
clock period: 4×N ticks
An n-hopper-loop clock consists of a loop of hoppers moving a single item around which occasionally powers a comparator output. This clock runs while the input is off, and turns its clock signal output off when the input turns on. The clock period will be N × 0.4 seconds, where N is the number of hoppers.
Variations: Other comparators can be added to the other hoppers to get other clock signals out-of-phase with each other.

Cooldown Hopper Clock
CB
rc-$w!
ho-$e
ho-$w
rc-$e
rd-$
GB-$
SB
GB-$
GB-$
SB
output
1×5×2 (10 block volume)
clock output: up to 27 minutes off, 4 ticks on
This clock uses a command block to slow the hopper transfer rate. The exact command will depend on the direction the clock is facing, but for clocks facing the positive X direction it will look something like this: blockdata ~2 ~ ~ {TransferCooldown:X}, where X is the number of game ticks (up to 32,767) to hold the item in the back hopper.
Hoppers usually have an 8 game tick cooldown between transfers (4 redstone ticks). The command block gets activated 2 game ticks after the item enters the back hopper (due to the comparator delay), so setting X to 6 would produce no change. Thus, this clock will have a clock period of 8 game ticks for the front hopper, plus X+2 game ticks for the back hopper, for a total of X+10 game ticks (X/2+5 redstone ticks).
Variations: The output comparator can be replaced with a redstone torch on the command block, producing a signal strength 15 output. An additional command block can then be activated by the torch to set the cooldown of the other hopper to change the pulse length.
ho-$e
ho-$w
rc-$e!
CB
rt-$w
rd-$
GB-$
GB-$
SB
GB-$
GB-$
output

ho-$e
ho-$w
rc-$e!
CBA
rt-$w
rd-$
GB-$
GB-$
SB
GB-$
CBB
output

Earliest known publication: 2 February 2014[3]

Multi-item hopper clock[]

A multi-item hopper clock achieves longer clock periods by using multiple items in the hoppers, and using a latch to keep the items flowing first one way then the other (rather than just bouncing back and forth between two hoppers).

For most of the multi-item hopper clocks, see the Items Required for Useful Clock Periods table (right).

Ethonian Hopper Clock
Ethonian hopper clock

Ethonian Hopper Clock – Both pistons are sticky. [schematic]

2×6×2 (24 block volume)
flat
clock period: 8 ticks to 256 seconds (4m16s)
When the items finish moving in one direction, the empty hopper's comparator turns off, allowing the associated sticky piston to pull the block of redstone to the other hopper, reversing the direction of item movement. The movement of the block of redstone also updates the other sticky piston (which has been powered for a while) causing it to extend and prevent the first sticky piston from extending again when its comparator turns back on.
Powering the hoppers will freeze the clock. Powering one of the blocks or the redstone dust will allow the clock to finish its current cycle before halting.
With a single item in the hoppers, the clock has a period of 7.5 ticks (0.75 seconds). Each additional item adds 8 ticks (0.8 seconds) to the clock period.
There are a number of useful outputs from this clock:
  • Clock: A regular on/off clock signal can be taken from one position of the block of redstone. The signal will last for half the clock period.
  • Cycle Off-Pulse: Either block faced by a comparator stays powered most of the time, but will turn off for 3.5 ticks every full cycle (but at half-cycle intervals from each other). The power level of the block may vary, so an output repeater may be needed to keep the power level constant.
  • Cycle Pulse: By placing a torch on one of the blocks powered by a comparator, the off-pulse is turned into a regular 3.5-tick on-pulse, once per cycle.
  • Half-Cycle Off-Pulse: By placing two redstone dust alongside or under the positions of the block of redstone, a 1.5-tick off-pulse is generated every half-cycle when the block of redstone moves.


SB
rc-w!
ho-e
ho-w
SB
rc-e!
SB
rd-!
sp-e!


sp-w
rr-w3!
rd-ew!
Variations: For highly precise hopper clocks, the missing half-tick of the first item can be smoothed out with a repeater set to 3 ticks or more. Additional repeaters can change the clock period to something other than a multiple of 8 ticks.
Other configurations are possible. The "1-Wide Compact" version is 1×6×3 (18 block volume). The "1-Wide Tileable" and "1-Wide Upside-Down" versions are both 1×8×3 (24 block volume). [schematics]
Earliest known publication: 19 January 2013[4] (note that hopper transfer rates were changed soon after this video was made)

RS NOR Latch Hopper Clock
Rs nor latch hopper clock

RS NOR Latch Hopper Clock[schematic]

4×6×2 (48 block volume)
flat, silent
clock period: 8 ticks to 256 seconds (4m16s)
A silent multi-item hopper clock which uses an RS NOR Latch to control the direction of item movement.
Earliest known publication: 19 January 2013[4]

1-Wide RS NOR Latch Hopper Clock
1-wide rs nor latch hopper clock

1-Wide RS NOR Latch Hopper Clock[schematic]

1×7×5 (35 block volume)
1-wide, silent
clock period: 8 ticks to 256 seconds (4m16s)
A 1-wide version of the RS NOR Latch hopper clock.

Hopper-Latch Hopper Clock
Hopper-latch hopper clock

Hopper-Latch Hopper Clock[schematic]

2×4×3 (24 block volume)
silent
clock period: 8 ticks to 256 seconds (4m16s)
A silent multi-item hopper clock which uses a hopper latch to control the direction of item movement.
Earliest Known Publication: 18 March 2013.[5]

SethBling's Hopper Clock
Sethbling's hopper clock

Sethbling's Hopper Clock[schematic]

6×6×2 (72 block volume)
flat, silent
clock period: 1.6 seconds to 512 seconds (8m32s)
A loop of hoppers with multiple items, where each hopper prevents the next hopper from pushing items further until the previous hopper has emptied.
This clock can create a clock signal twice as long as the other multi-item hopper clocks. However, in less space you could build a multiplicative hopper-dropper clock with a clock period hundreds of times longer.
Variations: The "simplified" version uses slightly fewer resources, by simply replacing the repeaters with blocks. The "amputated" version (two "arms" have been removed) only goes up to 256 seconds, but is one-third the size. [schematics]
Earliest known publication: 22 January 2013[6]

Multiplicative hopper clock[]

A multiplicative hopper clock uses a hopper clock to regulate the item flow of secondary hopper clock stages to produce very long clock periods (the secondary hopper clocks "multiply" the clock period of the first hopper clock).

In most cases, an mhdc will be a better choice (same volume, longer clock periods).

2-Stage MHC
SB
rc-w!
ho-e
ho-w
rc-e!
SB
rd-!
sp-e!


sp-w
rd-!
SB

SB
SB
rr-w1!
SB
SB
rc-w!
ho-e
ho-w
rc-e!
SB
rd-!
sp-e!


sp-w
rd-!
5×6×2 (60 block volume), flat
clock output: up to 45 hours
The repeaters in the middle keep the bottom hopper clock from transferring items except for the brief period when the top hopper clock reverses direction. Thus, the bottom hopper clock will transfer 1 item every time the top hopper clock completes a full cycle (except when the bottom clock reverses direction, when the bottom clock transfers an item after only half a cycle).
The bottom clock will have a clock period of X × (2Y - 1) × 0.8 seconds, where X is the number of items in the top clock and Y is the number of items in the bottom clock (both max. 320 items).

Multiplicative hopper-dropper clock[]

A multiplicative hopper-dropper clock (MHDC) uses a hopper clock to slowly pulse one or more dropper clock multiplier stages to produce very long clock periods (the dropper clock stages "multiply" the clock period of the hopper clock).

2-Stage MHDC
2-stage mhdc

2-Stage MHDC[schematic]

5×6×2 (60 block volume), flat
clock period: up to 81.9 hours (3.4 real-life days)
The top part is a regular ethonian hopper clock. Once per cycle, the block of redstone will move left and activate both of the droppers in the second stage (the left dropper is powered directly, while the right dropper is activated because it's next to a powered block: the left dropper). The block of redstone in the second stage ensures that only one dropper will actually push an item, forcing the items to move in one direction until the block of redstone moves.
The dropper clock multiplier will have a clock period of X × Y × 1.6 seconds, where X is the number of items in the hoppers (max. 320 items) and Y is the number of items in the droppers (max. 576 items).
Adding a third dropper clock multiplier stage increases the maximum clock period to over 10 years. In practice, this may only be needed for clock periods measured in weeks or months (longer than the 2-stage version can provide), generally on servers.

Variable Frequency Hopper-Dropper Clock[]

This clock's design is the same as the standard Hopper-Dropper monostable circuit, except that it uses the amount of items in the middle hopper to reset the clock by powering the dropper. The frequency of the clock can be changed by putting different amounts of items in the middle hopper and can be set to any value up to 13.5Hz. The frequency can be calculated by dividing the number of items by ten then multiplying it by three. The output of the clock should be attached after the repeater from the reset comparator.

Design: [1]

Despawn clock[]

A despawn clock uses item despawn timing to create a clock signal.

Simply approaching a despawn clock can interfere with its timing, because any player might accidentally pick up the despawning item.

Dropper Despawn Clock
glass
wpp-$
Dr-$w
rd-$!
SB
rt-$w
rd-$
input
GB-$
GB-$
output
3×3×2 (18 block volume)
clock output: 5 minutes off, 3-7 ticks on
Start the clock by turning off the input. The torch will turn on, the dropper will drop an item on the pressure plate turning the torch off. After 5 minutes, the item will despawn (disappear) and the pressure plate will deactivate, allowing the torch to turn on, causing the dropper to eject another item onto the pressure plate.
If completely filled with items, the dropper will need to be re-filled every 48 hours, or continually supplied with items from a hopper pipe. Two chickens constrained above a hopper can keep a dropper despawn clock supplied with eggs indefinitely.
Variations: Longer clock periods can be achieved by chaining multiple despawn clocks together, so that each torch triggers the next dropper instead of its own. When chaining multiple despawn clocks, the dropper must be placed so that it is activated only by the previous torch and not the previous pressure plate.
A dispenser can also be used, instead of a dropper, but is slightly more resource-expensive (and not advised with use of eggs).

Summon Despawn Clock
wpp-$
CB
rd-$!
SB
rt-$w
rd-$
input
GB-$
GB-$
output
1×2×2 (4 block volume)
clock output: up to 32 minutes off, 1.5 ticks on
The command block executes a command to summon an item onto the pressure plate. The exact command will vary, but will look something like this:
summon Item ~1 ~ ~ {Age:X,Item:{id:280}}
The command above summons an item entity (an item in the world, rather than in a player or container inventory), one block in the +x direction (west) from the command block, and specifies that the item has id 280 (it's a stick) and has an "age" of X.
Replace X with a value that determines how long the item should last before despawning: 6000 - 20 × <seconds> (for example, 5940 for a 3-second despawn). Every game tick, this value will increase by 1, and the item will despawn when the value reaches 6,000. Normally, items start at 0 and last 5 minutes (6000 game ticks = 300 seconds = 5 minutes), but setting the item entity's initial Age changes that.
When calculating X for a specific clock period, note that pressure plates stay active for a short period after the item despawns. A wooden pressure plate takes 10 ticks (1 second) to deactivate after the item despawns and a weighted pressure plate takes 5 ticks (0.5 seconds). This also limits how fast a summon despawn clock can be made to run.
X can be negative for clock periods greater than 5 minutes (for example, -6000 for a 10-minute despawn). The maximum time possible is a little over 32 minutes, with X = -32768 (-32768 = 27.3 minutes, plus another 5 minutes to get to +6000).
Start the clock by turning off the input.

Setblock clock[]

A setblock clock works by replacing a block of redstone repeatedly with a command block activated by the block of redstone it places. A /setblock command takes 0.5 ticks to place a block, so these clocks are capable of producing 20 0-tick pulse per second. Only redstone dust, note blocks and other command blocks can activate that rapidly – other mechanism components and repeaters powered by a setblock clock will usually pulse only 5 times per second (like a 1-clock), while comparators may activate once and then stay on or not activate at all.

To prevent the destroyed blocks from dropping items use /gamerule doTileDrops false. To prevent the clock from spamming the chat use /gamerule commandBlockOutput false. To prevent the clock from spamming the server log use /gamerule logAdminCommands false.

Both of these clocks will begin running as soon as they're built. To turn them off, activate the command block setting the block of redstone from a secondary source. To turn them back on, remove the source of secondary activation and replace the block of redstone.

Setblock Clock

rd-$!
CB
output
1×1×2 (2 block volume)
1-wide
clock output: 0-tick pulse every 0.5 ticks.
The command block should have the following command: setblock ~ ~1 ~ minecraft:redstone_block 0 destroy.
Variations: The command block and block of redstone can be configured in any direction.

Silent Setblock Clock
CBR

rd-$!
CBS
output
1×1×3 (3 block volume)
1-wide, silent
clock output: 0-tick pulse every 0.5 ticks.
Command block "R" should have the following command: setblock ~ ~-1 ~ redstone_block. Command block "S" should have the following command: setblock ~ ~1 ~ stone (or any other solid opaque block which won't cause light updates when replacing the block of redstone).
Variations: The command blocks and block of redstone can be configured in any way that the block of redstone can power both command blocks simultaneously, but command block "S" executes before command block "R" (command blocks which are powered simultaneously activate from lowest coordinate to highest coordinate on each axis).

Fill Clock
CBR
a
a
a
a





CBS
a
a
a
a
A fill clock works just like either version of the setblock clock, except it uses the /fill command to setblock an entire volume with blocks of redstone. This allows the clock to activate or power many locations at once without lines of redstone dust requiring support blocks.
Command block "R" should have the following command: fill ~ ~-1 ~ ~4 ~-1 ~ redstone_block. Command block "S" should have the following command: fill ~ ~1 ~ ~4 ~1 ~ stone (or any other solid opaque block which won't cause light updates when replacing the block of redstone). Adjust the commands for the number of blocks of redstone required and the direction they are oriented.
Positions "a" could be command blocks, note blocks, etc.

Piston clock[]

Pistons can be used to create clocks with a modifiable pulse delay without the use of pulse generators. Pistons can be clocked in a fashion that only leaves the arm extended for the time required to push an adjacent block. However, note that if sticky pistons are regularly used this way (that is, as a 1-clock), they can occasionally "drop" (fail to retract) their block, which will usually stop the clock. (Specifically, if the setup allows for a pulse less than 1 tick long, that will make a sticky piston drop its block. This can be useful, notably for toggles.) Piston clocks in general can be easily turned off or on by a "toggle" input T.

Minimal Piston Clock (A)

Design A requires only a sticky piston and redstone wire, and is controllable. It runs as long as the toggle line (its power source) is on, and turns off when the toggle line is off. Repeaters can be added to increase its delay. If the repeater is replaced with wire, it can be used as a 1-tick clock, but it is prone to "dropping" its block.

Minimal Dual-Piston Clock (B)

Design B shows how to counter block dropping with an optional, non-sticky, piston. The non sticky piston (the bottom one) is needed for the 1 tick clock as a self repair mechanism. It prevents detaching of the moving block from the sticky piston. If using it only for a 1-tick cycle, the repeater (under the extended piston) can be replaced with redstone wire. The toggle line stops the clock on a high signal.

Dual Block Piston Clock (C)

Design C requires two sticky pistons, and can be easily stopped by just setting one side of the redstone high. The repeaters can be indefinitely extended to make a very long delay clock.

Compact Sticky Piston Clock (D)

Design D only needs one sticky piston, but at the repeater must be set to 2 or more ticks. If it is set to one tick, the torch will burn out. The output signal can be taken from any part of the circuit. This design can also be controlled; a high input on the toggle line will stop the clock.

Shamrock Piston Clock (E)

The symmetrical design E shows how non-sticky pistons can also "pass around" a block. Output can be taken from any of the outer redstone loops.

Advanced 1-tick Piston Clock (F)

Design F is an unusual, stable, 1-tick piston clock. Unlike most repeater-based 1-clocks, its signal is fast enough to make a sticky piston reliably toggle its block, dropping and picking it up on alternate pulses. For The clock to work, the block the piston moves must be placed last. The piston will extend and retract very quickly. The output wire appears to stay off, because it's changing state faster than the game visually updates. However, attaching a piston or other device to the output will show that it is working. The clock can be turned off by a redstone signal (e.g. the lever shown on the block below it) to the piston.

Simple 1-tick Piston Clock (G)

Design G is the simplest design and can be used to create rapid clocks. However, it is not controllable, so the only way to stop such a circuit, without adding additional parts, is to break one component (one redstone wire is recommended). Place a block of redstone on a sticky piston, then lay down redstone so that the block powers the piston. Then, once the piston is powered and moves the block, the redstone current will stop, pulling the block back to the original position, which will make the block power the wire again, and so on.

Minecart clock[]

Minecart Clock

A basic Minecart Clock (Squid not required)

Vertical Minecart Clock

A vertical minecart clock (outputs out the sides)

Rail Clock C

Rail Clock B

Rail Clock A

Minecart clocks are simple, easy to build and modify, but are somewhat unreliable. A minecart clock is made by creating a small track rails with one or more powered and detector rails, arranged so that a minecart can run forever either around the track (A), or back and forth from end to end (B, C). (These need not be sloped—properly placed powered rails will let a minecart "bounce" off solid blocks—but you get some extra time as the cart slows down.) A larger vertical track (design C), taken from this video is claimed to produce an exceptionally stable clock. Note that the minecart never quite hits the top of the track.

When running an empty minecart on the loop or back-and-forth, the cart generates redstone signals as it passes over the detector rail(s). Minecart Clocks can be extended or shortened easily by adding and removing track, to adjust the delay between signals. On the flip side, the they are easily disrupted by wandering players or mobs, and a long clock can take a fair bit of space. Also, the exact period is generally not apparent from the design. The need for gold in the booster rails can also be a problem for some players.

Long-period clocks[]

Creating very long repeater loops can be very expensive. However, there are several sorts of clocks that are naturally quite long, or can easily be made so, and some are described above:

  • Devices can send item entities through the world: Items flowing on a stream, falling through cobwebs, or just waiting to despawn (that's a 5 minute timer provided by the game). Droppers or dispensers, and hoppers with comparators, can be quite useful here.
    • Additional stages added to the multiplicative hopper-dropper clock will each multiply the previous clock period by up to 1,152, quickly increasing the clock period beyond any reasonable use.
    • A simple despawn clock is shown above. These do have a couple of liabilities:
      • If the pressure plates are not fully enclosed, the trigger item may fall to one side, stopping the clock.
      • The droppers will eventually run out of items. A droppers full of (e.g.) seeds will serve for 48 hours, that is 2 days of real time. If this is insufficient, hoppers and chests can be added to refill the dropper (12 days per chest's worth). Alternately, a pair of chickens can provide enough eggs to keep the clock going indefinitely. A small full-auto melon or pumpkin farm can also serve to fill the hoppers..
  • Boats and minecarts can be used with pressure plates or tripwires.
  • Pseudoclocks can even be based on plant growth. For these, timing will not be exact, but they can still be useful for getting occasional signals over long periods.
  • "Factorial stacking" of clocks: Precise clocks (that is, repeater or repeater-torch loops) with different periods may be connected to an AND gate in order to generate larger periods with much less expense. One way to make a 60-second (600 ticks) would be to use 150 repeaters set on 4-ticks of delay. Or you could connect two clocks with the periods of 24 and 25 ticks (that's 13 repeaters) to an AND gate. Note that if the input clocks' ON state is longer than 1 tick, you'll need to filter them with an Edge Detector or Long Pulse Detector, to prevent overlapping on imperfect syncs. The disadvantages here are:
    • The circuitry can be fairly finicky, and you may need a circuit just to start all the clocks simultaneously.
    • The lengths of the sub-clocks need to be chosen to avoid common factors in their periods. This list of the first few prime numbers will be useful: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103. Any one of your clocks can be a power of a different prime, but they can't share factors or they will occasionally "beat" together, causing an extra or missed pulse.
    • A cycle of 1 minecraft day (24000 game ticks, but 12000 redstone ticks) can be produced by stacking clocks of periods 125, 32, and 3. A multiplier (as described below) may be helpful for the longest of these.
  • Then there's the obvious: the Daylight Sensor acts as a clock with a period of one in-game day. The duty cycle can be adjusted by using comparators at different threshold values. Keep in mind that weather may interfere with this, and of course the phase is fixed. The daylight sensor does offer a unique feature: Since it responds to the actual progress of the game day, it will not lose time if its chunk is unloaded. Naturally if its chunk is not loaded, it can't actually activate any circuitry, but when a player comes by later, the clock will still be in sync with the daily cycle. By comparison, suppose that (say) an MHDC with TFFs extending it to 20 minutes is started at dawn, but the chunk is then unloaded. When the player comes back to reload the chunk (say, at dusk), the clock will continue counting its 20 minutes from wherever it left off.

There are also a couple of extension techniques that apply to any clock whatsoever, including irregular pseudoclocks:

  • A T flip-flop can be used to double the period of any clock. This will also convert the pulse to have the same length ON and OFF, if it didn't before. (Pseudoclocks won't be completely regularized, but they will be smoothed out.)
  • Latched repeaters allow production of a general clock multiplier, detailed below. This can be used to multiply the period of any clock, and they can be used in series.

Clock multiplier[]

Latching Clock multiplier

This nearly-flat circuit takes a clock input of period P and any pulse length, and outputs as a clock of period N×P, where N is the number of latches used; the output is on for a pulse length of P, and off for the remaining (N-1)×P. N is limited to 12 or so by redstone signal attenuation; however, the design can simply be repeated to multiply the period again, e.g. a 21-multiplier can be made by chaining a 7-multiplier and a 3-multiplier. This can be continued indefinitely, and unlike factorial stacking there is no restriction on the multipliers.

The build is somewhat tricky: The multiplier loop is in fact a torchless repeater-loop clock. This needs to be started separately, before the latches are engaged. The easiest way to start it is probably to add a temporary "startup circuit" starting 4 blocks from the dust part of the loop: Place a power source, then dust and a block for it to power. Finally place a redstone torch on the block, positioned to power the redstone loop. The torch will flash on for one tick before "realizing" it's powered, and this will start the loop as a clock, which will cycle until the latches are powered. This startup rig can then be removed.

The latches are driven by an edge detector which takes a rising edge and produces an OFF pulse; the pulse length must match the delays of the latched repeaters, so that the multiplier's pulse advances one repeater per edge. The delay/pulse length must also be no longer than the input clock, so it's probably best to keep them both at 1. Note that the delays of the latched repeaters are not actually part of the output period; the latches only count off input edges. The circuit's output is ON while the last repeater is lit and lighting the dust loop.

This circuit need not be fed with a regular clock. With any varying input, it will count N rising edges and output HIGH between the (N-1)th and Nth rising edge.

Variations:

  • A T flip-flop can be used to "normalize" the pulse to half on/half-off, while doubling the output period. Design L5 from that page is suitable and compact.
  • By separating the latched repeaters with redstone dust (to read their signals individually), this circuit could be generalized into a "state cycler", which can activate a series of other circuits or devices in order, as triggered by input pulses.

Efficiency: An efficient approach to making very long period clocks is to start with a repeater loop of 9 to 16 repeaters (up to 64 ticks), then add multiplier banks with N of 7, 5, and 3 (bigger is more efficient). Doublings should done with T flipflops, as 2 of those are cheaper and perhaps shorter than a 4-multiplier. A couple of notes:

  • Using two 7-multipliers (×49) is slightly more expensive, but shorter, than getting ×50 with 5×5×2, or getting ×48 with 3×4×4 or 6×8;.
  • An 8-multiplier is slightly more expensive, but shorter, than separate 2- and 4-multipliers. However, two of them are both longer and more expensive than three 4-multipliers.

Earliest Known Publication: 22 October 2012.[7]

References[]

  1. "ZirumsHeroTWR" (June 30, 2011). "Cobblestone Factory" (Video). YouTube.
  2. "plzent3r" (9 February 2013). "Easy and Fast Clock using Comparators - Minecraft". YouTube
  3. "Pertsa2000" (2 February 2014). "Minecraft: Fully Adjustable Hopper Clock (command block)" (Video). YouTube.
  4. a et b "Ethoslab" (19 January 2013). "Minecraft - Tutorial: Hopper Timer" (Video). YouTube.
  5. "TitiSurMinecraft" (18 March 2013). "Minecraft Tutorial - Silent Hopper Timer" (Video). YouTube.
  6. "SethBling" (22 January 2013). "7.5 Minute Hopper Timer -- Minecraft Tutorial" (Video). YouTube.
  7. "ftheriachab" (22 October 2012). "Redstone Timer Multiplier" (Video). Youtube.
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