Bad news is that my new cannon won't be out today. When I was putting it together, I really didn't like how it came out. I REALLY want this video to be good(you'll see why), so I'm going to re-record it. I probably could have gotten it done today anyways, but...
The good news is that I just ordered a new microphone, which is much higher quality than my PS3 mic I have been using. This should help get rid of the ambient hum in my current commentary(its noticeable at the beginning of the last tutorial, when the music is still slow), and just better voice quality in general. I'll have it by Friday, so baring another problem the cannon will be out by Saturday.
Unlike my previous tutorials, the information in this one isn't necessarily common knowledge. So even if you've built a cannon before, it might be a good idea to watch it.
As usual, I'll have a text & picture version of the tutorial below the video.
In my previous tutorial, we expanded a simple cannon into a quite powerful one. But because of how quickly the wiring will get confusing and obnoxious, expanding that cannon even more can be a pain. Fortunately, there is a better way to wire it. While this design is a little too complex to make sense on a smaller cannon, it is very easy to expand on, making it great for massive cannons.
To start, place a wall of blocks, 5 wide and 2 tall.
Now at the front, place a block at each end like, and one in the middle, one block up.
Place repeaters on the blocks you just placed, and redstone on top of the wall.
Now place another line of blocks on top, and redstone on top of that. Then place 3 blocks on the front in the same pattern as before.
Now we need to get power to this. Place a block on the back, in the middle and between the rails, and place another block behind that.
This is where it gets a little tricky. Aiming at the top half of the side of this block, place a half block. This will put the half block on the top half.
Now place another block off of that, and place a half block on the bottom of this. Then to the inside of that half block, repeat this again; you will probably need to dig down a bit.
Now just break the blocks on the half blocks, place a repeater where shown, and redstone on the other blocks. With normal blocks, this wouldn't work, but an odd quirk with half blocks allows them to pass power up like this, without cutting each other off.
This repeater powers both lines of redstone, above and below.
And because repeaters can receive power from redstone OR a block with redstone on it, all of the repeaters on the front get powered.
If the pattern on the front looks familiar, that is because it should. It is the same as the a cannon, and each repeater should feed into one line of redstone on your cannon.
To make sure you did everything correctly, connect it to a cannon and check if everything lights up when you press the button. Since this is the whole reason why you are building a cannon, go ahead and fire it too.
This design is the basic pattern that you will be repeating for this system, no matter how large the cannon is. Say you want to go from a dual railed cannon into a quad rail. Just repeat the pattern to one side or
the other, like this.
Note that if you make your cannon especially wide, you will need to make sure the back pillar is in the right spot to power everything. Even wider, and you may find yourself needing to use two pillars to power everything.
Now lets say you want to make the cannon taller. Just repeat the pattern again, but upwards this time.
Make sure to repeat the pillar pattern correctly, with upside-down half blocks, not normal ones. Also remember that you only need to branch out to the cannon every other opportunity, like this.
Just like making it wider, very tall cannons have problems getting power all the way up. After every 3 times you branch out, you will need to repeat the signal. Remember that every level above the repeater will be delayed, so make sure to add appropriate delay below the repeater too.
This design, along with any modular system, is an extremely powerful tool when building a cannon. But as your cannons get larger, especially wider, it becomes more and more troublesome to have to ignite your projectile manually. In my next tutorial, I will show you how to make a system that automatically ignites the projectile for you.
Alright, the next tutorial, Modular Cannon Wiring, is now up:
If you pay attention, there is a sneak peek of my new cannon, which will be out as soon as I can get it to stop blowing itself up . I'll have the channel trailer up soon as well.
Edit: Trailer is up, here is how it came out:
Also, I have everything recorded for my new cannon, just need to edit it together. It may be out tomorrow, but no promises.
Hey guys, we still need a few things for the channel(besides more videos, obviously).
1. A channel icon, 800x800px
2. Channel art. Its kinda the same as backgrounds, but for the new channel layout. I don't really like the new layout, but YouTube is forcing it on everybody in a couple of weeks anyways, so I can't do anything about it. Here is the size template to use if anyone wants to work on this.
3. A channel trailer. This is something that only people who aren't subscribed will see, and is just supposed to be a quick overview of what the channel is about. I'll do this one. I'm going to use a trailer template from RavenProDesign(same person who made the intro template). Do you guys think we should use this one:
Just wondering, whats up with the memory leak fix? Is it included in the current download, or still separate and still hasn't been updated yet. Or was it fixed by Mojang? Just wondering, I need it for a video.
Edit: Nevermind, tried it anyways just to see and it still froze. Is there an ETA on the fix?
Ok, I will work on getting that done as well. Would you prefer me to send you another world file to load up afterwards, or to send a number of individual schematics to import into the world I gave you
EDIT: Also, assassinof1337, I did just have an idea of perhaps copying some of the important components of the Locksmith to make an "exploded" version, to make it easier to see what the individual parts look like, and perhaps make it all easier to explain. What do you think?
EDIT (@ assassinof1337): I have just discovered a bug in the timing for the Locksmith, causing it to sometimes count wrong numbers as correct ones. I am fixing it now, and will email the world again once I am done.
I got it, and have the server running, but cannot seem to connect myself. Localhost works, but the IP for it isn't working for my computer. I know the port is forwarded, I've checked through the router and with online tools. Could anyone try connecting to it right now? IP is -removed- , just don't mess with anything(I'll probably reload the world anyways.)
Edit: also, Lmc, I'm good for pretty much any time between noon and 10pm Arizona time.
Ok, so a few weeks ago I posted a tutorial(Cannon Basics, forum post is here.). I had planned on releasing tutorials on a weekly schedule, but I haven't had time(school work, finals, car shopping, etc.). So, finally I'm releasing the next part, and hopefully I'll have the time to keep it on a schedule now.
Just a heads up: this is a fairly basic tutorial. As in, if you have built a cannon before there is a good chance you understand this stuff and don't need to watch it(though I'm not complaining if you do). Later guides will start moving more into advanced territory.
You can watch the video or read the guide below. They are 99% the same in terms of content, so its just a matter of preference.
In my previous tutorial, we built a simple cannon. But because its so small, it doesn't have a very long range. The most basic and obvious way to give your cannon more power is to make it larger. This could be making it longer, wider, or taller.
-Longer
Making your cannon longer is the most simple way of adding power. Your only concerns when doing this are that the water still fills the bottom, and your redstone has enough power to reach all of the TNT.
Making our cannon longer is easy. Just break the front end of your cannon.
Where the water ends is where the end of your cannon will be, so just place blocks down to the end like this.
Now just put down redstone to ignite TNT, and you've done the easiest expansion to your cannon.
-Wider
In my previous video I mentioned that there are two main types of cannons: Single rail and dual rail. Both have their advantages.
Single Rails are more power efficient. Because the TNT are lined up directly behind the projectile, they are slightly closer so they lose less power. They are also a bit simpler than dual rails, which can be useful when you need to build one quickly.
Dual Rail cannons, on the other hand, sacrifice a bit of power for increased accuracy. When TNT is ignited, it jumps up and a little towards a random direction. With the projectile, this is a problem because this adds variance to your shots. But with dual rails, because the propellant is slightly to each side of the projectile, the effect of this is dampened. They are also half the height with almost the same power as a single rail while using the same amount of TNT. And in my personal experience, because of the increased width, I have actually found it easier to wire large dual rails vs large single rails.
In general, I prefer dual railed cannons, so lets expand our cannon into one. First, place a block in the water source to stop it. This will make it easier to move around.
Now destroy the blocks on one side, but not the ones on the end.
Add two blocks to each end like this, and then fill in the new side.
At the back of the cannon, put the water back in.
Now loop your redstone around to the other side.
At this point, we are going to change the button position too. Break the button, place a new block one away from the cannon, and put a new button on it.
Now lead a redstone wire to the back corner of your cannon, but connect it to the cannon with a repeater. This puts it back at full power, so all of your TNT will be reached now.
While you could just put the button on the back of the cannon, this makes it easier to ignite the projectile. You may notice the middle seems a little empty. It is for the moment, but the next step will fill it in.
-Taller
Making you cannon taller gives you more levels of TNT to work with. While it may seem at first that this should be as simple making it longer, there are many additional considerations you have to take into account.
First, levels of TNT higher than the base have to be at least one block back from the front of the cannon. Because of the randomized jump that I mention earlier, TNT that is too close to the front will land on the end, turning your cannon into a bomb.
Along the same lines, on top of your TNT rails, your cannon needs a safety rail as well. With this rail here, the TNT cannot jump to the sides. But without it, the TNT will often land on the rails.
Another problem you will run into is getting power up to higher rails. If your cannon is only a couple of levels high, it isn't a problem, but higher than that and you will have problems not cutting off your redstone. And you have to ignite all of the TNT at the same time, making it detonate in unison, so you have to remember that if you use repeaters.
With that said, once you have it figured out, making you cannon taller isn't that hard. First, add a line of blocks to the middle, one block up. This is why we left space here earlier. Go ahead and add your redstone now.
Now we'll want to repeat this pattern again. Place blocks on top of the previous rails, and the redstone for them.
Remember when connecting the back that you can't pinch off the redstone below, so place those blocks like this.
Now place 3 more blocks like this, so you can take the power from the bottom and move it to the top.
Remember to connect everything with redstone, then put in your safety rails. Since they won't have redstone, you don't have to worry about connecting them.
Also, so you don't accidentally place TNT in the water block, go ahead and place a pillar of blocks above the source, going to the top. Don't put it in the source though, or you will destroy it anyways. Do the same for the other side.
Technically you could place TNT here on the rails higher than the base, but then you run into the problem with TNT landing on blocks. Plus, this back wall gives it a cleaner look.
If you did everything correctly, all the redstone should light up when you press the button. Go ahead and fire it now.
There you go. Now we've taken our simple cannon, and turned it into something quite powerful and respectable. But wiring on the back will can quickly get complicated if you try to expand the cannon more. In the next guide, I'll show you how to build a system for the back that, while slightly more complex, is very simple to expand upon.
Alright, my Building Larger Cannons tutorial is FINALLY done.
Lmc, I got your email. I'll try to get the server set up sometime over the next few days. I would today, but I want to play some more Blood Dragon, and I have my graduation tonight.
Hmm... For the project I just did, who thinks that "Locksmith" would be a reasonable name? Also, assassinof1337, I noticed you have a YouTube channel for the UTD. If you wanted to - and were able to - run a temporary server and record a video with me on Skype or something, I would be happy to do an explanation / Q&A sort of thing. I would do it myself, but I probably wouldn't do too well without someone prompting me - I don't tend to detail stuff in a logical order, and often miss stuff out when trying to explain something complicated.
Anyway, the next project I am considering is a calculator with the following features:
Byte sized input (Takes 2 numbers from 0 to 255)
Add, subtract, multiply and divide
Segmented display
Equation save / load
Use previous answer as number 1
Clear a number
Depending on whether or not I can be bothered, I may also consider adding negatives for subtraction, decimals for division etc.
I should be able to do it. I had a bukkit server set up a while ago to try and give us a temporary server, but my internet was being stupid at the time so I haven't run it in a while. It should be easy enough do it again, I'll just need the world save. Also, Locksmith sounds fine
Muny, would you like to work on the Projects Gallery website for us? We just need a simple site that will let us post pictures and videos of projects, with a short description of it. I'll send you a link to the WIP I had for it a long time ago if you want.
I'll work on my tutorial more, but its unlikely to be done today. Also, Minema has updated, so I'm going to try to finish my "last" cannon(I use quotes because I might make more in the future, but this one is all I have planned for now) and release that.
Oh, I hadn't realized this was back up, lol. In-Game Name: Lmcgyver Skillset: Anything relating to redstone Age: 18 Reason For Joining: As you may be able to tell from my signature, which I have not changed in a LONG time, I was a member of the original UTD. In fact, I was one of those who worked on the A2 Adder. I only found out the UTD was back after checking my profile to get a link and noticing a name on my recent viewers list that was vaguely familiar, then checking said name's posts etc. I would be glad to resume development for the UTD, it has been such a long time...
Edit: Ohai, TheMan. Long time, no see, lol. Remeber me?
Okaaay,Another problem:
My new cannon "ThunderClap" Isn't working properly.
I have a lot of booster tnt,so all of the TNT is close to shot,and I've used 300+ TNT and it fired about 100 blocks.
Why is that happening?
The only thing I can think of is a bug where having a bunch of TNT in one block causes the explosion to not work correctly, but IDK if that has been patched or not. Try using less booster TNT.
I have been working on two main things right now, a floating city build (me and my girlfriend's house on one of the servers I administrate), and a cannon concept (4th revision). Here are some pics:
Floating City:
Day time:
Night time:
Cannon (If you look really closely in the bottom left of the first picture, you can see a display for a calculator I'm working on. Nothing special really)
Overview shot:
Overview shot (back):
Control Room:
The cannon has 6 different firing modes: A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, and B3.
In-Game Name: munymuny200
Skillset: Backend + Frontend Development, Server Management
Age: 15
Reason For Joining: I can develop a website or do back-end work (desktop applications, etc) for the UTD. I also have a fairly extensive experience in managing servers running most Linux distributions.
Attach Pictures/Documentation Of Previous Projects:
Thats awesome, accepted. I'll put you under [Coding] for now, as I can't think of something better at the moment. I have something for you to work on, but right now I don't have the time to discuss it.
Speaking of not having time, the tutorial is getting postponed again. I've been too busy with school and trying to buy a car. And I really don't know if I'll be able to post it next week either, as I have AP tests and finals.
0
Bad news is that my new cannon won't be out today. When I was putting it together, I really didn't like how it came out. I REALLY want this video to be good(you'll see why), so I'm going to re-record it. I probably could have gotten it done today anyways, but...
The good news is that I just ordered a new microphone, which is much higher quality than my PS3 mic I have been using. This should help get rid of the ambient hum in my current commentary(its noticeable at the beginning of the last tutorial, when the music is still slow), and just better voice quality in general. I'll have it by Friday, so baring another problem the cannon will be out by Saturday.
Also, xmax, I really liked your work!
0
As usual, I'll have a text & picture version of the tutorial below the video.
In my previous tutorial, we expanded a simple cannon into a quite powerful one. But because of how quickly the wiring will get confusing and obnoxious, expanding that cannon even more can be a pain. Fortunately, there is a better way to wire it. While this design is a little too complex to make sense on a smaller cannon, it is very easy to expand on, making it great for massive cannons.
To start, place a wall of blocks, 5 wide and 2 tall.
Now at the front, place a block at each end like, and one in the middle, one block up.
Place repeaters on the blocks you just placed, and redstone on top of the wall.
Now place another line of blocks on top, and redstone on top of that. Then place 3 blocks on the front in the same pattern as before.
Now we need to get power to this. Place a block on the back, in the middle and between the rails, and place another block behind that.
This is where it gets a little tricky. Aiming at the top half of the side of this block, place a half block. This will put the half block on the top half.
Now place another block off of that, and place a half block on the bottom of this. Then to the inside of that half block, repeat this again; you will probably need to dig down a bit.
Now just break the blocks on the half blocks, place a repeater where shown, and redstone on the other blocks. With normal blocks, this wouldn't work, but an odd quirk with half blocks allows them to pass power up like this, without cutting each other off.
This repeater powers both lines of redstone, above and below.
And because repeaters can receive power from redstone OR a block with redstone on it, all of the repeaters on the front get powered.
If the pattern on the front looks familiar, that is because it should. It is the same as the a cannon, and each repeater should feed into one line of redstone on your cannon.
To make sure you did everything correctly, connect it to a cannon and check if everything lights up when you press the button. Since this is the whole reason why you are building a cannon, go ahead and fire it too.
This design is the basic pattern that you will be repeating for this system, no matter how large the cannon is. Say you want to go from a dual railed cannon into a quad rail. Just repeat the pattern to one side or
the other, like this.
Note that if you make your cannon especially wide, you will need to make sure the back pillar is in the right spot to power everything. Even wider, and you may find yourself needing to use two pillars to power everything.
Now lets say you want to make the cannon taller. Just repeat the pattern again, but upwards this time.
Make sure to repeat the pillar pattern correctly, with upside-down half blocks, not normal ones. Also remember that you only need to branch out to the cannon every other opportunity, like this.
Just like making it wider, very tall cannons have problems getting power all the way up. After every 3 times you branch out, you will need to repeat the signal. Remember that every level above the repeater will be delayed, so make sure to add appropriate delay below the repeater too.
This design, along with any modular system, is an extremely powerful tool when building a cannon. But as your cannons get larger, especially wider, it becomes more and more troublesome to have to ignite your projectile manually. In my next tutorial, I will show you how to make a system that automatically ignites the projectile for you.
0
If you pay attention, there is a sneak peek of my new cannon, which will be out as soon as I can get it to stop blowing itself up
Edit: Trailer is up, here is how it came out:
Also, I have everything recorded for my new cannon, just need to edit it together. It may be out tomorrow, but no promises.
0
1. A channel icon, 800x800px
2. Channel art. Its kinda the same as backgrounds, but for the new channel layout. I don't really like the new layout, but YouTube is forcing it on everybody in a couple of weeks anyways, so I can't do anything about it. Here is the size template to use if anyone wants to work on this.
3. A channel trailer. This is something that only people who aren't subscribed will see, and is just supposed to be a quick overview of what the channel is about. I'll do this one. I'm going to use a trailer template from RavenProDesign(same person who made the intro template). Do you guys think we should use this one:
or this one:
0
Is it included in the current download, or still separate and still hasn't been updated yet.Or was it fixed by Mojang?Just wondering, I need it for a video.Edit: Nevermind, tried it anyways just to see and it still froze. Is there an ETA on the fix?
0
World file would be easiest.
0
0
Awesome stuff, accepted. I'm adding you under [Redstone]
0
I got it, and have the server running, but cannot seem to connect myself. Localhost works, but the IP for it isn't working for my computer. I know the port is forwarded, I've checked through the router and with online tools. Could anyone try connecting to it right now? IP is -removed- , just don't mess with anything(I'll probably reload the world anyways.)
Edit: also, Lmc, I'm good for pretty much any time between noon and 10pm Arizona time.
0
Just a heads up: this is a fairly basic tutorial. As in, if you have built a cannon before there is a good chance you understand this stuff and don't need to watch it(though I'm not complaining if you do). Later guides will start moving more into advanced territory.
You can watch the video or read the guide below. They are 99% the same in terms of content, so its just a matter of preference.
In my previous tutorial, we built a simple cannon. But because its so small, it doesn't have a very long range. The most basic and obvious way to give your cannon more power is to make it larger. This could be making it longer, wider, or taller.
-Longer
Making your cannon longer is the most simple way of adding power. Your only concerns when doing this are that the water still fills the bottom, and your redstone has enough power to reach all of the TNT.
Making our cannon longer is easy. Just break the front end of your cannon.
Where the water ends is where the end of your cannon will be, so just place blocks down to the end like this.
Now just put down redstone to ignite TNT, and you've done the easiest expansion to your cannon.
-Wider
In my previous video I mentioned that there are two main types of cannons: Single rail and dual rail. Both have their advantages.
Single Rails are more power efficient. Because the TNT are lined up directly behind the projectile, they are slightly closer so they lose less power. They are also a bit simpler than dual rails, which can be useful when you need to build one quickly.
Dual Rail cannons, on the other hand, sacrifice a bit of power for increased accuracy. When TNT is ignited, it jumps up and a little towards a random direction. With the projectile, this is a problem because this adds variance to your shots. But with dual rails, because the propellant is slightly to each side of the projectile, the effect of this is dampened. They are also half the height with almost the same power as a single rail while using the same amount of TNT. And in my personal experience, because of the increased width, I have actually found it easier to wire large dual rails vs large single rails.
In general, I prefer dual railed cannons, so lets expand our cannon into one. First, place a block in the water source to stop it. This will make it easier to move around.
Now destroy the blocks on one side, but not the ones on the end.
Add two blocks to each end like this, and then fill in the new side.
At the back of the cannon, put the water back in.
Now loop your redstone around to the other side.
At this point, we are going to change the button position too. Break the button, place a new block one away from the cannon, and put a new button on it.
Now lead a redstone wire to the back corner of your cannon, but connect it to the cannon with a repeater. This puts it back at full power, so all of your TNT will be reached now.
While you could just put the button on the back of the cannon, this makes it easier to ignite the projectile. You may notice the middle seems a little empty. It is for the moment, but the next step will fill it in.
-Taller
Making you cannon taller gives you more levels of TNT to work with. While it may seem at first that this should be as simple making it longer, there are many additional considerations you have to take into account.
First, levels of TNT higher than the base have to be at least one block back from the front of the cannon. Because of the randomized jump that I mention earlier, TNT that is too close to the front will land on the end, turning your cannon into a bomb.
Along the same lines, on top of your TNT rails, your cannon needs a safety rail as well. With this rail here, the TNT cannot jump to the sides. But without it, the TNT will often land on the rails.
Another problem you will run into is getting power up to higher rails. If your cannon is only a couple of levels high, it isn't a problem, but higher than that and you will have problems not cutting off your redstone. And you have to ignite all of the TNT at the same time, making it detonate in unison, so you have to remember that if you use repeaters.
With that said, once you have it figured out, making you cannon taller isn't that hard. First, add a line of blocks to the middle, one block up. This is why we left space here earlier. Go ahead and add your redstone now.
Now we'll want to repeat this pattern again. Place blocks on top of the previous rails, and the redstone for them.
Remember when connecting the back that you can't pinch off the redstone below, so place those blocks like this.
Now place 3 more blocks like this, so you can take the power from the bottom and move it to the top.
Remember to connect everything with redstone, then put in your safety rails. Since they won't have redstone, you don't have to worry about connecting them.
Also, so you don't accidentally place TNT in the water block, go ahead and place a pillar of blocks above the source, going to the top. Don't put it in the source though, or you will destroy it anyways. Do the same for the other side.
Technically you could place TNT here on the rails higher than the base, but then you run into the problem with TNT landing on blocks. Plus, this back wall gives it a cleaner look.
If you did everything correctly, all the redstone should light up when you press the button. Go ahead and fire it now.
There you go. Now we've taken our simple cannon, and turned it into something quite powerful and respectable. But wiring on the back will can quickly get complicated if you try to expand the cannon more. In the next guide, I'll show you how to build a system for the back that, while slightly more complex, is very simple to expand upon.
0
Lmc, I got your email. I'll try to get the server set up sometime over the next few days. I would today, but I want to play some more Blood Dragon, and I have my graduation tonight.
0
Email it: [email protected]
0
I should be able to do it. I had a bukkit server set up a while ago to try and give us a temporary server, but my internet was being stupid at the time so I haven't run it in a while. It should be easy enough do it again, I'll just need the world save. Also, Locksmith sounds fine
Muny, would you like to work on the Projects Gallery website for us? We just need a simple site that will let us post pictures and videos of projects, with a short description of it. I'll send you a link to the WIP I had for it a long time ago if you want.
I'll work on my tutorial more, but its unlikely to be done today. Also, Minema has updated, so I'm going to try to finish my "last" cannon(I use quotes because I might make more in the future, but this one is all I have planned for now) and release that.
0
Yeah, thats an OLD signature. Welcome Back
Sounds good!
0
The only thing I can think of is a bug where having a bunch of TNT in one block causes the explosion to not work correctly, but IDK if that has been patched or not. Try using less booster TNT.
Very nice work!
Thats awesome, accepted. I'll put you under [Coding] for now, as I can't think of something better at the moment. I have something for you to work on, but right now I don't have the time to discuss it.
Speaking of not having time, the tutorial is getting postponed again. I've been too busy with school and trying to buy a car. And I really don't know if I'll be able to post it next week either, as I have AP tests and finals.