Super Circuit Maker for Minecraft

Review Super Circuit Maker

Super Circuit Maker – electronic circuit boards in Minecraft

In Minecraft, you can not only construct standard buildings, castles, do farming or just wander the mines searching for valuable resources. One of the project advantages is opportunity to create logic circuits, which are based on the basic logic «AND», «OR» microelectronics. There are more than enough different examples when players manage to create fully automated farms for collecting resources, full-fledged real-life clocks, microprocessor and many other circuits that help to automate many tasks.

But players don’t think that the basic redstone features are enough, so develop numerous mods for the game that can further expand the opportunities and create full-fledged logic chains, simplify many processes, and add new functions. One of such mods is Super Circuit Maker, which makes it possible for the players to create their own circuit boards with a specific set of options.

The gist of the mod

Since a system developed for a mechanism is quite bulky, for example, an automatic lift or signal switches, all of these must be hidden somewhere. As a result, you have to think it over before constructing, let’s say, «a smart house» so that it look visually attractive, and all the mechanisms and logical systems are hidden inside at the same time: behind the walls, underground, in the ceiling.

But if you just install the Super Circuit Maker mod, you can create a full-fledged printed circuit board, in a few clicks, which will already contain all the logical chains fit into one board. It will be easier to deal with them if you know at least the logic basics in the Minecraft vanilla version – redstone. If you’ve never done it before, it will be harder.

The first work stages

To create your circuit boards, you will only need a few things to start with:

· actually, it’s the circuit board itself, which you can craft from three half-blocks and a pile of redstone;

· a tiny pile of red dust (created from common redstone with the 1 to 4 ratio);

· a screwdriver required to install the logic circuits and tracks.

Attention! In the game, there are common red piles of redstone, and there are the highlighted ones so that you could see where this vertical goes on the track. It’s very convenient if you have many tracks on the same board, and you need to connect certain elements for each of them. They can be crafted from a pile of redstone and one color dye. Finally, you get one of a different color. They will also be highlighted.

As soon as you craft the circuit board, locate it in any convenient place. It’s a kind of layout, which you will install all the other elements on. To draw tracks, you take a pile of red dust, and use the RMB to install it in the place where you need it. The system will use squares to show where you can and can’t install it. The more red dust you install on the board, the longer or wider a track gets.

But it won’t transmit signal unless the input and output points are set. Here you will need a screwdriver, which you already have in the Super Circuit Maker mod. Above, we’ve showed you how to craft it.

Screwdriver-aided control

· If you need to set the input, press Shift on the keyboard and click on this place with the RMB. You’ll see a cross line that shows you the input on the circuit board;

· If you need to make a signal output , then you also need to click the RMB, holding the screwdriver, but you don’t need to press Shift. As you can see, the inputs and outputs look different in this mod, so you can identify them right away even if you take the ready-made printed circuit board.

How to remove objects

Not all elements are properly arranged, or, for example, you just need to clean the printed circuit board. What should you do in this case? Take the screwdriver and just hold the LMB over the place where you want to pick up the pile of redstone. It takes little time. The most important thing is to hover correctly over the required element.

What can you allocate on the circuit board

Besides a pile of redstone, you can install additional items on circuit boards, which will be automatically controlled if you connect the logical circuits correctly. So, here’s what you can connect:

1. Levers – they will be automatically switched, can be used to determine inputs and outputs if there are a few of them on the circuit board, and won’t need your involvement to do it;

2. Redstone torches – are used to create different fast circuits, such as NOT-Gates, OR-Gates, XNOR-Gates, NAND-Gates and other logic options that actually operate as in real life. Again, you need to hold Shift during installation to give the signal;

3. Items from the original Super Circuit Maker mod. Indeed, here will appear a few logical elements that can also be used on the circuit boards to increase their operation speed and functions.

How to assemble the circuit board

If you need to take the circuit board (for example, you just want to relocate it to another place), all you need is to hit a few times with a pick and get the contents to your inventory. Now, you can install it anywhere with all its components.

Also, you can always use the screwdriver, holding Shift to change direction of the installed components for all components. For example, they look south, and you want them to face east. Just click the RMB on the circuit board, holding shift, and change the direction. It’s very convenient and fast, so the functions here are well-thought out to the details.

Additional gaming elements

As it has been said, a few different upgrades have been added to the Super Circuit Maker modification that can be used for board circuit. Each of them features certain functions and is designed for specific purposes. However, those familiar with the logic of Minecraft will better understand this section:

Quartz Resonator – the device will emit an impulse with a delay equal to the input delay, for example, by using a switch. You set it yourself in a special menu: from -20 to +25 seconds;

EnderPulsar – emits a redstone impulse with a delay, whose value you can also set from -20 to +25 seconds. For example, you turn the switch off for 3 seconds and then turn it on. After that, EnderPulsar will emit constant impulses of the same intensity;

GlowstoneExciter – can turn on or off in in random order with a certain probability, that is, emit a signal. It’s purely random. Can be used together with EnderPulsar that sets the impulse and delay;

MiniatureLamp – a miniature light lamp, as on a real mainboard computer, for example. If you’ve ever opened your PC, you might have seen a lamp on. Here we have about the same idea but in the microelectronics level, where you can install lamps in any part of the circuit board to indicate an incoming signal or, for example, opening doors or active process and so on.

MiniatureButton – follows just the same principle as the lamp, but shows what the logical scheme involves by pressing the buttons.

Color palette

With the color palette, a player can paint the redstone tracks a different color, so that they differ from each other, and one can understand right away what they are used for and which one you go. Besides, redstone of a different color can’t receive signals from common red dust. That is, if you make two tracks and send a signal to them, both will work; but if you paint one of them – only the standard one will work on this channel. You can craft the color palette as follows.

To start working with the color palette, you should take it, then hold ALT on the keyboard to select colors. Once you decided, click on it, get the selected shade, and apply it on the wires. Thus, you paint not the whole track but only its edges, but you can clearly see all the changes, so you can’t do without color palette in the Super Circuit Maker mod.

Important to know! By default, all the wires you lay on the boards are painted light gray, which is available in the color palette as well. Keep this in mind if you decide to paint other tracks. It’s just that many players don’t think about it and sometimes have problems in the logical circuit, because they think that by default the wires have no color.

Another important feature : If you put the color palette in the player’s left hand, the wire you are laying on the board will be automatically painted this color. Very convenient, since you don’t need to do double work.

We’ve told you about the basics of working with the Super Circuit Maker mod, although it still has a lot of different logical elements that help to disclose the redstone’s and mechanisms’ potential. In general, we can say that this modification significantly simplifies any automated system development, since you don’t have to build huge columns and volumes, connect all them by hundreds of redstone tracks, as it looks in vanilla Minecraft.

Here you’ve got all the conditions to create a full-fledged mechanism or a logical element for one of the circuits on a small board, to copy it, to transfer from one board to another, and many other activities. This is a convenient and multifunctional mod that makes it possible to simplify most tasks. Besides, you can literally dive into creating logic circuits and mastering the microelectronics basics. However, it’s recommended studying the Minecraft basic functions first in terms of redstone, all kinds of repeaters, comparators, so that it is easier to «get used to» working with circuit boards.