Just saw the picture from the latest dev build where it looks like we're getting a dedicated flip flop block.
Long as we're putting out logic blocks that we can already build that will save us time and space, I'd like to request we just go ahead and make a clock block. I mean, I'm already making a new clock circuit every other time I build a new circuit anyway, it would save us all a lot of time and space to just say "Okay, here's a basic feature of a breadboard, an integrated clock pulse".
Take a cue from the rotors and hook up additional "ON" signals to it to increase the delay between ticks. That'd make it more useful. Perhaps having no "ON" signals going into it would make it shut off.
Oh, here's a better idea so you don't have to use an activator next to it all the time. If it has no signal going into it, it runs at the default tick rate. Connect one or more ON signals and it goes faster. Connect one or more OFF signals but no ON signals and it stops. That would allow the most flexible functionality. (If you had both off and on connected it wouldn't stop; this allows for varied speed.)
This would be so useful! Perhaps it could work as follows:
Off- nothing happens
On- .5 second tick (as if using one delay)
To make the delay longer simply link more delays to the clock!
Slave the clock to an activator to act as the on/off switch.
Its the same thing you can do now by simply pairing the clock pulse output to a switch via an And block, so that the output only goes out when the switch is on and the clock pulses.
Just let the clock block (god I hope I continue to remember to type the L in that!) constantly run, and use some other logic to control it if you actually want to turn it on/off. Keep the functionality of the base block simple.
I'll be honest, clock blocks (and dear goddess no one say anything about what that sounds like) aren't something that I think needs to happen right this minute, especially since I can get the same setup using two blocks - NOT and DELAY.
Case in point, my TSAB Enforcer MK II has flashy red-blue exterior lighting like a good little cop car. To achieve this effect I only used 5 blocks, and out of those 5 only 2 of them maintain the clock function. Essentially the system works like this:
Once I've initialized the logic system by switching the ACT-signal to ON, I can delete the connection to the NOT-signal (represented by the red arrows), letting the NOT and DELAY-signals loop ad infinitum. (If I'm loading the blueprint I don't even need to do that much, the clock is already ticking in the BP version) Then when I need squad car lights I switch the ACT-signal to ON, every time the NOT signal pulses ON the AND signal turns on and turns on the red lights, while the DELAY signal is always opposite of what the NOT is, so when NOT is OFF DELAY is ON and so is the AND signal and the blue lights.
Now say I were to replace the DELAY-signal with a clock block that pulses on its own. My system would still need the other 4 blocks - it needs the NOT-signal so that there is an ON-pulse for one set of lights when the clock is OFF, and it needs the other 3 blocks so that entire system can be turned off and on. In other words, nothing has changed, at all.
Now as far as longer pulses go, why not consider altering the DELAY-signal to allow for a variable delay length? Normally a 2-second delay would take 4 delay blocks, this way we can have a single DELAY block that can be set to delay passing the signal pulse for 2 seconds. That would really be all you need, because for a pulsing clock of any length of time you would only need 1 extra NOT block to alternate the signal.
As for having clocks with different times for on-off pulses, that can be achieved with 5 blocks - two variable delays, two NOT blocks and an AND or OR block. Set the delays in such a way that their cycles overlap, then trigger them both at the same time.
Basically, the point I am trying to make is that having a pulse clock block itself wouldn't really save us much block use in the long run. What we really need are either A)delay blocks with variable delay settings, or B) A timer block that can accept an integer, subtract 1 each time it pulses, and send a signal when the value reaches zero. Or both. But simply making a clock that pulses on and off every .5 seconds is too easy to condense into a block all of its own.
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