I made a Turbo Lift, One button control

[alterintel]

Hey guys,

I made a cool little concept turbo lift system. I'm pretty proud of it so I thought I'd show it off.

This may take me more than a couple videos to explain. But don't worry I'll have a Starmade Tech video out soon explaining exactly how I built it.

 

[JinM]

this is awesome! I know what you did, you have a station selector and the green ones are for switching the ways.

 

[Zekester81]

Very cool. I've been trying to do something similar, and it works but for one slight problem. I too am using the shootout and landing rails, but I was using the shootouts to launch the elevator pod to the next floor where a pickup re-docks the pod. It's for a station so there is no need to worry about the ship moving while it's happening. It all works great except for some reason it turns the pod upside-down no matter how I rig the docker rail on the pod, and the doorways won't line up, lol. I wanted something that moves faster than the pod can on any rail, even the shootout, it's a BIG station. I think I have an idea to make it work, though of it just now, but it will be some time before it sees the light of day.

Your system is very nice and would work much better on a ship, not to mention it has more dimensions of travel.

 

[GRHayes]

Great work.

 

[alterintel]

Yeah, the fidgety part I had to figure out was in order to change the direction of movement on the shootout rails the entity needs to be on a regular rail before the change and during the change of direction. The same was also true for the Lift stopping. It basically needs two regular rails to stop on.

My favorite part is the ONE button control. You keep pressing the button until the destination you want is indicated, then you wait for about 3 seconds, and then the Lift goes to the destination. A Simple One Button control lift . this part of the circuit took me the longest. It was very frustrating because I didn't think it would take that long to figure out.

I'm going to go through the circuits and try to simplify them a little further as well as try to make some optimizations before I start making my tutorial video.

 

[wizerdwolf]

Nice! I have a modular elevator using a display and single button for floor selection (can link if anyone wants), but it only goes up and down. :p

 

[Vvolodymyr]

This will be seriously awesome for long/tall or just big stations - with all the different destinations.
Also, I was thinking last week to myself, it would be cool to see more of the observation elevators - those that look like they're sliding on the side of the wall, as opposed to in the shaft. Just imagine your turbo lift, zipping you at high speeds up, then sideways, then forward - and you can see the scenery zip by through the floor-to-ceiling window - kinda like that scene from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

edit: ooh, ooh - or also going in and out of dark shafts (with spaced lights) - alternating between wide open vistas and these shafts

 

[alterintel]

This will be seriously awesome for long/tall or just big stations - with all the different destinations.
Also, I was thinking last week to myself, it would be cool to see more of the observation elevators - those that look like they're sliding on the side of the wall, as opposed to in the shaft. Just imagine your turbo lift, zipping you at high speeds up, then sideways, then forward - and you can see the scenery zip through the floor-to-ceiling window - kinda like that scene from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This is an interesting take. My initial thoughts were to use this system on a big ship like a Star Trek Galaxy Class. But I do like your idea of using it on a big station.

The only problem with it that there is just the one lift car. On a big station there would be more than one elevator. But if you replaced it all with a big Turbo lift system, only one person would be able to use it at a time.

This is definitely going to be an interesting project.

 

[Vvolodymyr]

^^ Oh yeah - on a big ship makes more sense. In either case, the possibilities are abound

Edit: ummm - a challenge: several lift cars with "collision avoidance" through sensors & logic?
2 edit: lol nevermind - the controls & rails are on the station, it would need a giant logic computer to handle all the if-then scenarios. I just got too excited.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

I was actually experimenting with this a few months ago. Its really useful but i did find some rather sobering things about it.

The system has some stability issues when it comes to loading and unloading sectors. It works just fine when the system is at rest but there is a degree of instability when the car moves along the shootout rail. on rare occasions the docked entity undocked when re-entering/reloading a sector if it was previously in motion.

Another thing I found is that you can bounce them back and forth along the same line infinitely. This would be cool for pistons. however this is even more unstable.

after I discovered this now im not sure what to use it for since I dont want things undocking unexpectedly.

 

[alterintel]

I was actually experimenting with this a few months ago. Its really useful but i did find some rather sobering things about it.

The system has some stability issues when it comes to loading and unloading sectors. It works just fine when the system is at rest but there is a degree of instability when the car moves along the shootout rail. on rare occasions the docked entity undocked when re-entering/reloading a sector if it was previously in motion.

Another thing I found is that you can bounce them back and forth along the same line infinitely. This would be cool for pistons. however this is even more unstable.

after I discovered this now im not sure what to use it for since I dont want things undocking unexpectedly.

I completely agree. I wouldn't recommend using this while ship is moving across sectors. It would probably work allot better on a Station. However having the shoot out rails switch to regular pickup rails for two blocks before it changes direction does increase the stability quite a bit.

Also to add more stability, you could have every red rail switch itself over to a green rail as the car moves along. This would be a C+V nightmare, so you'd probably be switching one problem out for another by relying so heavily on links.

You said you tried this out a few months ago. Have you tried it since the patch where prioritized loading rails during sector reloads to ensure that rail logic is more stable?

 

[Crimson-Artist]

I completely agree. I wouldn't recommend using this while ship is moving across sectors. It would probably work allot better on a Station. However having the shoot out rails switch to regular pickup rails for two blocks before it changes direction does increase the stability quite a bit.

Also to add more stability, you could have every red rail switch itself over to a green rail as the car moves along. This would be a C+V nightmare, so you'd probably be switching one problem out for another by relying so heavily on links.

You said you tried this out a few months ago. Have you tried it since the patch where prioritized loading rails during sector reloads to ensure that rail logic is more stable?

which patch? the new pre-release? not yet. I hope its more stable.

I basically concluded that stations and planetary bases would be the only thing that this would be safe on. I had more or less the exact same set up as you, I got the most stability when the shootout rails were automatically changed to pickup rails as soon as the car moves over them. However I was experimenting on creating a turbo lift that continuously moves between each point like a subway car forever. Thats when I discovered the instability of a system that keep bouncing the car back and forth along the same lines.

I actually want to create a factory setup where when the factories are turned on they activate a piston animation that continously extend and retract to show that the factory is online.

I've also been experimenting with pickup rails and perpendicular rotators for cool little rail decorations that pop up, spin, then sit back down again.

 

[alterintel]

The fix that addressed the rail loading priority was on Sep 9th
STARMADE V0.199.214 - AUXILIARY POWER, BETTER GRAPHICS, BETTER TEXTURES, AND BUGFIXES
Rail Fixes
In tandem with the Shipyard fixes, some important fixes to rails have also been made:

~ Rail movement is now delayed until all necessary elements have been loaded. That means, docked entities will no longer just start moving if they are on a rail that has 0 speed. They will also not collide into each other on loading making them unusable until redocked.

Have you tried your system since then?

 

[Crimson-Artist]

The fix that addressed the rail loading priority was on Sep 9th
STARMADE V0.199.214 - AUXILIARY POWER, BETTER GRAPHICS, BETTER TEXTURES, AND BUGFIXES
Rail Fixes
In tandem with the Shipyard fixes, some important fixes to rails have also been made:

~ Rail movement is now delayed until all necessary elements have been loaded. That means, docked entities will no longer just start moving if they are on a rail that has 0 speed. They will also not collide into each other on loading making them unusable until redocked.

Have you tried your system since then?

oh that patch. The last time i've tested my system was maybe January or February, can't remember but i definitely remember testing it way after that patch went live. the instability is still there unfortunately.

 

[alterintel]

I guess I'll wait for this next bug fix update to come out and I do some stress testing then.
[doublepost=1491368051,1491367805][/doublepost]Another idea I had was to forgo the shoot out rails and make a telescoping pickup rail system. The car would be attached to 4 pickup rail shafts. This would quadruple the standard pickup rail speed. But then I would be limited to lift system that could only go in 6 direction from a central hub.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

thats a rather interesting idea however thats still way more entities then i'd be comfortable dealing with. In a way the system is still viable the only thing that I would not do is keep it running continuously. As long as the car makes it to its destination before the master entity is unloaded then it should be fine.

 

[Spartan4845]

alterintel It's glorious...

Hey guys,

I made a cool little concept turbo lift system. I'm pretty proud of it so I thought I'd show it off.

This may take me more than a couple videos to explain. But don't worry I'll have a Starmade Tech video out soon explaining exactly how I built it.

 

[alterintel]

Continuing with my research:

I was able to get the Call function to work without a hitch, and I got rid of the logic lines.
Instead I'm using a clock, and sensors with doors to send logic commands.
Not only does this get rid of the pesky logic lines, but it also makes the system allot easier to hookup.
All you have to do for the call button is hook it up to two doors, and the select button only has to be hooked up to one door.

Next I'm going to combine the call button and select button into the same button so all you need to hook up at each station is the one button and one display.

It's going to be Awesome!

 

[Zylofan]

Daaaaaaaaaaang

 

[Fellow Starmadian]

My question about this is: can you set a rail path from any starting point to any destination? or only the main elevator terminal.