Rails should trigger area controllers and detect gates

[badmojo]

I made an elevator system on my station that stores ships, right now the doors open based on when the elevator hits a certain point on the rail, but I want to be able to make it so the ship being carried on the elevator triggers the door just before it hits the door. I tried using area triggers and also the detection gates but neither would detect the docked entity, or even the elevator itself.

I think it would add more possibilities to the building potential if these devices could be triggered by docked entities.

 

[NeonSturm]

Assumptions:

• You have a docked, moving elevator
• This elevator carries a docked, not moving ship

The door has to trigger when the elevator approaches.

Any timed delay is possible.

 

[badmojo]

Assumptions:

• You have a docked, moving elevator
• This elevator carries a docked, not moving ship

The door has to trigger when the elevator approaches.

Any timed delay is possible.

Correct, I have an elevator that moves docked ships to the surface of the station...

This is the logic to open the doors currently...

But, with different size ships the door opens far too early for my taste...

I would like to be able to setup a detection gate just before the door which triggers it to open, so when a small ship comes up the elevator, the door doesn't open until it needs to.

 

[NeonSturm]

But, with different size ships the door opens far too early for my taste...

So you just need to know the size of the ship. I suggest using wire-less or rail-linked logic to exchange information stored in logic until you find a better solution.

Let the ship tell the elevator about it's size after the elevator asks it.

00 = no question

01 = x
02 = y
03 = z​

Answer:

0000'0001..1111'1111 = 1..255 = size of the ship.
every bit more doubles the maximum possible size.​

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Anything docked will be ignored by area triggers. I've been plagued with this issue in sorting out my mech. I've not been back to it for a while since the magnetic/touch rail connect. It made my trick for aligning no good.
[DOUBLEPOST=1452048857,1452048688][/DOUBLEPOST]Oh yeah, I tried area triggers with my tram to get it to stop at the next station and trigger the timing circuit before continuing. In the end I had to use the rails to make it work. I just put an activation block at the appropriate place on the track to trigger slow down then another to trigger stop. Works ok. Might work for you too.

 

[NeonSturm]

Works ok. Might work for you too.

He said he uses variable sizes of ships. He must either dock the tip or measure the size somehow.

 

[whooplaah]

Depending on you fancy you want to get with this, badmojo ...

1) You dock your ship.
2) Activate a series of 1x1x10 ships in the ceiling to move down around the docked ship. If these intersect the docked ship, they stop moving. (kind of like this). If they do not intersect the ship they fully extend and activate a module at the end of their rail. This will let you know the closest position to the ship you can get.
3) Retract the measurement ships back into the ceiling.
4) Move the docked ship, now knowing when to open doors.

You could also use something like this to designate the smallest appropriate sized hangar. This is theory, I haven't actually built this.

This is a rather complicated work-around for not having an area block that is activated by other blocks. I think that the game would benefit from having the more elegant solution implemented.

 

[NeonSturm]

Depending on you fancy you want to get with this, badmojo ...

1) You dock your ship.
2) Activate a series of 1x1x10 ships in the ceiling to move down around the docked ship. If these intersect the docked ship, they stop moving. (kind of like this). If they do not intersect the ship they fully extend and activate a module at the end of their rail. This will let you know the closest position to the ship you can get.
3) Retract the measurement ships back into the ceiling.
4) Move the docked ship, now knowing when to open doors.

You could also use something like this to designate the smallest appropriate sized hangar. This is theory, I haven't actually built this.

This is a rather complicated work-around for not having an area block that is activated by other blocks. I think that the game would benefit from having the more elegant solution implemented.

Maybe you can make an invisible, collider-plane with modded-in blocks. EDIT: Or use visible doors.
When the ship hits it stops moving for just 0.5 which triggers the detection and removal of this plane.
[EDIT: If not using doors] you can rotate it away (faster than using rails) or move it on 2 axis (away from the ship + retract out of the way)

 

[Lone_Puppy]

He said he uses variable sizes of ships. He must either dock the tip or measure the size somehow.

Yeah I thought of a way to do this, but didn't have time to type it out.

He could build some kind of measuring system incorporating the area trigger and multiple logic AND or maybe OR blocks to enable/disable activation blocks placed strategically along the rail. This would require him to fly the ship into close approximate position for the area triggers to set the size definition for the logic. He could then trigger the process with the lift/doors how he sees fit. I would trigger the closing procedure upon the ship docking with the landing pad/lift platform

Just a wee thought I had. Not sure if this would work or not. I tend to think visually, so who knows.