Power, conduit, switches, and signals

Power follows a path

A burning coal dynamo starts a search through connected conducting blocks. Connections can go north, south, east, west, up, or down: block faces must touch. Corners and edges alone do not connect, and a normal solid building block does not carry the signal.

These blocks conduct in the current game:

• Coal dynamo and copper conduit.
• An on lever, pressed push button, or active pressure plate.
• Circuit lamps, piston bases, sticky piston bases, and signal relays.
• Booster rail.

An off lever, unpressed button, or inactive plate breaks a path through that cell. Ordinary rail and brake rail do not conduct. Coal lanterns are independent lights, not wires. Redstone bricks are building material; the name does not make them signal wiring.

A circuit does not need to return to the dynamo. Multiple branches work when each branch has a continuous conducting path. The search is limited to 64 connection steps from each dynamo and 1,024 visited cells per dynamo. A relay does not restart either limit.

Lever

Right-click a lever to toggle it between off and on. It controls a device only when every powered route to that device passes through the lever's cell.

A useful line is Dynamo — Lever — Conduit — Lamp. A misleading arrangement is an uninterrupted Dynamo — Conduit — Lamp with a lever sitting beside the conduit: switching that lever does not remove the uninterrupted route. A second conduit branch around a correctly placed lever can also bypass it. Check all six faces, including wiring above or below the switch.

Push button

Right-click a push button to press it. It conducts while pressed and resets after approximately 0.8 simulation seconds. Clicking a pressed button toggles it off early. Put it in the path when you want a short burst of power, such as a brief lamp flash or piston extension. It is not a repeating clock.

Pressure plate

A pressure plate conducts when the player stands close enough over its cell or a living animal is close to it. The current detector checks the player and animal list; it does not use the settlement-resident list. Connect wiring to an adjacent face or underneath so the plate remains in the powered route. An inactive plate is an open gap in that route.

Signal relay

A signal relay conducts in both its unlit and lit states. It changes appearance when powered, making it useful as an indicator along a route. It has no separate right-click control, configurable delay, directional output, amplification, or range reset in the current implementation. Treat it as an indicating conductor rather than a timer or repeater.

Fuel and the reserve display

Right-click a dynamo with Coal to add one unit, up to 99 stored units. Holding charcoal, logs, or firewood does not refuel it. With a non-coal item selected, right-click to inspect its stored coal and burning reserve; this is a status message, not an inventory panel.

Each stored coal unit gives the dynamo 96 reserve units. Reserve use per simulation second is min(8, 0.10 + 0.30 × connected loads). Circuit lamps, piston bases, and booster rails count as loads. Conduit, switches, and relays do not add that 0.30 load. The displayed reserve is therefore not a promise of the same number of wall-clock seconds.

For an unchanged, small graph, the code implies roughly 960 simulation seconds with no connected loads, 240 seconds with one lamp, and 137 seconds with two lamps. These are formula-based estimates, not a long-running play measurement. Adding branches or connecting more devices changes consumption. Multiple fueled dynamos each consume their own reserve; they do not merge stored coal into one shared battery.

A dynamo starts the next stored coal automatically after its reserve runs out. Even an unloaded dynamo consumes reserve at the baseline rate. Breaking the device returns its unburnt stored coal; the already-burning reserve is not refunded as another coal item.

Saved worlds and distance

Device fuel, reserve, button timer, and piston extension state are saved. The live powered graph is rebuilt. Machinery discovery periodically scans loaded chunks near the player, and device updates require their chunks to be loaded. Build and test circuits close by; do not assume a distant unloaded factory is operating while you are elsewhere.

Exact crafting patterns

One item per occupied grid slot. A dot is an empty slot. Outputs and ingredient counts below come from the current crafting definitions.