Robot Planter

The "Planter" Robot is a Robot added by BuildCraft, which has the special ability to plant seeds on farmland (see Usage), which can subsequently be used in combination with the "Harvester" and "Farmer" for an automatic farm. The robot can handle every type of seeds from Vanilla Minecraft and mods. In the same time the player can do other things.

Usage


The robot automatically plants seeds out of a chest on farmland, which is his special ability. It can be used to operate an automatic farm.

The setup to start this work is a little bit complicated, but is explained step by step on the example farm which is shown in Fig. 1.

The following items are needed for the setup:
 * 4 Land Marks or the Zone Planner or a predefined working area (for example from the "Farmer")
 * 1 Map Location
 * 1 Chest
 * 1 Wooden Transport Pipe
 * 1 Docking Station
 * 1 Emerald AND Gate (or a other type of Emerald Gate if special functions needed)
 * 1 Lever
 * Seeds of the desired plant
 * 1 "Planter" Robot

Step 1: Define Work Zone
In the first step, the player must delimit the area in which the robot should plant the seeds on farmland. This is achieved with the Zone Planner (Step 1.1), or with Land Marks (Step 1.2). If the player doesn't define a working area and configured it in Step 3, then the robot works but wants to fly in every active chunk around the player and plants seeds on every accessable farmland.

Step 1.1: With the Zone Planner
The easiest way to define the area for a specific seed, the player can use the Zone Planner. With the Zone Planner the player can draw a specific reagion on the interactiv map and save this reagion on a Map Location. For many different seeds, the player can use in the Zone Planner different colors for a simple classification of the respective zones.

Step 1.2: With Land Marks
A second way is the usage of Land Marks to define the working area. The player must place three Land Marks in a 90° angle which defines the base of the farm. Now the player can right-click on one of the marks to active the red borders (shown in Fig. 2) which displays the ground area of the work zone. Like shown in the figure, the Land Marks must stand one block deeper, and not on top of the surface, to include the surface blocks.

The two marks on the left and top in the figure may not be more than 64 blocks away from the center mark in the right corner.

Now, the player must build, for example a dirt tower, over the mark in the center until up to the level where also farmland will be built. On top of the dirt tower, the player must place the fourth Land Mark.

If the player now right-click on any Land Mark, then a red border should be appear which frames a 3-dimensional work zone (shown in Fig. 3). If no red border appears, then the Land Marks don't stand in a 90° angel to each other.

To till all hight levels in the respective area, the "Farmer" Robot needs a 3-dimensional zone which includes all dirt/grass blocks. If the player uses the 2-dimensional zone, which was defined with the three ground marks, the robot tills only the gorund level. Each dirt/grass block outside the working area is not touched.

Step 2: Control Station
In the second step, the player must build up the control station of the robot. It can be placed anywhere but it is recommend to place it in the near. The following explained control station is a minimum example and can be extended.

The station includes a Chest, with a connected Wooden Transport Pipe, as well as a Docking Station and a Emerald AND Gate which can be placed anywhere on the gate (without disconnecting the chest).

In front of the Emerald Gate, the Lever, and in the chest, the seeds, can be placed. Now the station should look like the example in Fig. 4.

Step 3: Configuration
The third step is the configuration of the Emerald Gate to control the robot. Also here, this example isn't the only system that works and can be extended.

The player must open the GUI of the Emerald Gate with a right-click, which shows two configurable blocks (one left, one right).

Select all the options as shown in Fig. 5. In the first and third row on the right side is a question mark determining whether the options before are selected. That means that something must be put in this slots.

Now only the important configurations to control the robot, which are shown in Fig. 5, are explained in the following:

A full explanation of all possible functions can be found in the article of the Emerald Gate.

The sequence of rows has no meaning, but only what is in each row.

The option previously required coordinates which must be added by the Map Location.
 * 1) With the Zone Planner: Take the Map Location and save the desired zone in the Zone Planner on the map. The Map Location should now have a rectangle on the item. Now this map must be placed in GUI of the Emerald Gate in the "question slot" in the first row ("Working area" option). The Map Location should remain stored, and can be reused for the second coordinates.
 * 2) With the Land Marks:Take the Map Location and right click on one of the Land Marks to receive the coordinates of the working zone (shown in Fig. 6). The Map Location should now have a rectangle on the item. Now this map must be placed in GUI of the Emerald Gate in the "question slot" in the first row ("Working area" option). The Map Location should remain stored, and can be reused for the second coordinates.
 * 3) Take the Map Location again and right-click on the Docking Station to receive the coordinates. Note: Here it is important, which side is indicated at the coordinates for the docking station. This is displayed in the player inventory if the cursor is moved on the Map Location. Please check if the specified side is the same where the docking station is, for example UP if the docking station is on the upside of the pipe. Now put the map in the GUI of the Emerald Gate in the question slot in the third row ("Go to station" option).
 * 4) At least put any desired seed (up to 3 different types) in the empty slots in the second row on the right side

Now the configuration should appear like in Fig. 5 and the control station is configured. The Land Marks and the respective frame are now not longer needed for this example and can be removed. If you want to use the frame for other robots (for example for the "Harvester", make sure you have the coordinates stored in a Map Location.

Step 4: Start and Stop
In the fourth and last step, the "Planter" Robot can be placed on top of the Docking Station (shown in Fig. 7). At first the robot does nothing because the function in the third row commands the robot to stay on the station.

If the Lever in front of the gate is switched and a redstone signal receives the gate, the first and the second row is active.

After a short time (the update time of the robot), the robot will take a seed out of the chest (second row in the Emerald Gate) and start the work in the defined zone (first row in the Emerald Gate) (shown in Fig. 8) until there are no free farmland available.

Note: The robot can only carry one seed. If the robot has planted the seed, he return back to the station automatically. Once there, the function on the second row is triggered again after a while (the update time), and the robot receives a new seed out of the chest (if any is inside) and then continues with the work. To shorten the update time, so that the robot works continuously, the function on the fourth row can be used. This functions triggers the robot (if a redstone signal is active) to wake up and to execute the functions in the first and second row. With this function, the robot is also triggered if no free farmland exists. He will then not work, but the permanently trigger discharges the energy of the robot faster.

If seed was planted on each farmland in the defined working area, the robot automatically returns to the control station. But he still active and will start again to work, when a famland is empty. The work of the robot can be stopped anytime by switching the lever (in front of the gate) off. When the robot is currently at work, then he returns back to station automatically.

Recharging
If the robot is low on energy, it will begin to seek out a kinesis pipe with a docking station to charge itself. If none are available, it will continue doing its job until its battery dies. The player can also stop the robot with attacks to prematurely drain its battery, causing the to robot drop as item on the ground. Stronger attacks will drain its battery faster. The player can pick up the robot and place in the Charging Table to recharge it. After that, the robot can be placed again on the Docking Station and is again ready to work.