Intergrated Circuits - A Guide to Space Age Electronics

[Ornias]

Welcome to the new age of electronics. With the addition of the state of the art Integrated Circuit Printer to R&D's inventory, your wildest dreams can come true. Turrets, translators, calculators, pets, drones, weapons, smoke bombs, anything's possible with a little bit of elbow grease.

 

Key Terms:

• Component: All the little parts that go into your custom machines. Everything from buttons to multiplexers to ticker circuits.
• Pins: The things which allow components to connect together to make a machine. The I/O pins contain data (which can be input using the circuit debugger). These are connected by wires using the wiring tool. There are three types of pins:
  
  • Input: What a component uses to run it's calculations.
  • Output: What a component produces after running it's calculations on an input.
    
  • Activators: While the other two are for data, this pin is only capable of telling other components when to do their jobs. A component will (as a rule of thumb) operate when it's component is pulsed, and will then pulse along it's component when it's finished it's job.
    

[*]Wires: Wires are what connect the pins in a machine. Using the wiring tool, click on one pin, and then another on a seperate component. If you want to unwire a component, or cancel a wire, use the tool in your hand to switch to 'unwire' mode.

[*]Data Types: Data exists in the following forms:

• String: Regular text. Does not work if attempting to use in a number calculation.
• Num: Numbers. Used in calculations.
  
• Boolean: Numbers which decide if something is true via TRUE/FALSE. 0 is false, 1 is true.
  
• Ref: A reference to an object. Can be obtained by using your circuit debugger and selecting 'Ref', and clicking on the object you want to reference.
  
• Dir: A direction. Used by locomotives usually, but there are other uses. Can also be represented by numbers. 0 is north, 1 is south, 4 is left, 8 is right.
  
• Color: Colors for lighting components.
  
• List: A list of values which can be manipulated by certain components to create a variety of outputs. Good for storing large amounts of data at once.
  

 

 

Here is an example pathfinder component with everything clearly labelled:

 

The same circuit, more complete but without labelling:

 

 

Using the second component as an example, you can see:

• The component is activated when the button is pressed.
  
• The machine uses it's INPUT ([0x3000021] [Ref]) to calculate what dir [0x3000021] (a bluespace technician) is. It then displays that info as a Dir value in the output (right side).
  
• It moves the output to the direction feature of the locomotion circuit.
  
• It powers the locomotion circuit to take a step in a direction.

Represented visually, this is:

 

From here, it's a matter of experimentation, although I have a few tips.

• Strings are case-sensitive. If you want to look for a word in a string, consider using a lowercase string converter to make your input lower-case.
• Use logic gates commonly.
  
• A machines capacity to interact with the outside world is limited, but with a bit of ingenuity a lot is possible.
  
• Screens can be used to display messages in a vacuum.
  
• Video camera circuits link up directly to the science department camera system.
  
• Implants are absolutely minute, and don't need to be implanted to be useful. Smoke bombs, anyone?
  
• The 'device' assembly can be attached to anywhere a signaller can be attached (thanks Lohikar).
  

[NoahKirchner]

Great guide my dude

[MoondancerPony]

A way to add more processing capacity to a drone chassis is to offload most of it to another machine, and link them with subspace transmitters.

I also want to emphasise what you can do with microphones. Universal translators, subspace phones, etc. are all things I've done.

[NoahKirchner]

A way to add more processing capacity to a drone chassis is to offload most of it to another machine, and link them with subspace transmitters.

I also want to emphasise what you can do with microphones. Universal translators, subspace phones, etc. are all things I've done.

 

They can also be used to record conversations with enough memory sticks and some timing circuits (Or a machine full of memory sticks and a recorder with a subspace transciever)

[MoondancerPony]

A way to add more processing capacity to a drone chassis is to offload most of it to another machine, and link them with subspace transmitters.

I also want to emphasise what you can do with microphones. Universal translators, subspace phones, etc. are all things I've done.

 

They can also be used to record conversations with enough memory sticks and some timing circuits (Or a machine full of memory sticks and a recorder with a subspace transciever)

A better idea is to append it to a list. That way, you don't waste space.

[NoahKirchner]

A way to add more processing capacity to a drone chassis is to offload most of it to another machine, and link them with subspace transmitters.

I also want to emphasise what you can do with microphones. Universal translators, subspace phones, etc. are all things I've done.

 

They can also be used to record conversations with enough memory sticks and some timing circuits (Or a machine full of memory sticks and a recorder with a subspace transciever)

A better idea is to append it to a list. That way, you don't waste space.

 

But then you can't go all super fancy schmancy tech guy and take out the chip, look at it and hand it to a forensic tech or something

[MoondancerPony]

They can also be used to record conversations with enough memory sticks and some timing circuits (Or a machine full of memory sticks and a recorder with a subspace transciever)

A better idea is to append it to a list. That way, you don't waste space.

 

But then you can't go all super fancy schmancy tech guy and take out the chip, look at it and hand it to a forensic tech or something

A better idea is to have a large screen on it, unless you want it to be secret. You could also put the list on the chip...

[Ornias]

A better idea is to append it to a list. That way, you don't waste space.

 

But then you can't go all super fancy schmancy tech guy and take out the chip, look at it and hand it to a forensic tech or something

A better idea is to have a large screen on it, unless you want it to be secret. You could also put the list on the chip...

 

Having it append to a list, and then, with each input pushed, set the list to a data chip, would be a good idea. A small screen would be the best idea for keeping it inconspicuous.

[sonicgotnuked]

I was trying to figure this out a couple days. How does one make a thing that toggles on and off with a signaler.

I'm general, turns a pulse into a toggle of true and false.

[NoahKirchner]

I was trying to figure this out a couple days. How does one make a thing that toggles on and off with a signaler.

I'm general, turns a pulse into a toggle of true and false.

 

Two tickers running opposite of each other as far as time goes each connected to an independent signaler. One would send a message of 1, the other of 0, and on the receiving end the 1 receiver would transmit a pulse and the 0 receiver wouldn't or just wouldn't exist

[Duncan]

I was trying to figure this out a couple days. How does one make a thing that toggles on and off with a signaler.

I'm general, turns a pulse into a toggle of true and false.

 

Two tickers running opposite of each other as far as time goes each connected to an independent signaler. One would send a message of 1, the other of 0, and on the receiving end the 1 receiver would transmit a pulse and the 0 receiver wouldn't or just wouldn't exist

 

even better, store the current on state on a memory chip. When the signal comes have a not gate set the chip to not-current value.

This should flip 1 to 0 and back whenever the signal comes in

[NoahKirchner]

I was trying to figure this out a couple days. How does one make a thing that toggles on and off with a signaler.

I'm general, turns a pulse into a toggle of true and false.

 

Two tickers running opposite of each other as far as time goes each connected to an independent signaler. One would send a message of 1, the other of 0, and on the receiving end the 1 receiver would transmit a pulse and the 0 receiver wouldn't or just wouldn't exist

 

even better, store the current on state on a memory chip. When the signal comes have a not gate set the chip to not-current value.

This should flip 1 to 0 and back whenever the signal comes in

But how will you send the negative signals?

[Duncan]

I made a YEd graph showing two alternate configurations.

I=Input

O=Output

P=Pulse

D=Data

Basically whether the output to be switched (a screen in this example) is attached to the gate or the memory is not important, it works in both cases. When pressing the button in either of these the screen should show 1, then when you press it again it will show 0, then 1 again and so on.

The memory chip can be set to 1 with the debugging tool while you are building the circuit if you want the first press to return 0. The default null evaluates to 0.

 

Edit: I just noticed you wanted a signaller not a button. In that case use the "On signal Recieved" output pin from the signaller in place of the output pulse of the button in the diagram.

[Duncan]

I am so dumb, I just realised that the not gate stores its last input anyway, so the memory component is totally unnecessary.

Just wire the not-gate ID and OD together and remove the memory chip.