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[PainRack]

I kept reading about players who have used minecart only entrances to caverns or forts, where the only possible entrance are minecarts. Apparently, you put a pressure plate along the track, to be triggered by the minecart that seals off the entrance afterwards. My question is, how does one do this?

I have a sealed tower with a vampire, that I'm planning to connect to a railway line, delivering ammo, clothes and perhaps some leather/cloth for it to spin for me, you know, rapunzel:D The problem is, I can't seem to figure out how to safely seal the tower without micromanagement. How does one automate the bridge?

[Reese]

build a pressure plate on the track that triggers when the minecart weight is less than X (and set X to be the less than the weight of your minecart unloaded.

When you push a minecart at it, the plate will deactivate and send a signal that makes the bridge become walkable (assuming you use a raising bridge to completely seal it rather than a retracting bridge and a pit to make it inaccessible to walkers only- otherwise use a plate that triggers when weight is greater than X )

Apaprently, you can't set a pressure plate to trigger on 0 track weight, so...

You install a floodgate or door over the track, and a pressure plate that triggers on any weight > 0. The Minecart triggers the plate, opens the floodgate, lets the cart through, closes behind it.

You just need to make sure the plates are far enough from the flood gate that it opens before the cart arrives, and close enough it closes after the cart is past.

Dual flood gates at either end of a fairly long hallway hallway should be enough to ensure that there is never a path from one side to the other.

Alternately, set up some inverters* and use raising bridges to make sure the vampire's space is safe from building destroyers.

*see dwarven computing

[PainRack]

Hmmmm...... correct me if I'm wrong. Pressure plate activated bridges have only one close command right? So, if you activate the plate, it raises the bridge, right?

[Reese]

When you activate the plate, it makes the bridge raise (or disappear, with retracting bridges)
When the plate deactivates, the bridge returns to its original walkable position

If you are familiar with the electronics terms, bridges are normally open, and the signal from the plate makes them close. (whereas, doors, hatches, and floodgates are normally closed and open when "energized" by a plate)

Unfortunately, unlike with water (where you can specify 0 water as the triggering condition) you cannot specify 0 weight as the triggering condition for carts on a track.

Which is why I suggest an inverter.

[Azated]

The problem with floodgates is that they're destructible, and I don't think you can build tracks on bridges (I haven't tested the minecart system out much, so forgive me if this is wrong).

You could try some kind of gap that carts need to jump over. It'd only have to be one tile wide, but you would have to make sure that the carts get enough speed to clear the hole but not so much that they spew plump helmets all over the meeting hall.

[PainRack]

I just realised I overcomplicated things. I just need to deliver ammo, clothes over. A simple dump into a hole in the tower will work just fine. I did have a plan to using my vampire for some useful industrial work, but then, she's already running slow on alcohol.

But even that isn't unsurmountable, just use a garbage dump to dump items. Bring a new twist to Rapunzel let down your hair.

[Triaxx2]

A pump over stack works. How it works is essentially this: There's a pressure plate over the track, which activates the bridge ahead (bridges act as tracks), and two flood gates, on the track, and one single tile bridge to the side of the track. This bridge holds back water. Once the cart is through, the gates close and the bridge opens, letting water flow out onto the track, triggering the pressure plate, which closes the bridges, and the floodgates. The trouble is that the water will fall away. Of course you could just have a pond zone to keep it full, or have a second pressure plate a bit further on to trigger the system, with a repeater to reopen the system, and a pump to vacuum the water back up into the system. Of course that might be too complicated for you.

[Reese]

The problem with floodgates is that they're destructible, and I don't think you can build tracks on bridges (I haven't tested the minecart system out much, so forgive me if this is wrong).

Bridges act as tracks