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[dash27]

Hey all,

I have a chute that starts at the surface and then ends 4 or 5 Z levels lower.  Two mine carts dump wood and/or rocks down the chute.  What is the best way to prevent items falling on dwarfs when the dwarfs are collecting the goods that have already fallen?

I have tried placing a pressure plate and a linked trap door, but it doesn't seem to work the way that I envisioned.  Any advice?

-Dash27

[Corai]

A door that is forbidden until its time to pickup the items. When you unforbid it the minecarts are NOT in use, to avoid items falling on them.

[crekit]

Re-name it the joint Material Chute / Doctor Training Subject Generator.

Who gives a elf about haulers anyway?

[Graebeard]

Is the pressure plate linked to a hatch that blocks off the chute and prevents items from falling on dwarfs collecting items?  If so, then this will probably not work.  The way hatches and pressure plates work is that the hatch opens immediately when the pressure plate is stepped on, and then closes again 100 or so ticks later.

There are more complicated automatic solutions, but one easy one with only minimal micromanagement is have a bridge blocking the chute 1 level above.  Dorfs can't collect stuff on the bridge, so you'll have to open it from time to time to allow things to fall the final level.  You could simply link this to a lever that you could pull whenever the fancy strikes you (like, when the access door is locked).  If you like a more automatic solution, you could link the bridge to something that triggers periodically (like, say, a pressure plate that is 11 or more tiles from the bottom of the chute).

This method isn't perfect, but it is simple and will reduce the likelihood of injuries.

[dash27]

Is the pressure plate linked to a hatch that blocks off the chute and prevents items from falling on dwarfs collecting items?  If so, then this will probably not work.  The way hatches and pressure plates work is that the hatch opens immediately when the pressure plate is stepped on, and then closes again 100 or so ticks later.

There are more complicated automatic solutions, but one easy one with only minimal micromanagement is have a bridge blocking the chute 1 level above.  Dorfs can't collect stuff on the bridge, so you'll have to open it from time to time to allow things to fall the final level.  You could simply link this to a lever that you could pull whenever the fancy strikes you (like, when the access door is locked).  If you like a more automatic solution, you could link the bridge to something that triggers periodically (like, say, a pressure plate that is 11 or more tiles from the bottom of the chute).

This method isn't perfect, but it is simple and will reduce the likelihood of injuries.

Okay, that makes sense.  As you surmised, the pressure plate is hooked up to a hatch 1z above the bottom of the chute.  When that didnt seem to work, I also attached a lever that I have been pulling from time to time to let everything fall.

[krenshala]

Can't you do pressure plate -> gear assembly -> hatch to invert the signal?  If so, that should allow a dwarf to enter the room, hit the plate which immediately closes the hatch above the pile, then pick something up and walk off in the 100 ticks it takes for the hatch to open again.  Each dwarf that hits the plate, in or outbound, should be delaying things further.

... assuming I understand dwarven engineering properly, that is.

[Kaos]

Can't you do pressure plate -> gear assembly -> hatch to invert the signal?  If so, that should allow a dwarf to enter the room, hit the plate which immediately closes the hatch above the pile, then pick something up and walk off in the 100 ticks it takes for the hatch to open again.  Each dwarf that hits the plate, in or outbound, should be delaying things further.

... assuming I understand dwarven engineering properly, that is.

I didn't use a gear assembly (i don't think you can open a hatch with a gear) but i was setting up plates and hatches and doors, and somehow some of the hatches got stuck up on the open position, and seemed to work in reverse... how it happened not 100% sure, but since when the whole system was being set up, there was also creature traffic going on, I suspect that the pressure plate got stepped on while it was being linked thus inverting its functioning... I'll try reproducing it in a controlled environment...

[ab00]

I had this same problem and tried to invert the hatch by opening with a lever and then linking it. That did not work for me.

The solution I found was:

Code: [Select]

^————————————H
^ = Pressure plate
— = 1 tile of floor
H = Tile where items fall, hatch 1z up

The dwarf goes in to collect an item, triggering the pressure plate to open the hatch. Having over 12 tiles prevents any dwarf from reaching the hatch before it closes. Thus, it automates the dumping from the hatch to the final level while also making sure there are no dwarves under it.

[Urist Da Vinci]

Unless you use a 1-wheelbarrow stockpile to enforce a one dwarf rule, if there are several items present then several dwarves may run to retrieve them, screwing up the pressure plate timing and keeping hatches open, for example.

[Flare]

Have the stuff fall down the chute to a hatch linked to a lever, and pop it open to drop it to a safe collection level before closing it and protecting the dwarves collecting the pile from stuff hitting them in the head.

[blue sam3]

You could just have a lever-operated trapdoor 1z above the bottom, then drop it whenever the stocks get low. If anybody does happen to be under it, it wont be travelling too fast when it hits them.

[wuphonsreach]

For a manual method of safe chuting, could you have?

- A floodgate at the top to prevent access to the dump point (or the track stop for the minecart which does the dumping).
- A hatch, 1Z above the bottom of the chute.
- A lever at the top (or bottom) linked to a lever to close the floodgate and open the hatch.

During normal operation, the door/floodgate up top has to be open and the hatch closed.  I'm trying to remember whether you can set things up that way with levers.

[ab00]

Ah, you are moving the stuff in the chute to a stockpile. I have not had any injurys when there is a 1 tile stockpile in the drop zone that is set to give directly to the workshops.

[RanDomino]

I don't know how minecarts interact with pressure plates, but what if the minecarts were sent to the shaft and guided back, with a pressure plate that only responds to dwarf weight that opens the hatch in the shaft to drop the stuff?  That way, the hatch would only open when the minecart is definitely not dumping anything.  It still might mean items dropping 1-z on dwarves if they happen to be standing under the hatch when it opens.

Or you could have a logic gate linked to the hatch in the shaft like this:

Code: [Select]

OOOOO
O_P_O
O_O2O
OBOAO
O3O1O

O = wall
_ = empty
P = bottom of shaft (hatch is 1-z up)
A,B = floodgate?
1,2,3 = pressure plate

Begin: A is open, B is closed.  1 is linked to B.  2 is linked to A.  3 is linked to A, B, and the hatch above the pile (possibly through an inverter).
Step 1: Dwarf goes to retrieve an object from the stockpile and steps on 1, opening B (both are now open).
Step 2: Dwarf passes through A and steps on 2, closing A.
Step 3: Dwarf retrieves object and moves toward B.
Step 4: Dwarf exits loop, stepping on 3 which resets the system by opening A and closing B, and opens the hatch (which apparently closes automatically after 100 ticks) to drop more goodies with no one underneath.

This probably doesn't work for the obvious reason that there's no way to ensure that only one dwarf is going to be in the loop at any time.  But you see the concept.

[Kaos]

It still might mean items dropping 1-z on dwarves if they happen to be standing under the hatch when it opens.

this is the problem indeed, i had a simple track system taking from a wood stockpile, when full the cart would run to a track stop and auto dump on a channel to the z-level below and I still got a dwarf killed by the rain of logs...


A safe system would have to ensure that dwarves can't stand on the receiving stockpile tile when the chute opens...
Maybe:

Code: [Select]

######
H^pH^D
######from left to right, the dwarf going to the stockpile "p" passes on the closed hatch "H", steps on the plate "^" opens the hatch "H" behind him and opens the door "D" in front, grabs the item passes the other closed hatch in the right, and steps on the right plate which opens the hatch behind him and another hatch (not shown) on top of the stockpile "p", thus dropping whatever is waiting to be dropped to the stockpile, breaking the path to the stockpile and making the stockpile inaccessible for the next 100 ticks until both hatches close and it's safe, not sure if by changing the path it will also break the item pick up job...