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[Flaede]

I just thought of a new use for a clock... except that it would be irrelevant this release - build an orrery.

When planetary movement, phases of the moon, and things like Astrology become relevant, having some sort of orrery set up in your fortress could help immeasurably with figuring out when that eclipse is going to happen, etc.

[edit] then you could name a dwarf Olgra, kick every one else out, and start a hermit-fort. 

[Kidiri]

You really like your repeater, don't you Jyppa? But you're right. It would be a whole deal easier. I would just have to link each pressure plate of the 12-step repeater (10 step, one output plate and one skipped plate. Like the Day cycle) to each bridge it should activate This is for counting the years. And then depending on how many displays are built, the fort can only become x years old. Or some catastrophic event happens which destroys the fort and resets the clock (but it does this automatically, obviously). Hours and months are equally easy: just link the plate of said hour/month to the correct bridges. Hours might not be useful, but months definitely will be. The problem exists with the days. If it was a single 30-step repeater, it would've made things a lot easier. Now I'll have to use logic gates to link weeks and days to correct bridges/hatches/whatever I'll be using as display.

I'll start with making a display for the months. The easy part's been done: the bridges which will be the display. And then to make it completely awesome, I could also have a green, yellow, red and blue border, each representing one of the seasons.

EDIT: Crud, apparently, I've forgotten to link one bridge to a plate. Now I've got ┤0 instead of 10. But that's easily fixed. When the month's gone by. But for the rest, it's working! I'm currently making the repeaters needed for the year-counting. They're coming along perfectly.

EDIT2: Double crud. Everything is linked up perfectly, it's just that the delay inherent in the bridges is causing me some grief. The bridges get two signals too quickly after another and ignore one of them. This results in the bridge being down when it should be up. A fix to this problem could be to use hatches instead of bridges. They don't have a delay and should work instantaneously. And the gist of the decade and century counters is up. Just the power supply is being built.

EDIT3: Crud begone! I've tested the usage of hatches, and it works as it should. But, I've made a mistake and linked the Century cycle to the wrong hatches. Quickly solved by switching the Decade and Century cycles. Which is obviously done by linking the (current) Century++ pressure plate tot the resistor of the (current) Decade cycle and the Year++ pressure plate to the resistor of the (current) Century cycle.

[Sphalerite]

I have in my fortress an automatic animal breeding engine, which would benefit tremendously from a reliable long-period timer.  Animals need to be cycled in and out of the counter/sorted mechanism once a season or so.  Previous methods to do this have been less than satisfactory.  I'll look at integrating this design into the next version.  Thanks!

[Kidiri]

Okay, I think I've got everything working. I've also de-constructed the display, but it's easy to make. I'll remove every structure not needed for the working of the clock, and add notes as to how everything is linked up and then upload it to DFFD. There will be many many notes. At least one note will tell how the notes should be read.

Now, for the display: I mentioned it quickly before, but this is a better explanation. I hope. firstly, you'll need to make the display, obviously. I've found that the best way to do this is with something that doesn't get delayed when it's triggered. So no floodgates or bridges. You can use anything else that can be linked to a pressure plate you want. So you've got your displays placed and want to link them up.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Display:

 ¢
¢ ¢
 ¢
¢ ¢
 ¢
Let's, for simplicity's sake, number them like so:

 1
2 3
 4
5 6
 7

Now that each hatch (or series of hatches, or whatever you're using) has a number, it's rather easy to link them up to a number. Each pressure plate (PP) (except for the last one) in the Decades cycle accords to a year. When PP1 is active, the hatches which make a 1 should be closed, and the rest opened. So you link the hatches which DON'T make a 1 to PP1. And the same for PP2, PP3 and so forth. Here's a handy table! Link the pressure plate which corresponds to the number with the hatches as displayed below.

┌────────┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┐
│Hatches │1│2│3│4│5│6│7│
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│Pressure│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Plates  │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│0       │ │ │ │X│ │ │ │
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│1       │X│X│ │X│X│ │X│
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│2       │ │X│ │ │ │X│ │
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│3       │ │X│ │ │X│ │ │
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│4       │X│ │ │ │X│ │X│
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│5       │ │ │X│ │X│ │ │
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│6       │ │ │X│ │ │ │ │
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│7       │ │X│ │X│X│ │X│
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│8       │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
├────────┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤
│9       │ │ │ │ │X│ │ │
└────────┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┘

[Jyppa]

If you want to use bridges, and want the delay between changes to be more than 100 steps, you can use another little trick. In a cycle that requires an outside trigger to activate, like the month counter, add two steps between two positions. In this new step, add a plate that not only delays the next step like the basic repeater, but also keeps its own cycle connected. Less than 100 steps later, the old plate regulating the bridge display will have reset, telling all bridges to open, whereupon the delayed signal will transfer to the next delayed step. 100 steps later, the bridges are in open position, and the water passes to the "real" position, sending its on signal to ready bridges. You could make it could as short intervals as quarter-days like this, but I wouldn't use it for anything less than a full day, since the delay between displays will be about 300 steps/6 hours.

I've got a few similar methods in the databanks, might write up a full how-to on the system and put on the wiki today or tomorrow.

[Kidiri]

For those interested, I've uploaded the fort (complete fort, I'm using Dig Deeper, the next version will be vanilla) to DFFD. The notes provided should clarify everything. If not, look around here some more or PM me.

DFFD link!

[Jyppa]

You asked for it.

It needs some more work on facts checking, crediting etc. It also need some pictures badly. Since I suck at anything involving graphics, it would be awesome if someone could update the article with a couple of basic schematics. Feel free to plug and credit yourselves as much as you like

On the original topic, I'd still like to see more ideas on what to use this baby for. Inspiration can be hard to come by.

[Kidiri]

In your example of opening a temple to Armok, you say to link the seven-cycle and the eleven-cycle via logic gates. It's much easier to link the Year cycle (the fourteen-step cycle counting the months) to one of the two cycles. Then link that cycle to the other cycle. Let's say we link the Year cycle to the eleven-cycle and then the eleven-cycle to the seven-cycle. When a year has passed, the 11-cycle will add a step. And so after 11 years in total, it will have gone round. It will then send a signal to the 7-cycle, which adds a step. After the 11-cycle has gone around 7 times, the 7-cycle will be complete, and send a signal to do whatever. This will decrease your headache when trying to remember how everything should be linked. Especially if you're using it in combination with logic gates.

Also, since those are multiplications, there has to be a way to make it into a rudimentary calculator.

[Flaede]

In your example of opening a temple to Armok, you say to link the seven-cycle and the eleven-cycle via logic gates. It's much easier to link the Year cycle (the fourteen-step cycle counting the months) to one of the two cycles. Then link that cycle to the other cycle. Let's say we link the Year cycle to the eleven-cycle and then the eleven-cycle to the seven-cycle. When a year has passed, the 11-cycle will add a step. And so after 11 years in total, it will have gone round. It will then send a signal to the 7-cycle, which adds a step. After the 11-cycle has gone around 7 times, the 7-cycle will be complete, and send a signal to do whatever. This will decrease your headache when trying to remember how everything should be linked. Especially if you're using it in combination with logic gates.

Also, since those are multiplications, there has to be a way to make it into a rudimentary calculator.

So the example in this would go off in the 77th year? Or did I misunderstand.

[Jyppa]

Kidiri, that's if you don't also want to count individual 7- and 11-year cycles. Besides, the only extra "logic" required is a single gear assembly

Flaede, yes, that's right. Not only that, but it will go off every 77 years. You can create any kind of period by reducing the desired period to prime factors and building corresponding repeaters, although if you get non-unique factors you need to set it up like Kidiri said.

[Urist McOverlord]

Geez.  I thought I was smart, until reading this thread.

[Kidiri]

Kidiri, that's if you don't also want to count individual 7- and 11-year cycles. Besides, the only extra "logic" required is a single gear assembly

Hmm, I guess it depends on what you want to do. But I prefer my way, since I've never actually used logic gates. Anyway, the clock, this time with display, is coming along nicely. The casing of the cycles has been built, I'm working on the machinery at the moment. It's going to be a complete calendar. It will tell the exact day, month and year my fortress is in.

[Jyppa]

Impressive, do show your results when you're done! Myself, I think I've decided on my doomsday device. I will construct one-wide bridges across every major path in my fortress, and suspend a giant hammer on a single support above it (troll-safe). When the final plate in the linear doomsday clock is triggered, it will immediately send an on signal to all the bridges, as well as sending a signal to another device set to trigger just over 100 steps after activation. Result? All dwarves will simultaneously stop in their tracks due to lack of path as bridges raise, and a second later, the hammer drops.

[Kidiri]

Well, 'a second' is actually two hours in DF time, if we assume a Dwarven day is 24 hours. And of course, I'll post results. It's only a miniature fortress (2 by 2) with Dwarfs that have the NO-tags. Just as a complete proof of concept, with everything properly linked and all. I'll also make some screen shots with colour-coding for use in the wiki.

[Jyppa]

Well, I'd make the hammertime delay only one or two ticks (the time it takes a tile of water to pass a pump and fall down). Also, I'll manually forbid every single item in the fortress right before it happens, just so they can't touch it.