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Components

Where signals come from

A tour of the Power group — the sources that emit redstone signal and feed every circuit you build.

Every circuit has to start somewhere. The Power group is that somewhere: blocks that emit a redstone signal so the rest of your build has something to react to. Some you flip by hand, some run forever, and some only fire when the world around them changes. Here they are, grouped by how you turn them on.

Manual switches

These are the inputs you control directly — the on/off you click.

  • Lever — a toggle you can mount on any of the six faces. Flip it on and it strong-powers the block it points at and seeds every adjacent dust at 15, staying on until you flip it back.
  • Button — a momentary pulse. One press holds the output on for exactly 10 redstone ticks (about 1 second), then releases on its own; while on it acts just like a lever at 15. Pressing it again mid-pulse does nothing — it won't re-trigger until it has released.
  • Pressure Plate — turns on when stepped on (or powered via input) and off the instant it's released. While on it strong-powers the block directly beneath it and seeds horizontal dust at 15. It only sits on solid blocks.

Always-on and light sources

Sources you don't toggle moment to moment — they hold a level or follow the day.

  • Block of Redstone — a constant 15 to all six neighbors via dust. It can't be switched off and stays powered even when covered, buried, or shoved by a piston. Note it only seeds dust; it never strong-powers a solid block.
  • Daylight Detector — on during the day, off at night (toggled by its input, not the clock). When on it seeds dust in every direction at 15, just like a redstone block, and like one it never strong-powers solid blocks.

Inverters and change detectors

These don't decide on their own — they read something nearby and emit a pulse or a flipped state in response.

  • Redstone Torch — an inverter (a NOT gate). It lights when its attachment block is unpowered and goes dark when that block is powered, taking 1 redstone tick to switch. When lit it strong-powers the block above it at 15 and seeds adjacent and upward dust.
  • Observer — watches the cell it faces and emits a 1-tick pulse every time that cell's state changes — power level, lit/unlit, piston extension, and so on. The pulse is 15, sent out its back.
  • Sculk Sensor — a passive vibration detector. It hears block changes within 8 blocks and emits that vibration's frequency (115) for 10 ticks, then cools down for 10 ticks before listening again. If several happen at once, the nearest one wins.
  • Calibrated Sculk Sensor — the same detector with a back-face filter: the signal at its back picks which frequency it listens for. With nothing on the back (0) it reacts to any frequency, just like a plain sensor; a 115 back input makes it listen only for that one frequency. The back input is a selector, not a trigger — a 3 means "only fire on a frequency-3 vibration," it won't emit on its own.
The redstone torch in action: it stays lit until its block is powered, then flips off — the inverter at the heart of every logic gate.View & run →

Relays and read-outs

These pass along power they're given, or hold a value for a comparator to read.

  • Target — re-emits any signal it receives from a non-target neighbor on all six sides, matching the level it got. A projectile hit forces it to 15 for 10 ticks. It refuses to power other targets, which deliberately breaks feedback loops.
  • Trapped Chest — powers while it's open: on input it strong-powers the block below it and seeds dust in every direction at 15. Separately, a comparator reads its fullness (0 empty to 15 full); shift+right-click to set the fill.
  • Lectern — an analog value, not a power source. Its page (015, set with shift+right-click) is read directly by a comparator as a signal level; the lectern itself emits nothing.
  • Tripwire Hook — mounts on a wall and outputs 15 to its neighbors while its string line is tripped. Tripwire — the string laid between two hooks on one axis; trip any cell on the line and the whole line activates both end hooks at once.

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