Black Hole Tutorial 02- Robot Overview

[MaximilianVINCENT 8]

OpenComputers v 1.46 for Minecraft 1.7.10

Black Hole Tutorial 02- Robot Overview v1.1

 

Today is a look at everything inside our octohedronal pal, the Robot.

 

Make a superflat map in creative mode or use the one from last time. Power is needed, I recommend any creative power block. Search for openc in NEI to just work with OpenComputers items.

 

Spawn in an Assembler, Disassembler and a Charger. Put them next to your power source to give them power. You can see if it is powered if you look at each with WAILA installed or Shift-Right-Click with the Analyser (OK, not quite. Using the Analyzer on the Charger just gives me a 'Charge Speed: 0%'. Not as useful.)

Spawn these into your inventory:

• Tier 2 Case
• Tier 2 CPU
• Tier 2 Memory
• Tier 2 Graphics Card
• Tier 2 Screen
• Tier 2 Drive
• Keyboard
• Lua BIOS EEPROM

 

Look inside the Assembler. Only one slot open in the top-left and a line of text in the middle. 'Insert a base part'

Hover over that slot and see what gets highlighted in NEI on the right:

• Computer Case - These are used to build moving computers, i.e. robots
• Microcontroller Case - Small non-moving computer with limited functionality (think arduino or rasberry pi)
• Drone - Moving Microcontroller, limited inventory
• Tablet Case - Portable computer with limited upgrades and world interaction.

We will get to all of these later. For now put your Tier 2 Case into the slot as your base part.

 

So Much Space

 

Slow down, it is not quite as great as you might think. Let's get the basics done first. As the line says, 'Insert a CPU' and 'Insert some RAM'. Shift-Click the Lua BIOS in. OK, that's the absolute basics. You could build that and have a fully functional computer that you can't type anything directly into (no Keyboard), see any output (no Graphics Card or Screen), or change the program it is running (no Drive). If you had a custom EEPROM, it would run whatever program is stored there. But this would make for a terrible tutorial robot.

 

Notice the line says 'Complexity: 2/24'. Now put in your Graphics Card and Drive. This completes the computer portion of your robot.

'Complexity: 6/24'. For everything you add to the robot after your CPU and first stick of Memory, it will keep increasing in complexity. Higher Tier items are more complex.

 

Let's move on to the left side. Hover over any of the slots and see what is highlighted in NEI. The slots on top are for Upgrade Cards. These give the robot some intrinsic abilities that cannot be changed once built. For our Tier 2 Case, we are limited to three Tier 2 Upgrades and three Tier 1 Upgrades.

 

Shift-click the keyboard and screen into your robot. Do you see any problems? We now have a Tier 1 item using a Tier 2 slot. Move the Keyboard down to make room for other Tier 2 upgrades. Also, the Tier 2 Screen cannot go into a Tier 2 robot (same with the Tier 3 Screen). I have no idea about the reasoning behind this. Get a Tier 1 screen and put it into a Tier 1 Upgrade slot.

 

Here is a good starter robot. But will it do what I want it to? For the job I have in mind it needs to be able to craft items internally, run a long time without recharging from a Charger, and carry stuff. That would make it a big nope.

 

We need some Upgrades. Give yourself these items:

• Solar Generator Upgrade - Small power charge while under daylight, works well if robot is not moving.
• Battery Upgrade Tier 2 - Increase the total amount of charge stored
• Crafting Upgrade - ability to craft items internally in top-left 3x3 slots
• two Inventory Upgrade - each one adds 16 slots to our starting inventory of zero slots

and install them into your robot. Darn it, not enough room for them all. Leave out one of the Inventory Upgrades for now.

 

Awesome Upgrade Containers

 

Those last three slots just above the line are awesome. These are for Containers, allowing Upgrades and Cards to be swapped in and out as needed (yeah for modularity!) I really want that extra Inventory Upgrade plus some just-in-case room. The problem: Containers are twice as complex as everything else (Tier 3 Upgrade Container is 6 complexity, ouch.) Give yourself three more items:

• Tier 1 Upgrade Container
• Tier 2 Upgrade Container
• Tier 3 Upgrade Container

and put all three into our robot. (Take note: this is the only way to get a Tier 3 item/card into our Tier 2 Robot.) Awesome robot!

 

Maybe not: 'Complexity: 27/24' Notice the arrow to the left of the line is no longer green. This robot is too complex and cannot be built. Hard choices, what to take out. The Tier 1 Upgrade Container isn't enough but the Tier 2 is, so it goes away. This gives us room for our extra Inventory Upgrade and any one Upgrade item of any Tier. There is just enough complexity for one Tier 1 Memory or Card.

 

'Complexity: 23/24' Let's build this baby! Press the Green arrow to start the assembly of our new minion robot buddy. Since we are in creative, it is done in an instant. In a survival game, the duration of creation depends on how complex the robot is. For this one, expect four and a half minutes (as shown when hovering our mouse pointer over the progress bar in the line) and a good deal of power.

 

'Collect output' is equal to Done! Grab our new toy and put it into your hot bar, then place it into the world.

 

Probably the first thing you will notice is the name tag above your robot (mine is named 'Atlas'). Don't like that name? Rename it using an anvil.

The next thing you should see is the wee little crafting table and chest on its back. Did I mention OpenComputer robots are adorable, unlike some of their blockier cousins?

 

Right-Click on the robot and see what's inside. Ah, a familiar power button on the left side. Click on it and turn this baby on.

 

'Unrecoverable Error'

'no bootable medium found: file not found'

 

(Side Note: It took me way too long to figure out this one, much hair was pulled)

 

So what's the problem?

Just like your new computer needed to boot from the openos floppy disk, so does your robot. I have found two ways around this:

• Install openos onto a Drive in a computer. Hover your mouse over that drive. See an added 'openos' to the description? Transfer that drive to your robot and assemble. Turn the robot on.
• Install a Floppy Drive into any of the Upgrade Container slots and assemble. Before you turn it on, put the openos floppy into the lowest right-hand slot (has a shadow of a floppy). Turn the robot on. Install open os from the floppy onto the Drive and reboot. The floppy is no longer needed. At the cost of 1 complexity and some materials, you also have an easy way to transfer data/programs on and off your robot.

But the Robot is Already Built

 

I hear you say. Next up is the Disassembler.

Put your broken robot into the only slot available in the Disassembler. In survival mode, expect it to take a while. I would suggest putting a chest of some sort next to it, otherwise bits of robot will be tossed into the world. (There is a default 5% chance of not getting an item back. This can be adjusted in /config/opencomputers.cfg)

If any item did not come back, grab another one and build your robot again. Only this time use the preformatted Drive or Floppy Drive.

 

If everything worked right, you now have a working robot, just waiting for your command. Remember that extra Inventory Upgrade? Time to install it. At the right side is everything inside the computer immediately available to you. The 4x4 of slots from that first Inventory Upgrade. Below that is another row of slots. The first one is the Tool slot, what the robot uses when interacting with the world (pick, bow, bucket, etc). The next three are what you put in your Container Slots (For yours, a Tier 3 and Tier 1 Upgrade Container and maybe a Floppy Drive). Put the Inventory Upgrade into the Tier 1 Slot. Put anything in the bottom row of inventory slots. Next move the slide bar on the far right up and down. You will see there an additional 16 slots available (Maximum is 64 slots). We got plenty of room now.

 

Bonus: Put a Graphics Card into the Disassembler. Watch the component parts end up in the adjacent chest. Same happens for any OpenComputers related item. Tear down that now useless Tier 1 Computer and put the parts into something else (It is possble, though amazingly overpowered, to have the Disassembler do this for lots of other items. Look in /config/opencomputers.cfg for disassembleAllTheThings=false. Think powered Twilight Forest Deconstruction Table.)

 

It is Time to Take Over the World!

 

Not quite. While amazing, robots are not invulnerable. Grab a pick axe and hit it a few times. Not only did it break, everything it held fell out (including our Inventory Upgrade).

 

Put the robot back into the world and put a wooden sword into the Tool slot. Turn the robot on. Next type in lua and press Enter. Lua is an interactive program. You tell the robot what to do and it does so immediately. Enter while true do robot.swing() end This will make the robot forever swing his sword at anything in front of it, including you. Go to survival mode and test it out on yourself. As you can see, absolutely no damage. Quit Minecraft and look in /config/opencomputers.cfg for canAttackPlayers=false. Change that to true if you want a robot army (that can be taken out by a few hits of a pick). Of course having robot archers and bombers might work just fine.

 

Givin' It All We Got

 

Take a look inside the robot again. Hover the mouse over the green bar to the right of the Power button. Everything you do with a robot takes power. After some testing, the Solar Panel Upgrade isn't working well for my needs. What can we do?

• Just let the robot do nothing for long periods while charging. I don't think so.
• Disassemble the robot, hope nothing breaks and replace the Solar Panel Upgrade with the Generator Upgrade.
• Leave the Solar Panel Upgrade in and put the Generator Upgrade into the Tier 3 Container, next to the Tool slot.
• Set up a charging station for the robot to visit frequently.

Break your robot and place it adjacent to the Charger. Nothing happens because the Charger requires a redstone signal to activate. The rate of charge is relative to the level of the signal (level 1 redstone = trickle charge, 15 = fire hose).  Put a lever on top of the charger and turn it on. Green sparkles around the robot indicates power is available. A robot may not charge fully (only up to 98-99%), no big deal.

 

If you have a good feel for how to build a robot, my job is done! If not, try using the Tier 1 and Tier 3 Cases, and put whatever you want in them. Play around, have fun and write down what you have learned!

 

Creatix, the Creative Robot

 

Type creatix into NEI search bar. Just like the Creative computer, there is a creative robot available. Maxed out and self-powered, I use it for early testing to see if my idea for a program is feasable.

 

QUESTIONS:

Q: I have a robot running, now what do I do with it?

A:  This is where programs come into play. If you just want to play around, run lua and try the commands available in the robot API.

 

Q: What about the rest of these upgrade items/cards?

A: This tutorial was just to get you a robot that runs. Usage of other cards will be in future tutorials.

Q: Where can I get programs to run on my robot?.

A: From easy to hard:

• Look in these forums under Code Central- Showcase.
• Open Programs - Collection of Github Repositorys
• ComputerCraft Forums
  • There are a lot of lua programs available at varying quality, but they will not run on OpenComputer robots without changes.
  • I personally learned most of what I know about lua from reading other people's programs (and writing down the good ideas and methods).
• Learn Lua and write them yourself. This is also the most rewarding version.

 

Least Signifigant Bits

• We did not need to use a Tier 2 Graphics Card. We can save material and complexity using a Tier 1 instead.
• Since anything OpenComputers can be disassembled, it seems to work better to make computers/robots/etc simpler and expand/remake as needed. If a Drone can do the same job as a Tier 3 Robot, give it to the Drone.

• If using a lava bucket in the Generator, remember to pull out the empty bucket.

• If you are having problems, post it on the Support Sub-Forum. Constructive critism or praise of this tutorial should be posted below.

 

End of Line.

 

Edit: Dissasembler does not actually disassemble everything.