Multi-floor elevator with controls

Let me start by giving a huge thanks to DEFCON01 who’s Youtube video showed me how to build the original elevator in LBP1.  Without that start, this would not be possible.

Really, all I did was translate that design into something using the LBP2 tools.  With the new tools I was able to create a design that only involved one moving part, the piston that raises and lowers the elevator car.  Everything needed to make this elevator control fits neatly on a single microchip.

You might recognize some of this design from my previous post about elevator logic.  I just added 2 AND gates, 2 timers, a directional combiner, and a sound object.

Starting on the left edge are the tag sensors.  The blue one activates if the elevator is at the top floor, the purple one activates if the elevator is at the bottom floor, and the green one for all floors in between.  In this picture, the purple one is activated.  You can see that the NOT gate’s output is off, therefore the first AND switch cannot close and complete the circuit to move the elevator down.  The blue one is not activated, so it’s NOT gate output is on and the first AND gate is awaiting input from the elevator’s “up” grabswitch to close the circuit and move the elevator up.

In the center is an OR switch with input from all of the tag sensors.  When one of the three sensors activates, it sends a signal to the reset switch of both timers.  This sets the current value of both to 0, and starts a 2-second interval where the output from both timers is turned off.  This turns off the input to the second set of AND gates which cuts off the signal to the elevator’s piston.  This stops the car long enough for the player to let go of the switch and exit the elevator car.  This time can be adjusted by tweaking the settings of the timers.  The other function of the OR gate is to trigger the sound object which makes a nice elevator “ding” tone.

The last element here is the directional combiner.  The up grabswitch is connected to the positive input, and the down grabswitch is connected to the negative input.  The “Input Action” on the piston is set to Forwards/Backwards, which gives the up and down movement based on which grabswitch is used.

Elevator logic

 

I worked a little on my elevator logic this morning and came up with the following microchip. 

Starting at the top, I have a blue tag sensor attached to a NOT logic gate, which connects to the AND logic gate.  The other thing connected to the AND logic gate is the grab switch for the “up button” in the elevator.  The purple tag sensor is attached to a similar NOT, then AND switch for the “down button” in the elevator.  The green tag sensor is used to stop at all floors in between.

To create the stopping location for the elevator, I placed a blue tag at the top floor, a purple tag at the bottom floor, and green tags at all floors in between.

Basically, the NOT gate is used to make sure that grabbing the up or down button will always work, unless the elevator is at the top or bottom floor, respectively.

The OR logic gate is connected to all three tag sensors so that no matter which sensor is activated, the elevator will stop.

All this work got me thinking of something another player asked in one of the forums, how do you make an elevator call button?  Give me something to think about for improving on the design.

Taking a Little Break

 

Well, since I seem to have a case of trigger finger in my thumb, and it is encased in a brace for the next 1-2 weeks, I won’t be doing any actual building on my levels.  It’s a shame because I just picked up LBP2 and the design tool are incredible.  In addition to the new tools, I can also access the add-on packs that came with the Game of the Year Edition of LPB1.

With all of that, and a punch list of things to fix in my first level, I decided to update that level and republish it in LBP2.

I am already making good use of the circuit boards as a way to clean up the design and take advantage of the updated logic gates.  Other new features that I like are the material movers and sackbots.  With these features I can create doors that slide between the three layers, to add a little depth, and replace the cardboard and sticker characters I currently have.

The elevators are getting a major upgrade to ones that have up and down controls that the player has to trigger, instead of proximity sensors that sometimes make the elevators take off without the player.

This will most likely push the work on my second level to the side for a while, but I think that updating my first one, will be worth the effort.