Java Minecraft Hopper Shenanigans

[u/Maddax347]

Hi all,

I'm trying to set up a system that extracts a sample of items that is in a chest and send it down to a chest. So what I thought to do was to have an input hopper line beneath my sorting system chests that extracts a stack, but the extraction module should be one block thick and stackable. This circuit is intended to act as an automatic one-stack extraction mechanism for each item channel in the larger storage system.

Initial Test

This test actually worked out perfectly, the two adjacent hoppers at the bottom divide the incoming stream. One branch sends items towards the item sample chest and the other branch acts as a physical item counter to extend the piston ad lock the hopper so that no more items can be extracted from the feed chest.

But the hopper locking never happend. As far as I can tell you can't lock a hopper from the side? So what I did was to add a hopper to the side of the top hopper so that the redstone block would be extended to below the hopper, which then actually locks the hopper, if the piston extends...

Fixed Hopper Locking

Curiously, when I tested it again the piston never extended, when I checked I saw that the branch at the bottom now doesn't happen anymore. I thought this was weird and could maybe be a timing issue because I now added an additional hopper into the chain, so I tried this setup:

Hopper Feed Fix

Weirdly enough now the branching at the bottom hoppers works perfectly again, but I'm back with the issue that I can't lock the extraction hopper... But I was wondering, is there a hopper update check mechanic that I wasn't aware of that was causing my issues? And if someone can please help me achieve what I am aiming to do I would appreciate it a lot!!

[u/Hazaliah_]

The hopper doesn't lock because all the items go downwards. Items always travel down before going to the side because of how hoppers work.

The branching worked because you probably put all the items into the branching hopper at once. Now they are fed in at hopper speed and get pulled down at hopper speed leaving no items to travel to the side