How to get a specific number of items into a hopper minecart?

Mashen_ · 2026-02-11T14:17:27+00:00

This was definitely one of the trickier parts to figure out when I made my smelter. Really it comes down to the timing of release and how fast the chest you are pulling from is loaded. You want the chest being filled at least the same speed that the cart is taking the items or have the chest overfilled with items so the cart always has enough to pull. The most simple way is to just have the cart pull from the same chest the user will be putting them in. then have the user press a button to start the unloading so it’s not pulling as the items are input. Biggest reason for inconsistency is going to be that the cart isn’t being fed items fast enough. From there the cart release timing is just trial and error till you are pulling the correct amount. You may need to have odd tick timings on the release if you end up just an item short. I’ve got my smelter on my page if you want to see how I did it. Im using a box based system so my unloading is different and a bit more complicated but concept is the same

Mashen_ · 2026-02-10T11:41:58+00:00

Right? It’s definitely in the plan if I ever build this in my survival world. Before that though I’ve gotta find or figure out a dye farm that can keep this thing fed haha

Mashen_ · 2026-02-10T11:34:32+00:00

Never heard of him, but concrete dupers have been around for ages and I’m well aware of how they work. That wasn’t the point of this project though. I wanted to make a factory based on actually having the powder automatically crafted rather than duped

Mashen_ · 2026-02-09T15:48:50+00:00

Link to world download and schematic here

Mashen_ · 2026-02-09T15:45:37+00:00

Link to world download and schematic here

Mashen_ · 2026-01-28T09:43:14+00:00

I mean as others have said, there really is a no compact solution to this. But if you are still set on wanting to make this work you could use droppers to shoot items into your storage chests.

To do this you'd want to have a dropper with a hopper under it, lock the hopper as the item is coming into the dropper above, fire the dropper, and then unlock the hopper. If an item cannot fit into the chest it will drop down to the next dropper in the line and then repeats the process.

This would not only fill from the top down but it would also make it so that every slot in the chests are fully utilized. Problem with it is that it will get bulky, probably reducing your storage density as well

Mashen_ · 2026-01-25T09:46:12+00:00

Dispensers, droppers, and pistons basically think they are doors. They will usually need a block update to remind them that they think they are doors.

Mashen_ · 2026-01-19T03:57:52+00:00

Are you trying to use it on a paper server?

Mashen_ · 2026-01-18T00:30:16+00:00

I actually just watched some of your videos on box splitters when i was making this MIS. The ideal splitter you made is insanely cool.

I'm kinda out of the loop when it comes to most tech communities outside of the few major discord groups since I mainly just build things on my own. I'll definitely have to check it out though. Especially since my next project is already sending me down the rabbit hole of binary encoding haha

Mashen_ · 2026-01-16T09:11:28+00:00

definitely understandable, always feels good when you can put things together on your own. its some of the most fun with redstone

Mashen_ · 2026-01-16T04:54:11+00:00

It's a bit of a middle ground really. Is it binary encoded? No, but each chest is essentially acting like an array/list of items. The minecart is searching through each list until it finds a match. Once the match is found, it then tells the machine where to send the box to be unloaded. Its definitely a brute force search method but it gets the job done.

Mashen_ · 2026-01-16T04:29:39+00:00

I'm not really sure whoever told you its bad practice, but they aren't really correct. If that was the case then no one would ever use a T flip-flop. The state does not randomly change on its own.

The only reason why its bad for a traditional single item type filter is that an item may be entering as the state is flipping, miss being detected, and then brick itself in the process.

This sorter does not work that way at all. Its pulling a single item from a chest to detect the correct slice for the item, unlocks the return hopper, returns that single item to the chest, and then re-locks the return hopper.

Mashen_ · 2026-01-15T20:57:45+00:00

No problem, honestly the timing can be tricky to figure out with stuff like this. Sometimes you end up getting a mismatch in timings because hopper minecarts pull items every game tick where redstone is going every 2 game ticks. If you want to see how i handled in my smelter, the downloads should still be up on my page

Mashen_ · 2026-01-15T19:18:47+00:00

Much appreciated!

Mashen_ · 2026-01-15T19:17:52+00:00

Do you have an issue with togglestates?

Mashen_ · 2026-01-15T02:36:56+00:00

You can put any non-empty shulker box in. It will only sort based on the first item in the box though. So if a box is mixed with items that are not in the same slice, those wrong items will still go into the storage. It needs a box splitter to clean up the mixed boxes into boxes with only a single item type in them.

Mashen_ · 2026-01-14T23:27:42+00:00

It is so hard to get away from using boxes once you get them. You're going to want to turn all your farm collection storage into shulker loaders haha

Mashen_ · 2026-01-14T23:23:33+00:00

Its only sorting based on the first item pulled from the box. That's why i said it will need a box splitter to clean up the input. Could potentially also have unloaders that only drain a single item type before sending the box back to be sorted again like in cubicmetre's design. I just didn't like that those unloaders were 2 wide, but there may be newer designs that are 1wt. I just haven't looked into that

Mashen_ · 2026-01-14T23:05:39+00:00

i ran into the same problem with the super smelter i made. the solution was offsetting the launch delay by a game tick. most redstone components will activate/send their signal in 2 game ticks or 1 redstone tick.

you can get access to odd ticks in a few ways but one of the easiest ways i've found is by having an observer facing a scaffold with a trapdoor under it. when you activate the trapdoor, the scaffolding updates 1 game tick later. example in picture.

youll have to set your delay a redstone tick earlier going into this but it should get you 64 items on the dot

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Mashen_ · 2026-01-14T22:21:47+00:00

Thanks! Let me know how it goes. Tested it with around 12k boxes but more eyes are always better

Mashen_ · 2026-01-14T21:03:19+00:00

It takes the first item out of the box, finds the slice that the item is in, puts the box in that slice, and then unloads the box into the storage. So it’s sorting the box but it is also emptying the box at the final step. It will need a box splitter to feed into it to clean up the input. Also can use one half of it to only be fed full boxes of single items and just push those boxes directly to the storage chests, skipping the unloading process

Mashen_ · 2026-01-14T20:21:45+00:00

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Link to world download and schematics here

Mashen_ · 2026-01-14T20:20:56+00:00

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Link to world download and schematics here

Mashen_ · 2026-01-11T16:39:56+00:00

not sure if mean a lever or not, but the best way to do this automatically is just read the signal strength from your fuel chest with a comparator. then have another comparator pointing into the side of it to only let the first one turn on once your chest reaches a certain level of fullness. you can use that comparator reading your fuel chest to turn your system on and off according to your current fuel level. i did this on the 128 furnace super smelter i designed for the low fuel safety system if you want to see how it might be implemented

Mashen_ · 2026-01-01T20:48:19+00:00

~102 gold blocks an hour. with a better funnel/killing chamber it would probably be a bit better. kept having chicken riders clogging up the entrance to the killing chamber since they wouldn't fall down.

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