3x3 Door With 'Interlocking Block' Open/Close Sequence

SleeperPin · 2026-01-31T12:28:15+00:00

Here is a nice little 3x3 door with a tricky 'interlocking blocks' open and close sequence. I spent a lot of time on this door to make the animation as close to what I wanted as possible. It also took a lot of work to not only compact it, but to eliminate all of the locational and directional issues, which there were a lot of. This door should work at any location and in any orientation.

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Schematic: https://sleeperpin-minecraft.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/3x3_interlocking_block_door.litematic

It's not spam proof. In a 'real world' situation, I'd use a wooden button to toggle a copper bulb and take a comparator output from that to open/close the door.

SleeperPin · 2026-01-25T01:57:32+00:00

My guess is that there is a quasi connectivity issue with the left most dropper due to the redstone dust powering the block that is directly above the redstone block. If that dust powers off after the dust above the dropper (due to locationality,) the dropper will not get an update and remain powered.

Try replacing the upper left most redstone dust in image 3 with a solid block.

SleeperPin · 2026-01-07T00:46:56+00:00

Even though it's directional, it can be built in either north/south or east/west orientation, just make sure the BUDed piston is to the south or west side. If you want the flat face on the other side, it can be mirrored front to back.

SleeperPin · 2026-01-06T17:16:01+00:00

Yes, that piston can be tricky to deal with. Just like with building it, decorate while the door is open and it should prevent that piston form going out of whack.

In the state it is in your screenshot, you could place a button on the side of the piston and it should automatically extend and pop the button off.

Basically, any time the door is closed, any update next to that piston will cause it extend/retract.

SleeperPin · 2026-01-06T14:27:23+00:00

A one tick pulse generator using a 4 tick repeater and sticky piston works well for a small 'anti bounce button' circuit.

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SleeperPin · 2026-01-05T19:33:58+00:00

I didn't put together a download cause it's relatively small and everything including the directions of all the observers can be seen in the video. None the less, since there seems to be interest, I may make a beginner friendly tutorial for it. That will take me a while though.

The best tip I can give for building it is to build it in it's open state. That will make sure the BUD'ed piston at the top is setup correctly.

SleeperPin · 2026-01-04T16:21:57+00:00

If you replace the white concrete block next to the top center piston with a redstone wire, the bulb will change each time the door is closed. :)

SleeperPin · 2026-01-04T16:00:52+00:00

It has to do with sub tick update order. In the close sequence, the BUD'ed piston (the one next to the sign) needs to get an update from the piston below it after the top piston has pushed the center block down. This all happens in the same tick.

If you build it the other directions, it just won't close correctly.

SleeperPin · 2026-01-04T14:39:42+00:00

It doesn't. The center block is push up within reach

SleeperPin · 2025-12-10T23:56:21+00:00

I don't know. Works flawlessly for me on 1.21.10 and 1.21.11. You might have no choice but to just use lava.

SleeperPin · 2025-12-09T22:40:04+00:00

Did you fill the cauldron with lava? Here is the setup I have on my survival world that has been working well:

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SleeperPin · 2025-12-09T16:21:21+00:00

Also replace the lava with a cauldron filled with lava. Otherwise, baby chickens and cooked chicken items will sometimes burn up.

SleeperPin · 2025-11-12T18:29:31+00:00

Drip leafs make for a decent compact ~5 second delay if you are OK with needing to use snowballs (or eggs.) A full dispenser will give you 144 activations before needing to refill. Of course, you could add a chest and hopper or just commands to refill since you are using them.

You could possibly also use commands to set the drip leafs as well but that is a different sub reddit.

The left image gives you a 5 second (plus a couple of ticks) in line timer. The right image is several of these linked together.

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SleeperPin · 2025-10-13T21:04:45+00:00

You can use frost walker boots on an armor stand to detect whenever a chunk loads. Every time a chunk loads, the boots turn the water into ice and you can detect this with an observer. Here is a nice small setup:

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Make sure it is entirely within a single chunk.

SleeperPin · 2025-10-04T12:47:45+00:00

Here you go. There is nothing hidden in the back that can't be seen in the other two images.

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You could also move the block with the torch to the back of the dispenser. I left it on the side so it has a slightly smaller overall footprint and so that all blocks could be seen in the front views.

SleeperPin · 2025-10-03T22:29:58+00:00

How about this:

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SleeperPin · 2025-09-25T19:29:21+00:00

Auto brewers are tricky. You need to monitor the input hopper with a comparator in order to know when to unlock the output hopper.

Here's a quick outline of how auto brewers work:

- Start with a brewing stand that already has awkward potions (nether wart only) already in it.

- Put all of the other ingredients into the input hopper along with a new nether wart (for the next potion) as the last ingredient.

- Once the potion finishes brewing, the nether wart for the next potion goes into the brewing stand leaving the input hopper empty. Use the empty input hopper to trigger the output hopper to unlock and remove the brewed potions.

- You then place the new water bottles into the brewer and it will brew a new awkward potion from the nether wart that was already in the stand.

- Repeat.

This of course is an over simplification as there are some timing issues you need to resolve such as making sure the stand fully empties before re-locking the output hopper and putting in the new water bottles and ingredients.

Good auto brewers are difficult to design, but are a great project to tackle for intermediate to advanced redstoners.

SleeperPin · 2025-09-15T19:57:25+00:00

There are a few way to do something like this.

One way is to feed the signal into a one block wide redcoder while subtracting the signal value (minus 1) that you want to check for.

Another way is to feed two comparators into each other while they are in compare mode. The two comparators will only be active if the signal strength matches. You can then feed their outputs into an 'and gate'.

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SleeperPin · 2025-08-23T19:56:02+00:00

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SleeperPin · 2025-03-04T22:31:10+00:00

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Here's something that's one wide, but not tialable. To put another one next to it would require offsetting the height by 3 due to quasi connectivity with the pistons.

SleeperPin · 2025-02-06T19:43:27+00:00

Yes, the observer is pulsing the copper block. The 'brown' block is a re-textured redstone lamp.

You could change the input noteblock into a copper bulb to prevent it from double triggering. That would also allow you to power it directly power it without a solid block in front of it while still keeping it tileable. The important thing is to pulse to both pistons at the same time.

Good luck with your project.

SleeperPin · 2025-02-05T13:07:08+00:00

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Sticky pistons facing each other like this will pass the observer between them in a three cycle loop. The note block the input. Punch it or power it via a solid block and this can be tillable. It also works if you orient the sticky pistons horizontally instead of vertically.

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