Alpha
Module: HardHoof_Tech
Status: Implemented in source for Hard-Hoof 0.4.0-alpha.1. In-game behavior has not yet been reported.
The Small Electronics Lab makes etchant, verifies personal gate designs, and manufactures etched circuit boards used by the Electronics Frame. It has three workspaces: Parts for etchant chemistry, Gates for proving a raw circuit's behavior, and PCB for assembling saved gates into an installed board. It is a powered machine; its rear face is its electrical-power terminal. See Electricity and Wiring for cables and DC power.
The lab follows the Machine Workshop in the early machine chain, alongside the Coal-Powered Metal Former and Coal Generator. Its required plates and copper wire are listed in Materials and Components.
Build the lab
Craft the lab on the Machine Workshop's 5 x 3 surface. The pattern is exact; a blank space means leave that cell empty.
P W B W P
G B R C G
_ P G P _
| Key | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| P | Iron plate |
| W | Copper wire |
| B | Blank circuit board |
| G | Glass block |
| R | Redstone dust |
| C | Crafting table |
The Workshop recipe is registered for JEI. Blank boards and the electronic components also use normal crafting recipes shown in JEI.
Power, reserve, and slots
The lab works at 6 W and stores 30 J. At that rate, a full reserve runs it for five seconds without a live supply. It can charge through the rear terminal while idle or working. Manufacture and chemistry pause when both the supply and reserve are empty, then continue when power returns.
The bottom row of the lab screen has dedicated slots:
| Job | Slots | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Etch a PCB | Blank circuit board, etchant | Etched circuit board |
| Make etchant | Salt, iron ingot, water bucket | Etchant; the bucket is returned |
Etchant chemistry consumes one salt and one iron ingot after 80 powered ticks. Salt comes from smelting dried kelp. PCB etching takes 100 powered ticks. The board output must be empty before a job can start.
Gates: discover reusable logic
In Gates, draw a raw circuit from resistors, transistors, and capacitors. Select one or two inputs, then use Test & save. The lab drives every declared input combination at 0 V and 24 V under a 24 V supply:
| Inputs | Tests |
|---|---|
| One (A) | A = LOW, HIGH |
| Two (A and B) | 00, 01, 10, 11 |
A successful design has every component pin attached; connects power, ground, output, and exactly the selected input pads; settles for every test; and produces only clean LOW or HIGH output. Each declared input must change the result. Constant, floating, shorted, unstable, or middle-voltage circuits cannot be saved. Reusable gates cannot contain another reusable gate.
The measured schematic and truth table become a personal library entry, not a shared unlock. The library survives death and is available at every lab; it keeps up to 16 distinct designs. Saving an identical design again does not use another entry. The lab labels familiar functions NOT, BUFFER, NAND, AND, OR, NOR, XOR, or XNOR; another valid two-input function is CUSTOM. See Circuits and Gates for the truth tables.
Testing needs the displayed component bill in the player's inventory as reusable samples. It removes none of them, and it does not consume boards or etchant. The one-input Example loads a NOT circuit; the two-input example loads NAND, but only into an empty gate draft.
PCB: turn saved gates into a board
In PCB, place gates from the personal library and draw copper between the board pads and chip pins. Board input A and optional B are on the left; OUT is the final signal. A chip has input A at upper-left, optional input B at lower-left, and output on its right. The Electronics Frame supplies each gate's internal power and ground.
Draw makes a pin-snapped copper path. Erase removes a visible segment. Right-click removes a component or gate, and dragging a body moves it; copper stays where it was drawn, so moved pins may need reconnecting. Hovering a trace highlights its net. A bare crossing has a bridge and does not connect; a crossing at a pin is a junction. Clear copper, Clear board, and Undo affect separate kinds of work. Gate and PCB drafts, including their undo states, persist separately across reloads.
Use Manufacture after adding a blank board and etchant. On completion, the lab consumes:
- one blank circuit board;
- one etchant; and
- the total resistors, transistors, and capacitors inside every placed gate instance.
For example, two placed copies of a one-resistor, one-transistor NOT gate consume two resistors and two transistors. The saved gate stays in the library. The lab verifies every requirement before removing anything, locks PCB editing while etching, and consumes the materials only when the job finishes. Cancelling, a missing component, an occupied output, or leaving the lab for too long prevents completion without consuming materials. The resulting board embeds its gate snapshots, so it remains usable even if its creator later changes their library.
Gate boards use their saved truth tables. Floating inputs, conflicting drivers, and feedback that does not resolve produce no usable output. Older raw-component boards remain readable.
First working circuit: NOT
- Craft at least one resistor and one transistor, plus a blank circuit board. Make etchant from salt, an iron ingot, and a water bucket.
- Power the lab. In Gates, select one input and load Example into an empty draft. Test and save the NOT gate; the resistor and transistor remain in inventory.
- In PCB, load Example into an empty board draft. It connects A through the saved NOT gate to OUT.
- Put a blank board and etchant in the lab, keep the resistor and transistor in inventory, and manufacture. Those two components are consumed when the etched PCB appears.
- Install the board in an Electronics Frame. With master power on, A LOW gives HIGH output and A HIGH gives LOW output.