How do you attach a piston head to piston while allowing resource transfer?

[ColStuckInMyTeeth]

I'm doing something with a bunch of drills to basically 'grind out a parking lot' for a big rover:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2910310587

I got an idea about using one piston to grind out a little into the hill, then when fully extended, I would build 2 pistons next to it, with a piston head on the back of the drills. Then I could back the drills up to the new set of pistons, attach the piston head, and then remove the original single piston; continue paving my parking lot. Only to find out that pistons dont have an 'attach' like rotors do.

I did some searching online, and lots of people talk about using merge blocks. Which is fine normally, but I want the new pistons to transfer resources. At this point I'm at a loss for how to do that. I don't necessarily need the resources from this hill, but there are other very similar drilling situations where I would do this (i.e. ore deposits). Is there a way to attach a piston head to a piston while simultaneously allowing the new piston head to transfer resources?

[Jack Schitt]

A solution is to delete the drills, add a piston to the end, and rebuild the drills. It doesn't take too long to do, it's how I do it if I don't want to build a machine with a projector and welders and all that to dig something out.

[ColStuckInMyTeeth]

That's what I have been doing. But it's a pain in the ass to keep lugging the resources back and forth from the container. I was hoping there was a better way.

[CaveDweller]

what about using connectors? The piston heads are naturally attached to the piston, but use of a connector (in place of a merge block) would still allow the transfer of materials.

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, I would add a Advanced Rotor on the piston head or use connectors.

Note
Rotor on piston head is a good setup to avoid problems in the default mode where we must enable Experimental to have more options on piston.

[herrschaftg35]

Connectors and advanced rotors will transfer items and can easily be detached/reattached. Connectors are less "violent" when they are locked/attached verse a rotor. Since you have 2 rows of pistons, just put connectors between the drills and pistons.

[Baratheon79]

Originally posted by herrschaftg35:

Connectors and advanced rotors will transfer items and can easily be detached/reattached. Connectors are less "violent" when they are locked/attached verse a rotor. Since you have 2 rows of pistons, just put connectors between the drills and pistons.

This could work, though I recommend also including a battery with the drill portion, as the connector will need power to function. You can charge it while it's attached to the rest of the rig, and it should be fine. Might also want to uncheck the 'used for parking' box for both connectors, too.

[ColStuckInMyTeeth]

So I tried connectors and the advanced rotor. Neither will work. Two fully compacted pistons are 5 meters exactly (including piston head), and that doesn't leave enough room for placement of the advanced rotor (though physically there is more than enough space; just the placement complains) or two connectors.

I ended up just grinding it down the hard way and building it back up on a new set of pistons.

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

...where we must enable Experimental to have more options on piston.

I am running in experimental mode for some reason, but I don't have any options for the piston that are extra. Am I missing something?

[Dan2D3D]

In expermental mode it adds the "Share inertia tensor" and can set "impulse axis" at Max, that is not in the Default game mode for better MP Perfo.

+
In the default mode = The piston may not be able to extend at all but adding a rotor on the piston head will make it work using the default"impulse axis", like this :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2022775475

[Dan2D3D]

I will add :

There is always a solution to find in this game but it may not be what we wanted to do.

If not working = Redo different till it works.

[Jack Schitt]

You can always turn Creative Mode on in the admin menu temporarily even if the game is set to Survival mode. Then you won't have to spend as much time grinding and rebuilding you can just delete the drills, plop an additional piston on, replace the drills.

Another option is to use a projector, welders and timer block(s) or a script. Build a machine that adds an additional piston so you don't have to, let a projector and welders add an additional piston. I didn't suggest that because it sounded like this is only a temporary drill you'll be taking down after you have the space you want dug out.

I build underground often. I use creative mode as I suggested when I don't want to spend time doing it the long, hard, way for a temporary drilling rig.