PULSES: An (Awful) Explanation

This here is a "quick" and """simple""" explanation on what activation pulses in People Playground are, what they do, and how to use them.

This guide will give context to some of my creations, trust me.

The Major Question:

What are you talking about, you moronic battery?

Why of course, I'm talking about something that's been bugging me for a while now. If you want to make a NOT gate, the simplest design takes an ON pulse and an OFF pulse, activating when it's pulsed off and deactivating when it's pulsed on.
An example of this is:


However, this isn't enough. If you want a true NOT gate, a gate that will give an output only when there is no input, then you must either find a way to transform from single pulse to double pulse or find a different NOT gate design.

What Am I Actually Talking About?

Alright alright, I hear you yelling quietly in the comments already. When I said "single pulse" and "double pulse" and "single-double pulse" or whatever, I was talking about how the machinery interprets the pulses. Double pulses are ON and OFF signals, usually turning the machine on then back off. Single pulses are either activated or not activated, double pulses are comprised of single pulses. An example of a double pulse chain compared to a single pulse chain is: (DP) 0100010, (SP) 0111100.
Still don't understand my gibberish? Well it's okay, it took me an hour to figure this all out.

Cut To The Chase

Alright, I wouldn't be making this guide if I hadn't already found a way to make a single pulse NOT gate. Here's some proof:



As you may be able to see, this design uses some laser pointers and regular gates to form a single-pulse activation loop.

You use this activation loop to turn a couple industrial generators on and off repeatedly, then use another regular gate to check if the industrial generators have been powered on for long enough. If they have, that means the loop is off. If the loop is off, that means there's no input. Boom, NOT gate!

Double Pulse Machines Suck

A machine is double pulse if one pulse turns it on and another turns it off (EX: Piston, Laser Pointer, Generator)
A machine is single pulse if it turns on when it receives a pulse and turns off when it stops receiving a pulse (EX: Activation-Electricity Transformer, No Other Examples)



It's easy to transform double pulse into single pulse because there's so many machines that input in double pulse and output in single pulse, but not the other way around. The simplest method of Single-Double involves a NOT gate, but the simplest NOT gate design involves a Single-Double Pulse Converter.
See the issue?

I've had to find workarounds while knowing that my mechanical creations wouldn't get any attention this entire time.

Why/How Is This Useful?

It is useful to view pulses as being either pulsing/not pulsing or on/off because it allows you to understand activation signals and machines in a different, better way.
EXAMPLE:
Want to create a piston-powered mech that involves NOT gates but don't want to cram annoying single-pulse tech in a small space? Just use sensors with piston NOT gates to keep the line as double-pulse!

If you need a single pulse NOT gate, just make it yourself or fail to find a version on the workshop (Putting "NOT gate" in the search will just show you everything that isn't associated with the word "gate", so good luck finding NOT gates!).

Who Is This Deranged Battery And Why Do They Like Pasta So Much?

In all seriousness, I made this guide late at night in a futile attempt to help people understand what goes on when I see activation wires.


Moral of the story is: A piston with a button isn't a NOT gate, at least use a piston with a sensor.


Oh also I meant to add the keypress detector thing onto the double pulse output pile in that one image, sorry!

EDITS FROM The Future GO HERE:
(1) As it turns out, laser pointers are NOT (heh) the best things to use when creating a single pulse clock. The best thing to use for a quickly alternating signal is, of course, a metronome attached to a regular gate and an activation>electricity transformer. I uploaded this design recently, check it out!

(2) [As of 3/31/22] This guide is absurdly out of date, as with all my other PPG content. As those who are interested may have gathered from my uploads, the best designs do, in fact, use lasers. Specifically, they use electric mirrors and detectors (which output a laser, still counts). The best design I have so far actually uses a speed detector (unorthadox, I know) with one of those weird treadmill things everyone thought was useless. Specifically, it keeps the treadmill constantly running but uses an activation>electricity transformer run through a precisely dialed resistor to keep the tread rotating at such a speed that it will only activate the speed detector when powered, and only by a very small margin. Also, the reason why I'm using a treadmill instead of literally anything else is because it, unlike just about every current rotational device, does not physically rotate or even make noise. Instead, it imparts motion on the surfaces around it, which typically results in it moving. This allows the mechanism to precisely control the output based on the input using physics without having any major effects on the things around it or being affected in noticeable ways by its surroundings. Also, got my terminology wrong while writing this paragraph, this specific device I'm describing here (in just this paragraph, too tired to change it at the moment) is a single to double pulse converter.

[9BoltVattery]

My god, this guide is like a year out of date!
Well, I'm not gonna be the one to fix this up

[9BoltVattery]

1: This is referring to vanilla People Playground
2: I am aware that mod exists and use it regularly
3: This guide was made before that mod was even a thing

[lifesimulatordude]

The Parts and Contraptions mod by jimmyl adds a NOT gate

[9BoltVattery]

oh yeah, i DID say i was going to make a sequel

[9BoltVattery]

I was legit thinking of deleting this guide because I really don't like how low quality it is
but then i noticed the view count and the 4 favorites

ALRIGHTY IMMA MAKE A SEQUEL!

[NuggetSmell]

i am confusion and scared but nice guide

i am too lazy too read yet i am typing this with my fingers and that cost more than reading

[9BoltVattery]

Aight I just added a note to the end

[9BoltVattery]

You’re welcome!

[Mr.Briscord™]

I just notice that's how you use the items, thanks for showing this guide I'm going to remember this. (favorite) :D

[Mr.Briscord™]

I just notice that's how you use them in the game thanks for showing me :}