Circuits: A basic guide for people new to circuits

Circuitry is a VERY dangerous and powerful tool/device/sub-department, I will give you an example of the power it holds ...

I made a drone that throws objects (Shards in it's instance) at anyone that wasn't me, as well as head toward them.

The drone was fast, if not faster, than anything it came into contact that wasn't me, and threw 6 shards every half a second.

This means that in literally a second, A SECOND ... AS IN .25 TICKS, it:

Be immediately put into critical regardless of armor, unless they have the chaplain's staff and managed to block 5 shots with it (un-likely)

Be bleeding to death (losing blood)

Not be targeted anymore as the drone searches for anyone or anyTHING trying to help them besides white-listed people/targets.

So I deployed this drone on a cult round, blood cult to be specific, and took it with me & droney boi vs. an unstoppable 26-36 fully converted, fully clothed, armored, robed, geared, and ready to summon cultists with probably around 3-4 constructs.

... I won ... I went to the location of the summoning. Of course I planned for the cult to stun me, that's a given, but the drone can't be stunned, and there was no AI or borgs so they had no EMP talismans ... and they, got, SLAUGHTERED. One by one, they fell around me. Each one trying to rescue their commrades or even fight the drone directly or try to take the practically limitless supply of glass shards off the ground.

... all of them failed miserably ... it was this round that I knew that circuits have the un-holy power so HORRIFIC that even nar'sie, nuke-ops, revs, hell even WIZARDS can't even come CLOSE to competing with without EMP equipment.

I have since deleted my whore-dom of a creation, along with it's code data. I now limit myself to the immobile versions of it now.

Now that you know you hold the power of practically god and the lives of everyone on the station, it's time to learn with caution:

First things first:

You need to get to the circuitry lab (located in research division/department), and have advanced data theory researched in RnD.

After that, put 5 sheets of glass and metal into the proto-lathe, and print out advanced designs & instant cloning under electronics. This will allow you to 1: Have more advanced parts for tinkering and 2: Be able to replicate your design

Your Tools:

Your tools are the circuit de-bugger, the wiring tool, the circuit analyzer, and the circuit printer.

The De-bugger allows you to set references, strings, and numbers on components in devices.

The Wirer allows you to wire components together in the assembly

The analyzer allows you to copy code so you can paste it later on a different round to make the same exact machine/device.

The circuit imprinter allows you to print components.

What's the difference between a component, a circuit, and a device?:

It's a good thing you asked. A circuit (can be used inter-changably with device) is an assembly or fully functional device that operates. A component is a part, or device in a circuit that does a certain/specific task within that circuit, like a button or a tiny solar cell.

So I have tools and the upgrades ... now what?:

Now you can print circuits!

First thing you need to know is that you can't wire components outside of an assembly, so you need to put components INTO an assembly before you can wire/de-bug them.

Ok, ok, I know I can print circuits but ... what do I actually do? How does circuits work? HOW 2 SWITCH HENDS?!!!:

Alright, I'm going to help you build your first circuit.

Now what I'm doing here is a BIT un-orthodox, as usually people tell you HOW shit works and THEN giving a circuit example.

Your first circuit:

I'm going to let you do this yourself, so first off, print from your circuit imprinter:

A-type assembly (should be the first one)

tesla power relay (not the large one)

button (not the toggle one, the regular one)

light (not the advanced, the basic/regular one)

Now put the tesla power relay in, then the button, then the light.

Now shift+click on the assembly, and it should bring up the component list.

Now take your wirer out and click on the button, should bring up a little screen.

Now make sure your wirer is set to "wire", do this by clicking on the wirer in your hand, and click the input pulse text.

Now go back to the assembly, and click on the light component.

Now click on the input pulse text there, and congrats, you have wired your assembly.

Take a power cell from your table and put it in the assembly, then use a screwdriver on the assembly to close it.

Go to a dark spot / turn off the lights in the room, and click the circuit/device in your hand.

TA DAAAAA! You should have a light!

Da fuq does all this input, output, pulse, ref, and all this other shit mean?:

Alright, alright, this is why I had you make a SUPER simple circuit first.

Open up the circuit again after you've turned it off, and take a look at the button component.

When you click on the device in your hand, that makes you push that button.

When that button is pressed, it does it's job. In this case, it's send a pulse to the light.

Click on the light component now.

Do you see how the pulse IN is wired to the button on the light?

This means when this device is pulsed (In this case pulsed by the button you press), it does it's job or computes what it's supposed to do.

In this case, the light toggles to either on or off when it recieves a pulse.

The tesla power relay is just a way of charging your power cell in the device.

Understanding 'everything':

So now that you (hopefully) have a general idea of how things work, here is a summary of the rest to get you going.

The best learn from experience and tinkering, so do it yourself, and maybe one day you'll be a pro like me.

Pulses:

Pulses are like activation signals.

Pulse OUT's are usually when a component has finished, or is done with a certain process, action, or computation.

Pulse IN's are usually what is refered to as 'listeners', or components that are waiting to be activated to do their process and continue the circuit.

Inputs and Outputs:

Now pulses are great, but sometimes a circuit needs a little extra 'help' to determine what the f*** to do.

These are called inputs.

An input is something that a component requires in order to function, whether it be a number, reference, or a string.

An output is ... well ... basically the opposite of an input.

When a component has done it's function, or recieves a pulse and has all the necessary inputs, it creates an output.

Outputs are EXTREMELY important in even some of the most BASIC circuits.

Outputs can be wired to inputs to change the input of the next circuit.

Also an important note: OUTPUTS DO NOT NEED A PULSE TO LINK OR BE LINKED DATA-WISE TO AN INPUT UNLESS IT'S CONSTANTLY CHANGING, AND ARE FASTER THAN PULSES, MAKING DELAY COMPONENTS ALMOST UNNECESSARY.

What's a value?:

A value is something that contains information, like in an input or output that contains a ref, string, or number.

What the fuck is a ref, a string, a number, and what the FUCK is NULL???:

Alright, here's the part where it gets confusing, so pay attention closely and try to follow.

NULL literally means 'nothing' in a circuit. It has no value, no something, no nothing, just ... yeah, you should get the point.

Ref, short for reference(s), is a value that, you guessed it, REFERS to something in the game-world. E.G a shard of glass, a crowbar, a human, a beaker, an APC. References contain information that usually not much can be done with unless it's put in another component and computed by that component.

Here is an important note for locators: When you put a reference in, it does not look for that object, it looks for OBJECTS with that TYPE of reference. E.G: A human or yourself reference will give make the locator look for anything that's a mob/player.

Strings are basically just a bunch of letters. You can usually use an examiner given a reference to a target the locator found, and compute it to make text of the person/mob/thing the locator found. You can then compare the text the examiner gave you with a not gate, or a list filter component to see if they match. If they don't, then use one of the outputs on the filter or not gate.

A number is ... do ... do I even have to explain what this is? Come the fuck on dude, really? Alright fine, a number is a, well, NUMBER that usually gets put in devices like a locator for example to determine the output of a given component. The locator example with the input would be the detection range the locator has.

Well ... that's all there really is to circuits my dude, go and tinker around, make cool shit. Perhaps even make a cool escape tool, a blood-powered APC re-charger, a fuckin' death turret, who knows. Go knock yourself out, now let's see ... where did I put my c-GODDAMMIT YOU FUCKING DRONE GI- ... GI-GIVE THAT BACK YOU FUCKING DRONE ... oh shit, I chased it straight into the wizard, welp, i'm dead

... or am I?