Redstone clocks are useful machines that allow you to trigger redstone component blocks in a loop. This means you can create Minecraft farms or other machines that will work independently. There are very simple redstone clock designs, and there are also some that are a little more complex, but much better and more efficient. And in this guide, we will cover how you can make a hopper clock in Minecraft, which is one of the best redstone clocks in the game.
What you need to make a hopper clock
This design was first introduced by one of Minecraft’s best YouTubers – EthosLab . His original tutorial video for the machine was released ten years ago, and it is still fully functional. It is not difficult or expensive to build and can be easily modified to suit your needs.
There are a few different alternative designs for the Etho Hopper clock, which mostly differ in one or two additional requirements. To make this one, you will need the following resources:
- 2 hoppers
- 2 sticky pistons
- 1 redstone block
- 2 redstone repeaters
- 2 redstone comparators
- 4 redstone dust
- 2 solid blocks (we’re using oak planks)
- 2 slabs of any type (we are using oak slabs)
- Whatever items you’ll need inside the hopper (we’re using sticks)
To make a hopper, you will need 5 iron ingots, a chest , and a crafting table . Place the chest in the central slot of the crafting grid and place iron ingots on either side of it and one below it. Then, place two more iron ingots on top of the ingots in the left and right columns.
Redstone dust is a precious material that can be obtained by mining regular or deepslate redstone ore. We suggest you check out our guide on ore distribution in Minecraft to easily locate redstone ores . A redstone block is a resource block that you can craft by using 9 pieces of redstone dust, completely filling the crafting table’s grid.
To make Redstone Repeaters , Redstone Comparators , and Sticky Pistons , you can follow our dedicated guides and find all the details about those recipes.
Steps to Make a Minecraft Hopper Clock
Now that you’ve gathered the resources, let’s begin building the Etho Hopper clock.
- First, place two hoppers next to each other with one facing the other. You will need to place one with the top facing down and then place the other with the top facing the first one. Then, break the first hopper and place it so that it connects with the other one.
- Next, connect the comparator to one of the hoppers, but facing away from the hopper. So, it will read the contents of the hopper and send a redstone signal if there is an item inside that hopper.
- Also, place a redstone repeater connected to the comparator facing away from the comparator so that it can receive the redstone signal coming from that block and send it forward. You do not need to change the tick speed on the repeater.
- Now what you need to do is to attach one of your solid blocks to the repeater so that the repeater is facing towards it.
- Then, place a temporary block on top of that solid block and attach a slab to the side of that block. The slab should be the upper half and also above the repeater. Remove the temporary block after the slab is in place.
- Next, place a sticky piston on the slab, so that it is above the comparator and facing the hopper.
- Place redstone dust on top of slabs and solid blocks.
- Now, repeat all the steps from Step 2 to Step 7 on the other side connected to the second hopper. The finished product should look something like this:
- Then, place a block of redstone on one of the two hoppers .
- After that, place the items you need in either of the two hoppers. They must be stackable to hold up to 64 items, such as sticks, and the hoppers are there to determine the speed of the clock. If you place 6 sticks in the hopper, the whole clock will work much faster than if you place a pile of sticks inside.
- The clock will start working when you put the items in the hopper. Feel free to experiment with the amount of items and the speed of the clock to make sure it fits your needs.
Congratulations, you’ve created a working hopper clock in Minecraft! To make it functional, you can connect it to a redstone circuit you already have, such as the one for flushing mobs in a mob farm .
Simply place the redstone dust attached to the redstone block. The redstone block will constantly move, so it will both turn the redstone dust on and off. Then, you can connect that dust to whatever you need or have an observer to “watch” the dust.
So, whenever the dust is turned on or off, the observer will detect it and send a redstone signal.
To turn off the Hopper Clock, you can permanently turn on one of the two sticky pistons using a lever. Place a solid block attached to the piston and a lever attached to it. Turning it on will turn off the Hopper Clock.
That’s it, now you know how to make a hopper clock in this cute blocky game. This is a very useful redstone machine that you should learn to make, as you can use it in many different occasions, such as in harvest or mob farms or just to pull a big prank on your friends. How do you like this clock? Was our guide helpful to you? Let us know in the comments section below!