Display Link and Display Board

A Display Link connects two things: the source, the block it is placed on, and the screen, chosen beforehand. It regularly reads the source and rewrites the text on the screen, up to 64 blocks away. There is no cable and no redstone to run between them.

Holding the link, first right-click the screen: Display Board, sign, Nixie Tube… It is remembered. Then place the link against the source block, like a lever. A small bulb on the link lights up at every update, which lets you check that it is working.

The list is long. On a chest or an Item Vault: the count of an item or the list of contents. On a Speedometer or Stressometer: the measured value. On a tunnel: the items that went through. On a tank: the fluids. And also the time, a stopwatch, a steam engine's boiler, an elevator's floor, a station's or a train's status, package addresses.

Right-clicking the link opens its settings: which piece of information when the source offers several, the starting line on the screen, the format. Several links can write to the same board, each on its own line, to build a real dashboard.

The Display Board is a split-flap screen, like station departure boards. It needs rotation to turn its flaps but costs no stress at all. Place boards side by side and on top of each other: they merge into a larger screen, wider for long texts, taller for more lines.

A link writes on the board's lines, but you can also write by hand: right-click with a renamed Name Tag or a filled Clipboard. A dye applied to a line changes the colour of its text. Right-clicking with an empty hand clears the line.

Our renderer does not draw the boards' text or the flapping of their flaps yet: in these pictures the screen stays black where the game would show the lines. The setups themselves are accurate. That is why this page is illustrated with stills rather than loops.

A link that receives a redstone signal stops: the screen keeps the last text written. A lever can therefore freeze a counter at a given moment, and a redstone clock can make the display update only at regular intervals.

A board at the factory entrance with the stock of each ore, one line per chest. A departures board in a station, fed by the "station" source. A Nixie Tube above an engine showing its speed. On our server, these boards are often the first thing you notice when visiting a base. They are also the best way to spot a broken line before it runs dry.