Create Wiki · Redstone
Threshold Switch
The Threshold Switch watches how full an inventory is and turns redstone on when it goes above one level, then off when it drops below another. With these two thresholds, a factory knows when to stop because the store is full and when to restart as it empties, without flickering all the time. It also reads fluid tanks and the height of a rope pulley.
Quick facts
- Category
- Redstone
- Reads
- Chests, Item Vaults, fluid tanks, rope pulleys (height)…
- Default thresholds
- Turns on at 128 items or more, off at 64 or fewer
- Filter
- Only counts the filtered items (empty: all of them)
- Indicator
- Five fill levels shown on the front
- Recipe
- 1 Electron Tube + 1 Brass Casing + 1 Comparator
- Version
- Create 6.0.8 · Minecraft 1.21.1
Crafting table recipe
→ 1 Threshold Switch
Placing it against an inventory
The switch is placed against the block to watch, like a comparator: chest, barrel, Item Vault… It counts the items in that inventory, or only those of its filter, and compares that number with its two thresholds. The redstone signal comes out of its other faces.
A fill indicator
On its front the switch shows the fill level in five steps, from empty to full. You can see at a glance how a store is doing without opening the chest. In the loop, a belt delivers iron ingots and the indicator climbs as they arrive.
Two thresholds, not one
The switch turns on when the amount reaches the upper threshold, 128 items by default, and only turns off when it drops to the lower threshold, 64 by default. In between it keeps its state. That gap stops a machine from starting and stopping with every item that comes in or goes out. Both values are set in its interface, in items or in stacks.
Dropping below the lower threshold
As the store is emptied, the signal stays on down to the lower threshold, then cuts out. A typical setup: the switch's signal locks an input Funnel when the chest is full and releases it once it has emptied enough. The Invert Signal option does the opposite, to start production when stock runs low.
Reading a tank
Against a fluid tank the switch counts in millibuckets instead of items. It can stop a pump when the tank is full, or start a mixer when there is enough lava or water. The filter accepts a fluid, for example a water bucket, to count only that one.
The height of a pulley
Attached to a rope pulley, the switch reads the height of what it carries. Use it for a lift or a skip: the redstone changes state when the load reaches the right floor. Thresholds are then expressed as y levels.
Example: a farm that regulates itself
A sugar cane farm fills an Item Vault. Place the switch against the vault with an upper threshold of 2,000 and a lower one of 500, and wire its output to the clutch that passes rotation to the harvesters. When the stock reaches 2,000, the redstone disengages the clutch and the farm stops; it only restarts once the factory downstream has used enough to bring it back down to 500. The engine no longer runs for nothing and the vault never overflows.
When to prefer it over a comparator
A vanilla comparator gives a signal from 0 to 15, hard to tune precisely on a big chest. The Threshold Switch works with exact amounts and its two thresholds. To react to the mere presence of an item, the Smart Observer is simpler. The two complement each other very well in the same factory, one for quantities and one for presence.
Related pages
Sources for the numbers (Create 6.0.8 code)
- Thresholds: ThresholdSwitchBlockEntity (onWhenAbove = 128, offWhenBelow = 64, Inverted), state kept between the two thresholds
- Indicator: ThresholdSwitchBlock.LEVEL (1 + fill × 4)
- Targets: inventories, tanks (IFluidHandler), ThresholdSwitchObservable (pulley: y level)
- Recipe: crafting/logistics/stockpile_switch.json
- Scene: DetectorScenes.thresholdSwitch (two loops); belt items simulated
Original texts and animations by Create France, rendered from the mod's Ponder scenes. Create is a mod by the Create Team, not affiliated with Create France.