ComputerCraft Program Documentation

I've written some awesome programs for my ComputerCraft Turtles, and wanted to share them with whoever might be interested! So if you are interested, you can download them here! They're provided as-is, I don't think I have any real significant comments in the code, but functionality, use and purpose is explained below for each program! Usually all you need to do is change some of the program's global variables near the top of each file to tweak it to your liking. I'll work on a more accessible and easier to use version of these programs at some point!

In the meantime, here is a brief summary of what each program does, and how to use it:

Program: Startup
Description

Used to automatically copy all code files to the root directory of the turtle / computer on startup if there is a disk drive containing a disk with this code on it. Makes life much easier when working on projects in different areas that require the same programs.

Variables

programs: A string array of the list of program names to copy. Defaults are: "Tunneler", "TunnelBuilder", "RoomDigger", "LumberJackV3", "RailLayerV2", "SurfaceLayer", "f", "b", "u", "d", "l" & "r".

Program: f / b / u / d / l / r
Description

A simple set of programs to allow easier turtle navigation. Simply type the letter representing the direction you wish to move / turn followed by a number representing the distance in blocks / metres to travel or the number of times to turn. For example, to move forward 4 blocks, you would type "f 4", or to move up one block you can omit the number and simply type "u".

Arguments

distance (Optional): The distance to move in the corresponding direction. Must be an integer value representing a distance in terms of blocks / metres. (Default: 1)

Variables

fuelSlot: The slot designated to hold fuel (coal / charcoal / etc.) to power the turtle. (Default: 1)
removeObstacles: Determines whether or not the turtles should remove blocks it encounters while moving to its destination. (Default: false)

Program: RoomDigger
Description

Arguably the most useful and most used program in the whole collection. Used for digging out rooms of any size in almost any direction (there is no customization for whether the room is to the left or right of the turtle at the moment). All you need to do is place the turtle at the front left corner of the room to dig (this means it will move forward 1 block before starting to dig the inner portion of the room), customize the dimensions (width / depth / height) and the direction to dig the room (up / down). If you layer multiple turtles together to dig different layers if you are hollowing out a large room, this can also be more beneficial than using a single turtle to do all the work. The turtle will also return to its initial position unless otherwise specified with the return turtle variable.

Variables

depth / width / height: The depth / width / height of the room to dig. (Default: 16x16x4)
returnTurtle: Determines if the turtle should return to its initial starting location or not. (Default: true)
removeObstacles: Determines if the turtle should remove any unexpected obstacles it encounters (ie. sand / gravel) while digging the room. (Default: true)
roomDirection: Determines if the turtle should dig up or down. Options are directionUp (Default) / directionDown.

Program: SurfaceLayer
Description

Used for placing a set of materials to form a flat surface above or below the turtle in a square or rectangular room. There are two modes that this program operates in - static and dynamic. When using dynamic mode, the turtle moves forward until it hits a wall, returns, and then moves to the right until it hits a wall to determine the size of the room, then proceeds to place blocks. In static mode, you must manually specify the dimensions of the room using width / height. Block placement direction can be changed using the surface type variable to change whether the block is placed above or below the turtle. The materials will be automatically pulled from the specified material slot and will advance to the next slot when empty. Once it reaches the last slot, the program will pause and wait for building materials to be refilled and acknowledgement from the user. The turtle will also return to its initial position unless otherwise specified with the return turtle variable.

Variables

mode: Determines whether the turtle should move forward and right to determine the dimensions of the room based on the distance to the first block it collides with (dynamic), or if it should use the hard-coded values to specify the dimensions of the surface (static). Options are modeDynamic (Default) / modeStatic.
surfaceType: Determines whether the turtle should place blocks above or below it. Options are surfaceFloor (Default) / surfaceCeiling.
replaceBlocks: Determines if the turtle should replace blocks already in place on the corresponding surface or leave them. (Default: true)
removeObstacles: Determines if the turtle should remove unexpected obstacles while placing its surface (ie. sand / gravel). (Default: true)
returnTurtle: Determines if the turtle should return to its initial starting location or not. (Default: true)
depth / width: The depth / width of the surface to lay (only used if in static mode). (Default: 0)
fuelSlot: The slot designated to hold fuel (coal / charcoal / etc.) to power the turtle. (Default: 1)
currentSlot: The first slot to consume building materials from for laying the surface. It increments to the right and downwards to find more materials. (Default: 2)

Program: LumberJackV3
Description

Definitely the most complicated program in the collection, also extremely useful for easy wood collection / tree harvesting! Just plant your trees 6 blocks apart, place the turtle in front of the front left tree, specify the dimensions of your tree farm (in terms of trees widthwise / lengthwise) and fire it up. You can also play around with the farm offset if you wish to have the turtle start / return to a different location! Operates in two modes - legacy redwood mode and normal mode. I haven't used redwood mode in some time, but it should still work - it's used for cutting down redwood trees in Feed the Beast (I forget which mod pack exactly). The lumber bot will automatically re-plant saplings as it cuts down trees to save you the trouble as well! Just make sure that the fuel slot and sapling slot are each full of coal and saplings before you start it! You can change these slots using their corresponding slot variables. Due to stacks maxing out at 64, that is also the largest number of trees this program can currently deal with (ie. an 8x8 tree farm). If you wish to have your trees spaced differently, you can also customize this using the normal / redwood tree spacing variables.

Variables

mode: Determines if the lumber bot is operating in normal or legacy redwood mode. It used to be used to cut down 2x2 redwood trees in Feed the Beast, should still work but I haven't tested it in some time. Options are modeNormal (Default) / modeRedwood.
plantSaplings: Determines if the lumber bot should plant saplings in place of the trees it harvests or not, so that they can regrow. (Default: true)
farmWidth / farmDepth: The number of trees making up the front / length of the tree farm. (Default: 8x8)
maxHeight: The maximum height to cut upwards. This prevents the turtle from digging to the surface of the map if you have an underground tree farm! (Default: 12)
useFarmOffset: Determines if the turtle should use the specified tree farm offsets to navigate to the tree farm or not. I don't think this works in redwood mode. (Default: false)
farmOffsetWidth / farmOffsetDepth / farmOffsetHeight: The offset that the tree farm starts at relative to where the turtle starts / finishes at (ie. the front left corner in front of a tree). Currently hard-coded for my purposes, you will need to change this. (Default: -21, 3, 3)
redwoodTreeSpacing: Determines the distance in blocks / metres between redwood trees. (Default: 10)
normalTreeSpacing: The distance in blocks / metres between regular trees / saplings in a normal tree farm. (Default: 6)
removeObstacles: Determines if unexpected obstacles should be removed while cutting down trees (ie. from endermen). (Default: false)
fuelSlot: The slot designated to hold fuel (coal / charcoal / etc.) to power the turtle. (Default: 1)

Program: Tunneler
Description

A program which is usually used for digging strip mines and underground minecart track tunnels. Must be placed in front of where the tunnel is to be dug out. The height and length of the tunnel are determined through the program's global variables. Torches can also be automatically placed every few blocks on a specific wall with a certain amount of spacing between them, as specified through the torch mode and torch spacing variables. The turtle will also return to its initial position unless otherwise specified with the return turtle variable.

Variables

length / height: The length / height of the tunnel to dig. (Default: 128x2)
returnTurtle: Determines if the turtle should return to its initial starting location or not. (Default: true)
torchSpacing: The distance in blocks / metres between torches. (Default: 8)
torchMode: Determines which side of the tunnel torches should be placed on. Options: torchDisabled / torchRight (Default) / torchLeft / torchBothSides)
removeObstacles: Determines if unexpected obstacles (ie. sand / gravel) should be removed or not. (Default: true)
fuelSlot: The slot designated to hold fuel (coal / charcoal / etc.) to power the turtle. (Default: 1)

Program: TunnelBuilder
Description: A program which is used for filling in holes in tunnels, works in conjunction with the Tunneler program. You must specify the length and height of the tunnel to be filled, as well as which surfaces to be filled in with the wall mode, ceiling and floor variables. Material slots are also customized using their corresponding variables. The turtle will also return to its initial position unless otherwise specified with the return turtle variable.
Variables

length / height: The length / height of the tunnel to build. (Default: 16x2)
wallMode: Determines which walls should be placed. Options: wallModeDisabled / wallModeRight / wallModeLeft / wallModeBoth (Default).
floor / ceiling: Determines if the ceiling / floor should be placed or not. (Defaults: true / true))
returnTurtle: Determines if the turtle should return to its initial starting location or not. (Default: true)
removeObstacles: Determines if unexpected obstacles (ie. sand / gravel) should be removed or not. (Default: true)
fuelSlot: The slot designated to hold fuel (coal / charcoal / etc.) to power the turtle. (Default: 1)
leftWallMaterialSlot / rightWallMaterialSlot: The slot containing the material to be used for the left / right wall. (Defaults: 2 / 3)
floorMaterialSlot / ceilingMaterialSlot: The slot containing the material to be used for the floor / ceiling. (Defaults: 4 / 5)

Program: RailLayerV2
Description

A nifty program to assist you in automatic laying of minecart tracks. Operates in two modes - static (uses the length variable to determine the length of track to be placed) and dynamic (moves forward until an obstacle or wall is encountered to determine the length of track to be placed). 3-long sections of powered booster rails are placed every 32 blocks by default, but this can be changed if you so desire. Material slots can also be changed as specified by the fuel slot, [building] material slot, [redstone] torch slot, powered rail slot and rail slot variables. Note that every slot after the rail slot is assumed to contain additional rails. If any slot runs out while laying rails, the program will pause and wait for the user to refill the slot. By default, the turtle will assume it has been placed on the floor and move up one block before placing rails. This can be changed using the turtle elevated variable. By default, the turtle will also place material around the block where the redstone torch will be placed, as well as underneath where rails would be placed, unless otherwise specified with the place material around torches and place material under rail variables. The turtle will also return to its initial position unless otherwise specified with the return turtle variable.

Variables

mode: Determines whether the turtle should move forward until it encounters a wall to determine the length of track to be placed (dynamic) or of it should use the length variable value instead (static). Options are modeDynamic (Default) / modeStatic.
length: The length in blocks / metres of the minecart track to be laid. Only used in static mode. (Default: 256)
boosterSpacing: The distance in blocks / metres between the center of each 3-long minecart booster. (Default: 32)
fuelSlot: The slot designated to hold fuel (coal / charcoal / etc.) to power the turtle. (Default: 1)
materialSlot: The slot designated to hold building materials for filling in empty space. (Default: 2)
torchSlot: The slot designated to hold redstone torches for powering the powered rails. (Default: 3)
poweredRailSlot: The slot designated to hold powered rails. (Default: 4)
railSlot: The slot designated to hold regular minecart rails. Each slot after this is assumed to contain a sufficient amount of additional minecart rails. (Default: 5)
turtleElevated: Determines if the turtle should automatically elevate itself up one block or not so that it can place the track below it. (Default: true)
placeMaterialAroundTorches: Determines if the turtle should place blocks around the spot that would hold the redstone torch or not, to prevent water or lava from removing / destroying the torch. (Default: true)
placeMaterialUnderRail: Determines if the turtle should fill in empty gaps where minecart rails would otherwise not be able to be placed while putting down track. (Default: true)
removeObstacles: Determines if unexpected obstacles (ie. sand / gravel) should be removed or not while laying rails. (Default: true)
returnTurtle: Determines if the turtle should return to its initial starting location or not. (Default: true)

Program: FrameQuarry
Description

A program I wrote to control a massive mobile frame quarry machine that I had constructed on my server. It is still a work-in-progress and is largely unfinished, but should still generally work. Can operate in two modes - local and remote. Local allows the user to input commands locally, while remote listens for commands to be transmitted over rednet. Some variables must be configured manually such as the offset of the computer from the front, bottom center point of the frame, the initial y position of the computer, the dimensions of the frame, the wire colours for signalling various frame motors and systems, the side that the RedPower2 bundled cable is connected to and perhaps the tick delays (although they should be fine as is). There is no full automation for mining using the drill platform yet and it has to be instructed manually, hence why this is unfinished. The commands that the program accepts are described below in more detail.

Commands

frame forward # / frame back #: Moves the frame forward / back the specified number of blocks / metres. NOTE: Do not move while the drill platform is extended.
frame left # / frame right #: Moves the frame left / right the specified number of blocks / metres. NOTE: Do not move while the drill platform is extended.
frame up # / frame down #: Moves the frame up the specified number of blocks / metres. NOTE: Do not move while the drill platform is extended.
frame extend # / frame retract #: Extends / rectracts the drill platform the specified number of blocks / metres. NOTE: The platform does not automatically mine as it extends.
frame mine: Activates the array of block breakers on the bottom of the drill platform.

Variables

mode: The mode that the program is operating in. Options are modeLocal (Default) / modeRemote.
yInitial: The current height (or y value) that the computer is at. Needs to be set & updated manually between sessions.
bedrockLevel: The height (or y value) that bedrock starts at. (Default: 5)
xOffset / yOffset / zOffset: The distance on the x / y / z axis of the computer from the front center of the frame.
frameWidth: The width of the frame. (Default: 17)
frameDepth: The depth of the frame. (Default: 17)
frameHeight: The height of the frame (excluding drill platform). (Default: 10)
wireForward: Wire colour for moving forwards. (Default: colors.red)
wireBack: Wire colour for moving backwards. (Default: colors.orange)
wireLeft: Wire colour for moving left. (Default: colors.yellow)
wireRight: Wire colour for moving right. (Default: colors.lime)
wireUp: Wire colour for moving up. (Default: colors.green)
wireDown: Wire colour for moving down. (Default: colors.cyan)
wireExtend: Wire colour for extending the drill platform. (Default: colors.lightBlue)
wireRetract: Wire colour for retracting the drill platform. (Default: colors.blue)
wireDeploy: Wire colour for deploying redstone tube frames for the extending drill platform. (Default: colors.purple)
wireBreak: Wire colour for collecting redstone tube frames from the retracting drill platform. (Default: colours.magenta)
wireMine: Wire colour for activating the block breakers to mine blocks. (Default: colors.pink)
wireFurnace: Wire colour for the bluelectric furnaces. (Default: colors.brown
moveTicks: Number of ticks it takes for the frame to move. (Default: 10)
moveDelay: Number of ticks to wait between movement commands. (Default: 10)
mineTicks: Number of ticks to wait for blocks to be mined. (Default: 4)
cableSide: The side of the computer that the RedPower2 bundled cable is attached to. (Default: "top")