Hopper Sorter
Sorting items automatically became possible when hoppers were introduced to the game. However, the vanilla setup is space-consuming, expensive, and probably above the heads of many people new to redstone. The Hopper Sorter is designed to solve these problems.
Construction
- Attach an item frame to a hopper.
- Put an item in the item frame.
We like to call this construction a “Item Filter”. This hopper will only absorb items of the type in the frame. No other items will be allowed in. You can attach multiple item frames to all four sides of a hopper to make it accept any of the items contained therein.
Usage
These item filters can be used for any number of redstone constructions, be it an item sorting system for your storage area, item detection for an elaborate slot machine or an item payment system. The items transported to your item filter can come from many different sources; the system will show the same behavior for all of them.
- Dropped items on the ground, above the hopper.
- Items transported above the hopper with a water stream.
- Items from adjacent hoppers pointing at the item filter.
- Items from containers above the hopper, including other hoppers.
- Minecarts with chests or hoppers riding a rail above the hopper.
All of these would usually have their items transported into your hopper. Turned into a item filter by means of item frames, it will allow only the item types that are in one of the frames in the hopper. Use this system to have an item sorter that saves a lot of space, time, effort, and materials.