Improved Outdoor Auto Switch Lights

I get asked frequently while playing online to help people with various redstone contraptions they want to build. One of the frequent requests is lighting for homes and towns that toggle at night. Usually they start tossing tons of sticky pistons and daylight sensors my way to build them, but I'd like to point why that's really not necessary.

The Common Basic Model

Let's examine the basic model I see commonly used today. It consists of a daylight sensor which sits on a sticky piston. When the sensor loses light, the piston retracts, pulling a redstone block up to power the lamps.

Sure, this is nice. But it does come with a few big disadvantages:

1. It's Noisy

Pistons make noise, so this means something which should ideally be silent such as a street light shouts out a loud "KA-THUNK" every time it toggles. Imagine you're in bed, trying to get to sleep for the night, and just as you start to drift off you are alerted by the sudden earthquake that happens as every light post in your town turns on for the night. That's enough to make a lot of cranky citizens.

2. It's Laggy

A large amount of pistons firing at one time can mean lag spikes for servers. So when your town's lights toggle, it could make everyone around skip a few frames. If you have enough lamps for a large town, you might get some unwanted attention from your server's moderators for causing nightly lag spikes for something as mundane as lamps.

3. It's Expensive

In this model, every light needs it's own sticky piston and daylight sensor. That means a lot of time spent digging around deep underground hunting for elusive rare slimes, and lurking in the nether gathering the quartz you need for all of those sensors. I don't particularly enjoy going to the nether, so I use everything I get there sparingly. If you are lighting an entire town with this model you'd better be prepared to spend massive amounts of effort, or cash in servers with an economy plugin.

4. It toggles when it's already dark

As you can see from the pic above, The night has already overtaken the sky. Creepers and skellys are roaming the lands hunting for you. Your street lights however, are still hesitating to shine.

There is a better way!

Let's have a look at an alternative to this model that addresses the disadvantages of doing things that way.

In this model, you can use a single daylight sensor to control all of your lights. Plus, you don't need any pistons at all, and that means no slimes are necessary and the lamps sound exactly as lights should: silence. This method involves digging a trench to connect your lights, sure, but it's one block wide and easily patched up with dirt/grass. The redstone directly beneath the sensor picks up the signal, and carries it downstream to the array of lights. Make sure your first element, either a light post or a repeater, is about 6 blocks horizontally away from the daylight sensor. The signal toggles a 1x1 vertical column of inverter redstone torches, with the top torch powering the lamps. Use a repeater after every lamp post to pick up the redstone signal and continue to the next light post. The signal from the sensor degrades by 6 by the time it hits the first repeater or lamp post, and that means your lights toggle at twilight instead of complete darkness.

The sun is on it's way down over the horizon, but this time your lamps are already doing their job and illuminating your streets and keeping them safe for you and your townfolk.

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See you next time! ~Nichole