Piston Base

Mechanical block information is listed in the table down below.

Overview

The piston is an extendable block that can move blocks attached to it up or down. It has conveyor support and is able to transfer Oxygen, Hydrogen, Power, and various types of items. You can place items on top of the piston, and it will move up or down whenever it is triggered to do so. All blocks can be placed on the piston such as a Gatling Gun or Blast Door Blocks if you wanted to make your own custom hangar door.

Technically speaking the piston is made up of two grids, much the same way as the Rotor. The base of the piston, and the Piston Head. While there are some limitations, the piston itself has been vastly improved, and is now almost entirely stable as of Update 01.106, even at high speeds.

Usage

Piston’s settings can be set inside the control panel, which is discussed below.

The piston is capable of extending to a maximum of 10.0m (Large), and 3.0m (Small). The Piston Head sit’s a bit higher than the rest of the blocks at about 0.1m. This causes the blocks attached to the top of the piston to be slightly out of alignment compared to the parent ship/grid. Another notable limitation is that not all blocks can move alongside others while being placed ontop, or extended by the piston. This is because the collision boxes hit each other, causing Deformation and damage. Only blocks such as for example Blast Door Blocks can move alongside others without damaging them.

Tips

• The piston can be used to dock ships with the Connector. It can extend and safely attach ships without risking collision with your station/ship.
• The two block sized “body” part of the piston base is NOT airtight. In order to seal a piston that comes through a room there must be an airtight block on the end of the piston body (conveyor if you want to use the system, or an armor block will do), and around any exposed piston body (sides).

Programming

Interface name: IMyPistonBase
Parent: IMyFunctionalBlock
Fields:
bool OnOff
bool ShowInTerminal
bool ShowInToolbarConfig
bool ShowOnHUD
float Velocity
float MinLimit “LowerLimit”
float MaxLimit “UpperLimit”
PistonStatus Status
float “Weld speed”
bool “Force weld”

Strings to be used in methods like “bool GetValueBool(string propertyId)”

Actions:
OnOff -> Toggle block On/Off
OnOff_On -> Toggle block On
OnOff_Off -> Toggle block Off
Reverse -> Reverse
Extend -> Extend
Retract -> Retract
IncreaseVelocity -> Increase Velocity
DecreaseVelocity -> Decrease Velocity
ResetVelocity -> Reset Velocity
IncreaseUpperLimit -> Increase Maximal distance
DecreaseUpperLimit -> Decrease Maximal distance
IncreaseLowerLimit -> Increase Minimal distance
DecreaseLowerLimit -> Decrease Minimal distance
IncreaseWeld speed -> Increase Safety lock speed
DecreaseWeld speed -> Decrease Safety lock speed
IncreaseMaxImpulseAxis
DecreaseMaxImpulseAxis
IncreaseMaxImpulseNonAxis
DecreaseMaxImpulseNonAxis
Force weld -> Safety override lock On/Off
Force weld
IncreaseSafetyDetach
DecreaseSafetyDetach
ShareInertiaTensor
Add Top Part

• There are plenty of collision issues, but this is less to do with the piston, and more about the blocks themselves damaging each other as they move alongside.