Active Lodestone chunk loaders work directly with vanilla Redstone Comparators, allowing your contraptions to detect whether their chunks are currently forced open and which tier is installed. This helps prevent item movers or sensitive redstone clocks from breaking by letting them run only while the surrounding chunks stay loaded.
Wiring a Comparator to a Lodestone
1. Place your Lodestone where your redstone wiring can reach one of its four horizontal sides.
2. Place a vanilla Redstone Comparator directly against the Lodestone, facing away from the block so its two rear torches point toward the loader.
3. Run Redstone Dust from the front output of the comparator, or place a solid block in front of it to power nearby components.
4. Right-click the Lodestone with an Iron Ingot, Diamond, or Netherite Ingot. The comparator will immediately output a redstone signal whose strength depends on the active tier.
Practical Uses for Tier Signals
- Status Indicator Lamps: Wire a Redstone Lamp to the comparator output at your farm's control panel so you can tell at a glance if the loader is active—or if someone turned it off with an empty hand.
- Tier-Gated Farm Switches: Because the output signal strength changes depending on which tier material is active, you can extend a line of Redstone Dust from the comparator so wide multi-chunk machines only unlock when a high enough tier is installed to cover the entire build.