Cactus Farm Prototype [Ultimate City Post 3]

Next to work on in the City is the cactus farm. Ideally I wish to get it so each time I harvest, it will yield about a stack's worth of cactus. I expected the current design to do that. However I get half a stack on average. When you see how large the farm is as well as how much redstone goes into it, I feel that it's not worth it. Therefore I am going to basically tear down the current one and replace it with a simpler design that should do the trick.

Shown above is the current design inside the farm. Four levels of 8 cacti. On the sides and the back is a compartment where all the redstone is. The wiring is not very complex.

Close up of a typical level. The upper three just float in the air, no water. In an earlier design on my 1.0.0 non-legit world I had water on the upper level, not realizing cactus could grow without water.

Where the cacti collect. The pressure plates serve to conveniently stop the water. The button shown is what activates the pistons to harvest.

This door and button lead to the room where the redstone is stored and accessed. On the other side of the door is a pressure plate because hey, if you were permitted to enter, there's no reason exiting should be any more difficult than walking out.

Now we are getting to the redstone. The two torches on the right side of the screen react to the button for harvesting. This is its default state. The lower torch is on the same block as the button. When the button is hit the torch turns off. Then the upper torch is turned on, and it powers the wiring and activates the pistons.

Notice the switch and signs? That's a testing feature for maintenance work. Each level has a torch which turns off when the level is powered. The switch forces the circuit to turn on. If I ever see one of the torches doesn't turn on, I can know the circuit has been damaged some how.

The redstone staircase that connects the four levels. Compact spiral formation. I could have used torches instead but this is quicker and in any case, I couldn't figure out the right orientation of torches.

Looking up into the completed farm system.

The four test torches. The circuit is not powered so they are on. If I were to power the circuit and they didn't go out, something would be wrong.

Facing down from the top of the farm. Notice the first signs of a floor pattern - a smooshed Creeper face. Perhaps in the reconstruction stage I will expand the building to accommodate a full face.

What I'm going to do is make a single water current that takes all the water to one location and then have the sets of 8 cactus floating above it. Going to need 8 levels. Not impossible, but time consuming. I want to consider also making something of a panel of test torches so that instead of looking up, I just need to turn my head to, say, the left.