Item sorter: one item kind out of a line of mixed items (hopper filter)

takes one item kind out of a mixed line · 15 blocks

Takes every item of one kind out of a line of mixed items into its chest (set up for iron ingots; the items in its filter hopper choose the kind); everything else goes on along the line, 2.5 items a second.

It cannot sort items that do not stack (tools, armour, potions) nor items renamed or enchanted unlike the ones in its filter: they pass by unsorted.

its first item sorted within 1 s · fits in 1×5×5

a full chest never jams the line

takes one item kind out of a mixed lineItem sorter3D view loading (or not available in this browser)

Try it

Watch the line of mixed items: the iron ingots drop into the chest, everything else goes on to the end of the line (the numbers over each container show what it holds).

How this design does it: One slice per item kind, slices side by side under a line of hoppers: the hopper under the line holds 41 of its item and 4 renamed fillers, so each extra one of that item it pulls in lets its comparator's signal reach the torch that locks the hopper below, which drops that item into the chest; everything else rides on along the line, even when a chest is full.

Build it

Download .litematic Download the design as text

The .litematic opens in Litematica (Minecraft 26.3): every block of the design in one region. The text file is the same build written as plain text, block by block.

Load it exactly like this (the download comes loaded): the upper hopper holds 41 iron ingots in its first slot and one paper named “filter” in each of the other four; the lower hopper holds 64 iron ingots in its first slot and one paper named “lock” in each of the other four. End a water stream on a hopper of the line before the first slice, not on the first slice itself: that slice's hopper would take whole stacks and pass some of its own kind on unsorted. Nor put a hopper pointing down on top of the first slice: it feeds the line twice as fast.

Blocks used: comparator hopper redstone torch redstone wire repeater stone

Details: how it works, measurements and properties

In depth

takes every item of one kind out of a line of mixed items into its chest and lets everything else go on; slices side by side sort one kind each

How to try it

The sorter runs in the view: mixed items come in at the cell tagged ITEMS and travel along the line of hoppers; the iron ingots drop into the chest at OUT, and everything else goes on to the end of the line. The numbers over each container show what it holds; speed it up with the bar's speed dropdown. Drag to look around, pinch or scroll to zoom.

Measurements

metric	value	what it means
items/s	2.50	items moved per second at the steady rate (from 10% to 90% of the total)
first item	by 1 s
hoppers awake	2	hoppers left unlocked at rest: each one looks for items every game tick (lag on busy servers)
slice	width 1
badges	overflow-proof	the extra situations it handles (see what it does above)
bill	15 iron, 1 quartz, 10 redstone	what its blocks cost to craft: iron, quartz, redstone, slime

Notes from its designer

One slice per item kind, slices side by side under a line of hoppers: the hopper under the line holds 41 of its item and 4 renamed fillers, so each extra one of that item it pulls in lets its comparator's signal reach the torch that locks the hopper below, which drops that item into the chest; everything else rides on along the line, even when a chest is full. Details: the recipe (every item is required, none is a test load: 105 iron ingots and 8 papers in all): the filter hopper (under the line hopper) gets 41 of the item to sort in its first slot and 1 paper renamed "filter" in each of its 4 other slots (any item that never comes down the line); the drain hopper under it gets 64 of the item in its first slot and 4 items that cannot stack with the filter's fillers (here papers renamed "lock"). 16-stack items (snowballs, ender pearls): 10 in the filter and 16 in the drain, the same fillers. It cannot sort items that do not stack (tools, armour: they pass through) nor items renamed or enchanted unlike the recipe's. End a water stream on a hopper of the line before the first slice, not on the first slice itself.

Properties

Study	Item sorters
Kind	Item sorter: one item kind out of a line of mixed items (hopper filter)
Blocks placed	15 (not counting the chests the view adds)
Box	1×5×5 (25 blocks of space)
Made of (the blocks that change state)	comparator, hopper, redstone torch, redstone wire, repeater, stone
Inputs / outputs	no input / OUT
Design file	`sorter-classic`

The design file

on GitHub

Design file (50 lines)

# Item sorter: takes one item kind out of a mixed line · 15 blocks
# https://vjeux.github.io/redstonepedia/circuits/sorter/sorter-classic.html
name: sorter-classic
circuit: sorter iron_ingot
tile: 1 0 0
port items: 0 4 0
port pass: 1 3 0
port output: 0 0 0
origin: 0 0 0
palette:
  L minecraft:hopper[enabled=true,facing=east]
  A minecraft:hopper[enabled=true,facing=down]
  B minecraft:hopper[enabled=false,facing=down]
  C minecraft:comparator[facing=north,mode=compare,powered=false]
  S minecraft:stone
  T minecraft:redstone_wall_torch[facing=north,lit=true]
  R minecraft:repeater[delay=1,facing=south,locked=false,powered=false]
  r minecraft:redstone_wire[east=side,north=side,power=0,south=side,west=side]
layer -1:
  .
  .
  .
  S
  .
layer 0:
  .
  T
  S
  R
  S
layer 1:
  B
  S
  S
  S
  r
layer 2:
  A
  C
  r
  r
  .
layer 3:
  L
  .
  .
  .
  .
nbt: 0 2 0 {Items:[{Slot:0b,id:"minecraft:iron_ingot",count:41},{Slot:1b,id:"minecraft:paper",count:1,components:{"minecraft:custom_name":"filter"}},{Slot:2b,id:"minecraft:paper",count:1,components:{"minecraft:custom_name":"filter"}},{Slot:3b,id:"minecraft:paper",count:1,components:{"minecraft:custom_name":"filter"}},{Slot:4b,id:"minecraft:paper",count:1,components:{"minecraft:custom_name":"filter"}}]}
nbt: 0 1 0 {Items:[{Slot:0b,id:"minecraft:iron_ingot",count:64},{Slot:1b,id:"minecraft:paper",count:1,components:{"minecraft:custom_name":"lock"}},{Slot:2b,id:"minecraft:paper",count:1,components:{"minecraft:custom_name":"lock"}},{Slot:3b,id:"minecraft:paper",count:1,components:{"minecraft:custom_name":"lock"}},{Slot:4b,id:"minecraft:paper",count:1,components:{"minecraft:custom_name":"lock"}}]}