Reactor Tablet

alaindustrial:reactor_tablet

ItemsLVImplementeditemenergynuclearreactorremotetablet

Summary

Reactor Tablet is a carried item that shows a reactor from far away. It binds to a room's antenna and opens the same screen as the controller — all five tabs — but in view-only mode.

This is tier 1, the very basics: you can look, you cannot control. The tablet's screen has no depth slider and no STOP button, and the server itself rejects any control request from the client. Later the tablet will grow by tiers (signal boosters, other dimensions, control —; this spec covers only the first.

The tablet is rechargeable: it has an EU/FE buffer of its own, spends charge while the screen is open, and shows static when it has none. You have to recharge it yourself.

Status: spec. The charge and upkeep numbers are in (see "Balance").

A short example: you put an antenna in the room's wall → shift-right-click the antenna with the tablet (binding) → walk 40 blocks away from the build → right-click with the tablet → the controller screen opens, showing heat, output and rods; there is no slider and no STOP. Walk 100 blocks away → the same screen, but with static over it and the words "out of range". Come back into range → the static is gone, the data is live again, and there is no need to reopen the screen.

Energy

The tablet is an electric item of the same kind: the buffer and the energy intake live on the item, and the capacity and the item capability are declared the same way as for the others.

• The draw runs only while the screen is open. A closed tablet in a bag spends no energy.
• Overload is the reactor's warning state (heat at the "caution" line or higher): while it lasts the screen flickers with static, and the tablet spends a little more.
• The charge is deducted on the server, in the same tick as the link is recalculated.
• A discharged tablet does not refuse to open: the screen opens with static and the reason "tablet discharged" (see "No link").

There is no wireless recharging from the antenna in tier 1: that is an improvement for a future tier.

How it's used

Binding

• Shift-right-click on a Reactor Antenna writes into the tablet the dimension and position of the controller of its room (that is, the reactor, not the antenna itself).
• The tablet remembers one reactor. A second shift-right-click on another antenna rebinds: the previous binding is replaced, there is no list.
• Without an antenna the tablet cannot be bound: shift-right-click on the controller itself writes nothing.
• The sound and the confirmation of binding follow the model of the Teleporter Remote; the detail is settled at implementation.

The screen

Right-click with the tablet in the air opens the screen of the bound reactor. It is the same screen as the controller's own panel, with the same set of tabs — "Console", "Room", "Core", "Circuit" and "Log" — but in

The data comes over the same channels and the same zone and log packets as the controller's, only while the screen is open. The server does not duplicate the data: its load equals the load of a player standing at the controller itself.

The screen closes only if the tablet is no longer in the hand. No loss of link closes the screen.

In the hands and the screen unfolding

The tablet feels like a handheld instrument, not like "an item that opens a window":

1. Right-click — the hands raise the tablet into the frame from below and hold it with both hands by the rubber side brackets (about 0.3 s).
2. The screen unfolds from the raised tablet: the body grows to almost the whole screen and the world around it darkens (about 0.3 s), then the glass switches on like an old monitor: a bright line in the middle opens out into a picture (about 0.25 s). While the body is moving, the screen accepts no clicks. On the way up the tablet is slightly turned and straightens at eye level; once raised, it "breathes" a little in the hands.
3. Closing (Esc, the inventory key) plays the same thing in reverse: the screen folds back into the tablet and goes away, and the hands lower the tablet already without a screen — control returns at once. A second press of Esc during folding closes the screen immediately.

The body on screen is dark, with rubber brackets along the edges, the item's name, signal bars, a link lamp, the charge percentage and label at the top, and buttons and speakers at the bottom. The body shows

No sharp flashes. The first version (a lamp every 120 ms, random 60 ms dips of the screen) was painful to look at; the owner asked for it to be softened (in-game check, 2026-11-03). Now nothing on the body blinks more often than once a second, and the fill and the darkening change smoothly — with a margin below the three flashes per second of the accessibility rules (WCAG 2.3.1). A unit test holds both limits.

The body and the panel have one source: the link comes from the tablet's menu, the reactor's state from the same console output that colours its plate, and the charge from the tablet in the hand.

Look. The item is a volumetric model, a "console with knobs" (the owner's choice of 2026-11-02): a body with a screen, ribbed rubber brackets on the sides, a lamp on the lid. The icon on the guide site is still the old flat one.

The accident is visible on the item itself. While the reactor the tablet hears is in a red alert (the same console output that colours the plate), the amber lamp and the handle lugs on the model turn red and slowly "breathe" (a 1.3 s cycle) — in the hotbar, in the hand and on the ground, even with the screen closed. The server checks this once a second and puts the mark on the item; the item model picks its variant by the mark. Only a tablet with a link gets the mark: one that is unbound, discharged or out of range does not turn red (the owner's request, 2026-11-03).

The off hand. The tablet works from either hand (the main hand is checked first). While the animation runs, both hands hold the tablet, and the item in the other hand is not drawn. Third person does not change: other players see ordinary item holding.

Pause. The tablet's screen does not pause a single-player game: the data is live.

No link

The screen always opens. If there is no link, the reactor panel is not visible at all: no tabs, no header, no page buttons, the mouse highlights nothing and there are no tooltips. In its place, over dim static, is a reason card: "NO SIGNAL", an icon, the name of the reason and one line on what to do (the owner's decision from the in-game check,. When the link comes back, the panel appears by itself on the tab where it was left. The reasons:

The link is recalculated every tick: leave the zone — static, come back — the data returns by itself, with no reopening of the screen.

Chunks are not loaded for the tablet's sake. If the controller is in an unloaded chunk, that is "reactor not responding", and nothing is forced.

Range is 64 blocks on all three axes from the nearest powered antenna of the reactor the tablet is bound to, in the same dimension. The range calculation and the dimension check are one link function, to which the booster cards will be added later; there are no other paths for range.

The static is redrawn by the client from scratch using GUI means, with no direct calls to the graphics API.

Tooltip

When you hover over the tablet in the inventory, it shows:

• one line on what right-click does ("Right-click: open");
• the coordinates of the bound reactor ("Reactor: X Y Z"); for an unbound one — "Not bound" and, on the line below, how to bind it ("Shift-right-click an antenna");
• the charge, and for an empty one — "Discharged".

Each thought gets its own short line (the owner's decision of 2026-11-02: a long tooltip was hard to read). The dimension is not written in the tooltip; the tablet names another dimension on the screen, when the reactor cannot be reached. You can also bind by clicking the antenna's mast.

What the tablet does not do

• It does not control the reactor. A reactor can be shut down or started only on the spot (a redstone signal, the controller's slider, the reactor lever). Control is a separate future tier with protection against bypassing the reactor's hazard.
• It gives no alarm sound. There is no beeping in the hand (the owner's decision).
• It does not load chunks.
• It does not work between worlds and is not strengthened by cards.
• It does not remember several reactors.
• It has no empty slots "for the future".

Animation

The animation in the hands and the tablet unfolding to almost the whole screen are a separate task,; this spec does not cover them.

Block properties

Not applicable (an item). Stack size: 1.

Recipes

The craft is expensive: the nuclear stage, close to the reactor controller in price. Shape TGT / ARA / TBT, output 1 tablet.

The recipe unlocks in the recipe book when the inventory holds a reactor control circuit and a battery.

Progression

• An item of the item category. Energy intake tier: LV; available after the nuclear stage (controller, antenna).
• Requires: a Reactor Antenna on the reactor.
• Unlocks: remote viewing of a reactor; later — boosters, a link between worlds, control.

Related

• Reactor Antenna — without it the tablet cannot see the reactor.
• Reactor Controller — whose screen and whose data the tablet shows.
• Teleporter Remote — the model of binding a carried item by shift-right-click.
• Electromagnet — the model of a rechargeable item.

Crafting

Shaped Crafting

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Reactor Tablet