Can you get a mining turtle to do this?

[Demon36]

1) Filter blocks so it doesnt pick up cobble/dirt/etc

2) after its inventory is full, go back to its starting position and deposit in a chest, move a long more blocks, mine out, come back, deposit, and keep going?

[theprolo]

You can't make it not pick up certain blocks, but you can make it drop them. Your second one is already covered by the "excavate" command built-in. If you want to make something similar, I recommend checking that program out and just modifying it.

[Demon36]

Is there a way i can do tunnel and make it come back and deposit? I have no idea how to program or modify it.

And to make it put in a chest, do i just put it next to a chest and it'll auto do it?

[theprolo]

It should do. Just put the chest behind it and it'll drop stuff off.

[Michael101]

Why not just go to the computercraft turtle forums and download one of the HUNDREDS of pre made programs that make use of enderchests to let the turtle dump it's contents directly into your systems sorting setup.

[theprolo]

Why not just go to the computercraft turtle forums and download one of the HUNDREDS of pre made programs that make use of enderchests to let the turtle dump it's contents directly into your systems sorting setup.

Because the built in programs do that already?

Assuming you're not using Tekkit Classic, of course. Then they only do basic stuff, no dropping off.

[Teraku]

So how does excavate drop items into chests? What do you need to do, does it just have to pass a chest or something?

[theprolo]

In more recent versions, when a turtle is full it just returns to where it started and barfs stuff onto the floor behind the start point. If there's an inventory, it puts stuff away. Then it carries on.

[Teraku]

Ah, that's pretty cool.

I still prefer my own homemade programs, though. You know exactly what to expect, and half the fun is in the programming.

[Michael101]

And if you don't want a square hole that just keeps getting deeper, you can use something like this ( http://pastebin.com/PAPDddcb ) . The program asks you for the dimensions of the hole you want it to dig before it starts. So you could have it dig a 4x4x25 tunnel if you wanted to.

As for filtering out unwanted blocks, I use a filter/incinerator combo on the turtles drop chest...

In the picture I had a chunk loaded turtle excavate a stone block castle ruin by using a 'excavate 25' command. On the right of the drop chest is a filter pulling out dirt/cobble/gravel/sand/clay and sending them to an incinerator to be destroyed. If you want to use the buildcraft method you could use an emerald pipe to pull those blocks out and send them into a void pipe. On the left of the drop chest I had a filter pulling out stone brick, mossy brick, chiseled stone brick, and later marble. (I got about two and a half crystal chests worth of stone brick, mossy brick, and chiseled stone bricks from that one ruin)

Later on when I have a proper sorting system at my base I can just ender chest or telepipe the turtle's diggings to be sorted at the base.