Minecraft wiki entry for Advanced_redstone_circuits, associated text: The repeaters that will lock can be set to different delays. For example, if they are set to 4 ticks and the first 3 are active, it means the time difference was 0.8-1.2 seconds. You can even have a mix, which can be handy if you know what the range is likely to be. However, you will need to be careful when reading these timers.