Items to make - 2 

An Autoturret

An Autocollector

An Autoturret

Crushing straw dogs won't work. Neither will a crushing defense work against tapebots or farmbots. To defend against these you are going to need something more powerful - an autoturret which will detect bots and rapidly fire spud ammunition against them.

Creating such devices needs lots of resources so this isn't a beginner project (unless you are prepared to cheat.)

Construction details

Start by placing your lift and building a 12 by 8 platform of 'Game grid blocks.' These blocks are indestructable. You are going to need something resistant to tapebots because they will attack your autoturret while it is firing at something else and stop it functioning. You'll need to install 'The Modpack' by Durf; get it at https://scrapmechanicmods.com/m=42 If you feel an indestructable block is cheating then I suggest you use metal 3 instead but you will have to do repairs.

Having made the base, build up the sides and place a spud ammo container and battery container within. Leave a  1x2 'window' on each side so that you can see how full each container is. Note: there's also a 1x2 hole in the base in which you will put a logic gate and switch.

Add two Fant  pump pipes. Make sure the arrow on each points towards the containers.

In the hole in the base place a logic gate and press 'E' on it to convert it to a 'NOR' gate. Add a switch to the side of it and use the connect tool to connect the switch (pink dot) to the NOR gate (blue dot). As soon as you do so the NOR gate will turn ON.

Why not just use a switch?
Switches do not remember the state you left them in. If you turn a switch ON and then leave the game it will be OFF when you return to the game. Since you will probably set up several autoturrets you don't want to go round them all every time you enter the game to switch them on again. A NOR gate takes the default 'OFF' state of a switch and reverses it to an 'ON' output. Should you want to switch an autoturret 'OFF' then simply turn the switch ON and the NOR gate will reverse that to off. We are going to completely hide this switch with game grid blocks but by using a connect tool you'll be able to see the switches pink dot and press 'E' on it.

Add two teleport receivers to the ends of the containers. Each will need painting. I paint the ammo box the mucky green colour - the darkest shade of yellow. This seems traditional for ammo boxes. I paint the battery container the lightest of the yellow shades.

Now cover the construction with a 12 by 8 layer of game grid blocks and half way along it at one side place a bearing.

Place two blocks on top of the bearing and extend these sideways and upwards as shown. At the top place two bearings and paint them any colour except the default orange.

Fill in the gap between the bearings and add the extra block at this side facing you. On the bottom of that add another block. Then in the middle add a 'unit facer' positioned so that the 'eyelid' is at the side next to the extra block. Then add a bearing, add two short pipes, a 3x3 gyroscope and a laser unit as shown below.

 On the gyroscope add four level 1 sensors pointing upwards.

Looking down on the base unit, remove five blocks and replace them with five 'AND' logic blocks (the default). Using your connect tool, connect the middle AND block to each of the outer blocks. 

Still using your connect tool, connect the unit facer to the coloured bearings at the top. At this point you should make sure that both bearings are set to turn the same direction. One will be wrong. Right click one of these bearings to change its direction - it doesn't matter which one. Now connect the battery container to the unit facer. (OK I forgot which side was the battery too, but look for the two battery terminals sticking out of the top; that's which one of the light green dots you want.)

Connect the laser (blue dot) to the gyroscope (green dot).

Connect the laser to the middle AND gate on the base. To clarify the connections I removed the four sensors from this image. 

Add a temporary switch to the top of the autoturret, connect it to the NOR gate and switch it ON. This will disable  the autoturret while it is being assembled.  

Now you need to add a mountable spud gun and connect it up. If you add the gun and connect it immediately you'll find it easier than adding all the guns and then making all the connections. To help you see the new connections I've outlined them in white

Repeat this process of adding a mountable spud gun and making the connections for each gun in turn for all  four guns. You should be able to see in the image below why I said to add a gun and connect it one at a time. 

Almost finished. You need to set the unit facer detection distance and the laser to fire at non-players and at the correct distance. The distances largely depend on how far away a tapebot has to be before it will fire at targets. My experiments indicate a tapebot will not fire at you until you get within 142 blocks distance but if you fire at it, it will fire back if you are within 185 blocks distance. You therefore need to set the laser firing distance at 200 blocks and the unit facer detection distance at 240 blocks distance. The aim is to detect and destroy tapebots before they can detect and return fire. If you find your autoturret is being damaged, even though most of it is indestructable, then increase these distances. Tapebots tend to target the most vulnerable areas such as bearings, pipes or switches. If they target your temporary switch on the autoturret it won't stop the autoturret working since there is another switch hidden inside.

Below - Setting the sensors. Set the range distance to '2'.

Below - setting the gyroscope. Direction does not matter. I suggest you set it at about half power (25). Setting it for a greater value should make the gun fire faster but also appears to increase lag. Experiment to see what is best for you.

Below - setting the laser pointer. Press 'U' to set 'non Player'.

As you can see in the above image, there's a totebot within the detection distance but nothing has happened. There are four reasons for that.

1. The temporary switch is 'ON' to disable the autoturret. DO NOT TURN IT OFF YET!

2. As soon as you turn on the battery teleport receiver it will start filling your battery container with batteries - if you have a matching battery teleport sender. We haven't made one yet.  I suggest, for now, put 5 batteries in the battery container.

3.  As soon as you turn on the spud ammo teleport receiver it will start filling your ammo container with spuds - if you have a matching spud teleport sender. We haven't made one yet either. I suggest, for now, put 10 spuds in the spud ammo container

4. Your autoturret is still on the lift. Like a vehicle, it wont function while still on a lift. 

BEFORE you switch off the temporary switch to test your autoturret I suggest you make a blueprint of it.

You are probably going to need several of these autoturrets so rather than make them each time you need one create a blueprint of the autoturret. Point at the lift underneath it and press 'E' to create one.

Once you've made a blueprint, test your autoturret.  It won't work if it is on the lift so remove that. Switch the temporary switch off. If there is a bot within range one of two things should happen.

1. it should start firing and will probably fall over - don't worry about that. Using your lift selected in your hotbar left click on it and it will restore to the correct orientation. You may then go on to the final step.
2. it will detect the bot but the laser will point in the exact opposite direction without firing. If this is the case switch the temporary switch on again and, with the connect tool selected in your hotbar, right click on each of the two coloured bearings at the top. You can then re-test.

If you've set up everything correctly then the test bot will quickly be destroyed.

Using the autoturret

Using a lift place an autoturret down near where you want its final location to be. Then, at the final location place a single block (any block) on the ground near the autoturret corner. Remove the lift allowing the autoturret to fall to the ground. Now use the welding tool, first point at the bottom corner of the autoturret and click then point at the block you placed on the ground. You might have to press 'Q' a few times to orientate it. Left clicking will anchor the turret to the ground so that it does not fall over from the gun recoil.

Now you need a source of spud ammunition and batteries. A row of automatic farming boxes can provide the spuds. You'll probably need to place these somewhere secure away from where bots can destroy your crop. Suitable locations can be:

• On top of the mechanic station
• On top of the fuel bay
• Underwater - keep the total crop value to 79 or less (52 potato plants - 20 is enough) or tapebots will destroy the crop
• On top of the Trader base.
  
  Here's an example of that. A row of potatoes, farmed in automatic farmboxes, is connected to a smart chest which has a potato filter set. That in turn is connected to a teleport sender painted the matching colour. The teleport sender also has a potato filter set. Both the teleport sender and smart chest are powered by a switch.

Automatically providing the batteries is a little more difficult. You can gather them from destroyed bots (tapebots and straw dogs are good sources) or create them. If you make them you have two options

1. Make them from 10 scrap metal, 5 glow worm poop and 5 chemicals
2. Make them from 3 oranges, 2 paint ammo, 5 chemicals and 10 scrap metal

Oranges and paint ammo can be farmed. Chemicals and scrap metal can be made by disassembling circuit boards which you'll get in abundance. Glow worm poop can be obtained by feeding glow worms cardboard but you'll have to make that from scrap wood which will have to be collected.

Of course you'll have to gather the destroyed bot resources as well yourself - unless you've made an automatic collector.

If your autoturret is damaged

Rather than trying to fix it, you'll probably find it is better and quicker to break it up and rebuild it from your blueprint. A vacuum gun will be of great assistance in disassembling a damaged autoturret.