Mr.Hotkeys

In one of the recent updates something (I'm not exactly sure what) was changed so that you can no longer (reliably?) generate enough MJs with redstone engines to convert into EU, or even to run some of the machines. Edit: Looks like they just don't actually output MJs anymore, I can't get it to work when attached to conductive pipes or anything that runs on MJs, only when attached to wooden pipes.

What portion of your iron do you want turned into refined iron, or would you rather not have a refined iron stock and only have it get refined when needed? Sorry to be asking so many questions but there are so many ways to do things with logistics pipes that it's hard to answer what you want without knowing what exactly it is that you do want.

I'm not quite sure I understand, so you want a chest to actively stay supplied with 30 stacks of refined iron at all time? Edit: Well if I understood you right, here's how you would do it, at least how I would. Two separate logistics networks, one to handle most of your items and processing (blue) and one to stock the chest (red). The full system isn't too complicated. I've highlighted the four non-basic logistics pipes of note used. They're circled the same color as the network they're attached to. So let's break this down: Top left supplier pipe is attached to your blue network, and keeps 64 iron in that furnace at all times. You could probably change this to 5 or so if your system can keep up with your furnace. The Mk1 chassis in red below it has an extractor Mk2 module to pull out refined iron as it is made. That iron then goes to the red Mk1 chassis above with a passive supplier, which is set to supply the hopper with 64 refined iron. The hopper then, being a hopper, deposits what's in it to the copper chest below it. When needed, the provider pipe in blue on the right lets the copper chest provide refined iron back out to your blue system. It is only set to provide refined iron, this is important for later. The copper chest's inventory is set up like this. Since you want exactly 30 stacks of refined iron cached at a time, I filled 17 slots in the copper chest with red wool. This means the chest can only take 28 stacks of refined iron. The hopper will hold 64 (as per the supplier module in its chassis) when it can't deposit, and the furnace will hold 64 in its output when it can't be extracted (because there are no valid destinations). This is why we have to split it into two systems; if it was all in one system, the extractor module would happily take refined iron from your furnace and let it keep making more until your default route or terminus destinations were full. It comes to mind after the fact that I could've used a hopper with a wood chest since together there could be 30 refined iron stocked but this way is more extensible.

One more since I'm having fun with it. This one uses tubes but nothing too complicated and no blutricity: Just don't set the timer too fast or it goes wonky. Honestly though, if you're gonna go with tubes I'd suggest the one with the Sorting Machine if only because it doesn't use timers (no ticking constantly, no additional graphical stuff contributing to lag). Edit: If you replace the tube under the jacketed redstone wire between the transposers with a chest it can handle the timer going at .2, but again I'd go with the Sorting Machine way if possible.

Alternatively, if you're married to tubes instead of pipes you can do this since tubes alternate on their own but only if all valid destinations are the exact same length from the fork: If the destinations aren't the same length from the fork you can use a sorting machine and some paint: And set the stuff in the GUI to look something like this: The important thing is setting the buttons on the left to match the screenshot (button on top tells the sorting machine to pull on its own, button under tells it to go column-by-column) and the buttons under to the proper colors for your tubes. Both need assigned a color. Limit to this is it won't alternate for anything but what you set it to, and only in the order of the columns. It won't pull anything it doesn't recognize from the chest, though. Edit: And you need power for the Sorting Machine, if you hadn't noticed.

Distribution pipe: Set it down then right click it and set the color your input is coming from (green in this picture) to 0, and leave the others to 1 (or raise them if for example you want, for every 3 coal, 2 to go left and 1 to go right). I used an autarchic gate which just does the same thing as an engine but requires an assembly table to make but is a little more compact, if you're wondering what that is. Since it's buildcraft you will need an autarchic gate or engine to pull the items out.