Automatic Sorting and Processing system - ASP Mk. II

[littleweseth]

[in Dr. Nick voice:] Hi, everybody! I'm Lewis. You might remember me from such fine postings as "Nuclear Reactor - As designed by an electrical engineer".

This post isn't quite as exciting as that post, but it seems to be in fashion to post pictures of your automatic item sorting and processing setups. This is the one I built on my Tekkit server.

[Full Imgur Album]

The features of this setup are:

• Automatic processing of items using just eight IndustrialCraft machines - four Recyclers, and one each of the advanced furnace, macerator, extractor and compressor.
  
• Automatic sorting of items into storage chests using Redpower2 Sorting Machines.
  
• Takes input either from input chest(s) in front of the machine room, or from an attached Ender Chest. This is good for accepting remote Quarry output, or Ender Pouch input, from anywhere in any dimension.
  
• Items are never, ever dropped on the ground. Ever.
  
• CPU usage is minimised by use of Redpower2 (no Buildcraft), slow timers, and transferring full stacks of items (instead of individual items.)
  
• Main power supply and standby power supply for each machine is individually switchable.
  

This system is "dump and forget". No user intervention is required once the items are put into the system. Typically I go mining (or Nether mining), using an Ender Pouch to send all of my loot to the sorting system. When I come back, everything has already been recycled, smelted, macerated, etc. as appropriate, and the finished products stored to the correct chests.

I'm quite happy with this system - I've worked out every single bug I've had with previous builds. I've tried to make it fail by overloading with massive amounts of material, and it doesn't care - it just clears through all the material as fast as it can. Nothing is ever dropped. I've also put one of literally every item in Tekkit through it, just to make sure they end up in the right places (they do.)

The Imgur album has all the juicy screenshots. Unfortunately this is part of my very large Tekkit map, so unless someone knows a way to isolate this part of it, there'll be no world save.

[EDIT]: MCEdit Schematic file - http://www.penwatch.net/files/minecraft/ASP_Mk_II.schematic.

If you have any questions about how this works, just ask.

[KyleBoyer]

Could you send me a link to your world? I'm interested in trying it out because I tried doing this with buildcraft but my items get dropped all the time. -_-

[littleweseth]

Could you send me a link to your world? I'm interested in trying it out because I tried doing this with buildcraft but my items get dropped all the time.

See above:

Unfortunately this is part of my very large Tekkit map, so unless someone knows a way to isolate this part of it, there'll be no world save.

[quintaar]

Can I transfer full stacks in Buildcraft? Or this is something that can be only done via Redpower2? As per dropping issue? What your Buildcraft setup - i have autosorting warehouse but never get anything dropped and i have quarry circuit/auto macerating and farms pipelines implemented?

[littleweseth]

@quintaar:

You can transfer full stacks in Buildcraft if you use a Steam or Combustion Engine to pump items out of chests, instead of a Redstone Engine. Most people don't do this because the Steam and Combustion engines are more effort to run, and have a nasty habit of exploding when unsupervised.

As for item dropping: Items get dropped in Buildcraft systems when chests fill up or when you try to process items faster than a machine can work. You can use Advanced Insertion Pipes to stop a machine from dropping items when you overflow it, but overflowing a chest is always possible. Imagine overflowing your cobblestone chest while a quarry is working. All of a sudden you have thousands of item entities on the ground, which will render your game unplayably laggy.

The failure mode of a Redpower2 tube system, in the same conditions, is different - instead of continuing to pump items onto the floor, it will jam and refuse to send any more items until they have a valid place to go.

It's very easy to build a bad Buildcraft pipe system that will spill items when overloaded. Redpower2 tube systems nearly always do the right thing.

[quintaar]

I guess if all linked with gold pipes and nicely timed with redstone or manual switches could run and save on the coal/fuel - I recon there isnt any chest that send the redstone power when full? I have very simple set up of chest with diamond filters. Last one is a condenser with a diamond at matrix - so my overflows or leftovers are simply generated into EMC (I dont think i will ever need iron chest full of glass etc.) and I think if you have condenser full of stack of diamonds - you can allow yourself to drop few - im sure you would be checking on diamonds often - at least at early stages before you brewing energy from 10 nuclear reactors and HV solar arrays :)

[littleweseth]

I guess if all linked with gold pipes and nicely timed with redstone or manual switches could run and save on the coal/fuel - I recon there isnt any chest that send the redstone power when full? I have very simple set up of chest with diamond filters. Last one is a condenser with a diamond at matrix - so my overflows or leftovers are simply generated into EMC (I dont think i will ever need iron chest full of glass etc.) and I think if you have condenser full of stack of diamonds - you can allow yourself to drop few - im sure you would be checking on diamonds often - at least at early stages before you brewing energy from 10 nuclear reactors and HV solar arrays

The difference between my server and yours is that I have EE disabled. :)

[KyleBoyer]

See above:

Simply use MCEdit and make a .schematic out of it. Tutorial here:

Then you can let us download the .schematic or you can put the schematic in a new blank world and let us download the world save. I think it would just be easier to release the .schematic. ^_^

[quintaar]

I play on LAN -I'm fairly new to tekkit idea... and until I get better pc, Hardly see much point playing on servers - my settings are very low and machines takes a lot of CPU to compromise other ppl very advanced set ups... things should improve in October. Until then I have all mods ON - plus some extras I keep testing (and learning)

[littleweseth]

Simply use MCEdit and make a .schematic out of it. Tutorial here:

Then you can let us download the .schematic or you can put the schematic in a new blank world and let us download the world save. I think it would just be easier to release the .schematic.

Does that work with Redpower2 stuff?

My experience is that tool support for RP2 stuff is a bit flaky (vis. WorldEdit not being able to copy RP2 machines or tubes without mangling them.)

[KyleBoyer]

Does that work with Redpower2 stuff?

My experience is that tool support for RP2 stuff is a bit flaky (vis. WorldEdit not being able to copy RP2 machines or tubes without mangling them.)

It should work because how it makes schematics is simply by making a virtual map of just the ID's of blocks, so it may not show in the application, but when you place it in a new map and load it in tekkit, it should work properly. ^_^

[littleweseth]

@KyleBoyer:

Here you go - http://www.penwatch.net/files/minecraft/ASP_Mk_II.schematic . This is the first time I've used WorldEdit, so I made the selection probably much larger than necessary, but it does include the entire building.

Let me know if it works. You can test it by dumping materials into any of the input chests (for fun, try strange things like Nether Ores, or try to stuff as much regular ore into it as you can.)

Incidentally, that schematic is from an old backup, so there are no stairs to the top floor, nor is the warehouse section at the top completed (hence all the exposed tubework.)

[Xylord]

Sir, I'm at a loss of words. This is simply amazing. I've made systems working similarly, but they're messy, ugly, take a stupid amount of space and once they're done, it's impossible to understand what the hell is going on, even less to repair them in case I made an error. I managed to get one right in one of my recent worlds, but... Even if I can just dump whatever there is in my inventory in there and have it sorted in my storage, I cry tears of blood every time I take a look at the machinery . Kudos to you.

[littleweseth]

I've made systems working similarly, but they're messy, ugly, take a stupid amount of space and once they're done, it's impossible to understand what the hell is going on, even less to repair them in case I made an error.

Maintainability was actually a key design criteria (and one of the reasons I redesigned from Mk. I to Mk. II.) In this build, every machine - most importantly the sorting machines! - is reachable either from ground level or from the main platform. This is especially important if you want to reconfigure what goes where in the sorting system.

A key lesson is that you really need to build everything in open air for maintenance. I had to fix someone else's sorting warehouse, and they'd buried all of their pipes and cabling. I had to WorldEdit the floor out of existence before I could even begin to troubleshoot it! It also helps if you allow some extra space for additions down the line.

I'm actually pleased with how compact this is, too: it's 48x8x12 or so, I believe, and it's a complete automatic processing solution. (The warehousing part is much more bulky; that's all upstairs.)

[KyleBoyer]

@KyleBoyer:

Here you go - http://www.penwatch.net/files/minecraft/ASP_Mk_II.schematic . This is the first time I've used WorldEdit, so I made the selection probably much larger than necessary, but it does include the entire building.

Let me know if it works. You can test it by dumping materials into any of the input chests (for fun, try strange things like Nether Ores, or try to stuff as much regular ore into it as you can.)

Incidentally, that schematic is from an old backup, so there are no stairs to the top floor, nor is the warehouse section at the top completed (hence all the exposed tubework.)

Thanks you did a huge area for your schematic so I created a new world and edited out your garden and changed the output chests to Black Hole Chests(can hold infinite items on tekkit 3.1.2). I also removed your lock door signs, added levers to doors, and created a stairway to the top. I made this into a smaller cleaner schematic file which I am hosting on my web server and can be located here: http://www.kylem.in/Sorter.schematic or uploaded here: http://www.mediafire.com/?kiaumvus2sfpozu

Also if you look in the front bottom right and the back top left you will see a gold block, this can be deleted as it was simply use to locate where to cut off for the schematic file.

Have fun guys!

~KyleBoyer

--- Please do not try this schematic in a version of Tekkit under 3.1.2 because black hole chests cause chunk corruptions...

--- Could you send me the latest version schematic so I may make an updated schematic file?

[commandantjones]

Could you explain how the triple pulse system works and what it's intended for? If I understand the caption correctly, it leaves 3.8 seconds between the end of the third pulse and the beginning of the first one, each cycle. I'm curious how the timings on your system work. Thanks!

[DXWarlock]

Seems WAY overly complicated to do such a simple task.

It is impressive though, but why all the sorting machines, timers, wiring, detectors and such?

Can accomplish the same one drop place, to auto machine and sorting to chests as needed, using just chests/tubes/filters and one timer (with a handful of jacketed wire).

[DXWarlock]

this is how I do mine rebuilt it outside so you can see it better. This same setup been running for months and hasn't had a jam up yet.

It auto gathers from the buffer, enderchest, and normal chest (and just add more to that line of you need more input options.

This is just a setup for a macerator, furnace, extractor, recycler for an example.

the filters above the gold chest sort what needs to goto what machine and the chest is a 'buffer' to load the machine as it can, and just add more machines and filters if you need more of one, or more types.

it comes out the machine by a filter pulling..and loops back over the machines.

So for example the filter over the macerator only takes raw ore to make dust, the closest place dust can go is the furnace, that it has to loop back over...once an item can no longer match the filters above the machines, it goes down the line to the iron chests..each chest has a filter over it for what it allows.

its very easy to expand. just add tube and filters to add unlimited chests, or a tube/filter in the 'work machine' loop to add more machines.

the single gold chest is my "Haven't found a place to sort it yet" chest with an empty filter since its the last place anything will try to go if I havent setup a chest/filter for it yet.

You can always add 2 filters side by side above a machine if you need more than 9 items to goto it in a Y, or 2 filters over one chest if you need more than 9 items in a chest.

I myself don't like more than 8 or so 'types' of items in one chest...I like to get specific on what a chest has, and make about 100 chests so i can know exactly what item types are in one of them.

You can also get fancy and add lamps for what machine is on to light up..like in mine i got a lamp behind the 'tube' off a EU detector going down into the machine,so I can see which is running. Or Eu reader panels above each machine if you are running a mfe/batbox to each one.

But I just put the basics here needed to work so you can see it.

[Omicron]

That's actually really neat. I never thought of using inline Filters for sorting! (And I expect that 95%+ people building a sorting system don't, either)

The setup I have in my factory is far more complex, but then again it also has multiple item splitting and autocrafting stages integrated. For example, it makes diamonds out of coal, gravel, water cells and level cells (important since my server has no EE with which to dupe diamonds at will). But at the same time it also splits a small percentage of coal dust off in the middle and returns it as output, because I might need it for carbon plates or solar panels or similar things.

And since an IC2 miner with pump will produce coal, lava cells and gravel by itself, all I need to do manually add to the system is a couple stacks of water cells every few days, and voila, I receive diamonds in the output chest.

Considering this was my first time playing Tekkit and I had no prior knowledge, I am reasonably proud of it :)

[DXWarlock]

yea i like filters, I try to avoid blutricity as much as I can. Don't like the idea of a whole power setup I need, that's only used for a handful of things to do with sorting, and cant convert it to other types if need be. seems wasteful.

I got a few switch toggle filters for auto crafting on my actual setup between the machines and chests. so if I need parts can get them auto made and rerouted. but usually I just make parts by hand in bulk with project table, and toss the extras into the chest to get auto sorted.

Wasn't knocking the OP system its great. it's amazing looking, took a lot of thought, and very impressive. That took a lot of planning!

I'm just of the mindset of "how can I accomplish whatever I need to do with the fewest parts".

[jackguo380]

Nice job on that, I made a similar system in my server, except we have EE there, I had 4 inputs 1 for each advanced machine, i didnt include recyclers because those are usually something you dedicate toward a mass fabricator not something you do each day. I had also the system of painted tubes, but each input the filter assigned a color so the macerator filter could be a red and it would send it to the red tube connected to the macerator, I installed a transposer in the middle of the pipe after all the filters so the overflow would go to the transposer and clog that up instead of the filters. I made it all output to 1 chest and for inputs i used condensers so i can put a iron in the condenser and put a redmatter in and i have a ton of iron later on.

[DRose]

What logic gates are you using in this picture? I have been over RP2 back and forth and I can't seem to figure out what to use.

Also, I would love to see how you laid out the storage warehouse on this build.

[littleweseth]

What logic gates are you using in this picture? I have been over RP2 back and forth and I can't seem to figure out what to use.

Also, I would love to see how you laid out the storage warehouse on this build.

They'd be NOT gates, OR gates, or Buffer gates.

Note that this kind of sorting system is obsolete - now that Logistics Pipes can be used on SMP, you are far better off with a Logistics Pipe network than a RP2 sorting system.