EU management query

[Sam6555]

I set up a reactor on a server. I went all out on it. Reinforced stone, switches with logic gates for safety, info panels. Even though I knew it would never block, and block damage is off. Originally I was considering making a 510 or 520 EU/t Reactor so it just fills an MFSU. Then I decided to just make a really powerful one, because I could. So now I have a 1540 EU/t reactor.

My problem is, the Redstone Behaviour button isn't working on any of the three storage devices, so is there any way I could set it so the reactor shuts down when the MFSU fills?

[disconsented]

The MFSU needs to be set to "emit when full" click the redstone icon in the top left corner.

[Sam6555]

Are you retarded?

[ace223]

are you always this rude to people helping you?

Disconsented is right, set it to emmit when full then wire that redstone up to your reactor, how you like red alloy wire being good because it can go up walls?

[Sam6555]

I made that post because he did not read my first post at all. Here, I'll make a quote:

My problem is, the Redstone Behaviour button isn't working on any of the three storage devices

Now would you say that it's me being rude?

[ace223]

oh, appears i skipped over that too.. but still, it was no reason to call him retarted.

Seeing as that doesnt work, you could try a EU detector cable. i have never used it before but as the name states tells you when EU is in the cable system. if the MFSU is full it will not be requesting the EU, causing the detector to give out a NULL (or no) output, if you then invert this power it will turn off your reactor.

Just an idea. :D

[MasterVentris]

Have you used the redstone behaviour before? As the button doesnt change when you click it, but the behaviour appears in the chat, often behind NEI, just to be annoying.

[Sam6555]

@ace That was my only other thought, EU Detector cables. Perhaps if there was a way that when the MFSU filled, the reactor would turn off for say 5 minutes. Should be fairly simple with a State Cell? I don't know. I just don't want the reactor constantly flickering on and off again every other second.

@Master Yup I have used it before, nothing appears in chat. I even had a piece of Red alloy connected to it and slowly flicked through while the MFSU was full, watching the cable out the side of the screen. Nothing changed. :<

[MasterVentris]

I have noticed that it wont power redstone cable directly, only redstone dust. If you put a bit of dust between the cable and the mfsu does it work?

[Phuriousgeorge]

If your server is using Multi-Verse, there's a known issue that conflicts with the redstone behavior button. Mine finally started working, but not entirely sure why. I upgraded Multi-Verse and moved to the Spout CraftBukkit instead of the standard Tekkit.jar

[Sam6555]

@Master I'll try that later, however.....

@Phrio Yes, we use Multiverse. :< Is there any known fix for it?

[Phuriousgeorge]

@Phrio Yes, we use Multiverse. :< Is there any known fix for it?

Not that I know of. Like I said, mine started magically working again. The only changes that may have had any impact is the use of CB-- and moving to the latest version of MultiVerse.

[GreenWolf13]

you can't use red alloy to turn off reactors, it has to be regular redstone. Am I really the only person who reads the wiki?

[TheBard]

I've used red alloy wire to turn off reactors just fine.

I stick a red alloy wire directly onto one of the reactor chambers, then usually I put a jacketed cable by that, and have it running out the side of the reactor to either a lever or something else. Works perfectly fine.

You do need to have the red alloy wire running up ONTO the reactor chamber block though. You can't put it on top of a block next to it, that doesn't work.

[Valkon]

Master Yup I have used it before, nothing appears in chat. I even had a piece of Red alloy connected to it and slowly flicked through while the MFSU was full, watching the cable out the side of the screen. Nothing changed. :<

Did you attach a piece of red alloy wire to the MFSU as well? Example:

Both Batboxes are full and set to "Emit when full" but obviously only one is able to send a current into the wire. Because only one actually has wire connected to it.

[Sam6555]

@Green Are you sure you read the wiki?

@TheBard and Valkon Yup, I know about Red Alloy having to be on the actual block.

[GreenWolf13]

@Sam last time i checked the wiki it said that you could only use redstone to turn off reactors, but, you have to remeber, the wiki isn't kept 100% up to date

[warpspeed10]

The IndustrialCraft wiki is quite lacking in detailed information, and the Tekkit wiki is horrendously out of date. Let that be the end of it.

Sam, can you provide us some screenshots of your setup. We may be able to find a mistake you overlooked.

[Phuriousgeorge]

Also, are you getting the text notifications that you're supposed to for activity change? If you are, the error is in your setup. If you are not, more than likely MultiVerse is to blame.

[Sam6555]

@warp I'll get some screens done tomorrow. Gonna go to sleep now. I connected an EU Detector cable to the input of the MFSU and red alloyed it to the Reactor shut-off wireless. I did try messing around a little with a NOT gate and State Cell. But SC's are awkward to use from the looks of it on the RP wiki, I'll look more into it when I have more time. What I was hoping for was some kind of system so that the reactor would turn off for x amount of time when the MFSU fills. I don't want the redstone to constantly turn the reactor on and off. I figured a Not Gate and SCell combo would do this, but I've never used SCells before. All I know is they hold a redstone signal for whatever time you specify.

@Phur Nope,nothing in the text. Must be because we use multiverse.

[gavjenks]

Why would you care if the reactor turns on and off constantly?

[Adlersch]

Why would you care if the reactor turns on and off constantly?

I would imagine it'd at least be annoying to him, if not hurt the tick rate of his server if it's frequent enough.

[gavjenks]

I would imagine it'd at least be annoying to him, if not hurt the tick rate of his server if it's frequent enough.

It would do no more to the lag on the server than placing a single solar panel would. Just a single number check per tick, maximum.

[TheBard]

Turning the reactor on and off a lot probably causes a lot of wasted energy.

If a few EUs are taken out of storage, and that turns the reactor on, and the reactor produces more EU than the storage will hold, the excess is lost. The storage is then full, so it turns off. Then the next tick a few more EU are taken out of storage, the reactor turns on, produces more EU than the storage will hold, so the excess is lost, then the storage is full, so it turns the reactor off, and the cycle repeats itself.

So really there's no point in turning on the reactor to refill the storage unless the storage is down more just a couple of EUs. Which is why the redstone button has choices like more than half-full, less than half-full or whatever the choices are.

[gavjenks]

Probably a lot of wasted energy actually.

If a few EUs are taken out of storage, and that turns the reactor on, and the reactor produces more EU than the storage will hold, the excess is lost. The storage is then full, so it turns off. Then the next tic a few more EU are taken out of storage, and the cycle repeats itself.

I dont think that's true. If you have an stepdown transformer anywhere in your system, then it should be capable I believe of holding onto any excess energy in an internal buffer, until there is space for the new packets being sent out.

I've tested this before. If you build something like:

solar panel ---> LV transformer (up) ---> MV transformer (up) ---> single glass cable ---> MV transformer (down) ---> LV transformer (down) ---> machine that only uses 1 Eu/tick, like a water pump

Then as far as I could tell, all of the energy from the solar panel actually reaches the water pump, allowing it to run 100% of the time.

So what must be happening is that the LV transformer sits there and stores EUs until it gets 128, then sends it on to the MV, which stores until it gets 512. Then it sends the 512 through to the other Mv transformer, which passes on all 512 in 32 size packets all at once to the LV transformer, which then holds on to all that 512 EUs of energy and parcels it out in 1 EU packets to the pump as needed.

If what you were suggested was true, then I would have lost 511 of every 512 Eus, and the pump would virtually never run.

So in the reactor example, the transformer will hold the excess energy from the one tick that the reactor was on for, and not waste it, and the reactor will only turn on again and send more when the transformer has run its buffer down to zero.