Alternate where items from a chest are sent

[immense]

I have been trying to figure this one out, it seems simple and I am sure I am just missing it

I have a chest full of coal

1. The chest has 2 filters connected to it that both link to other chests
   
2. The timer is set up to fire both filters at once, sending 2 coal to each chest
   
3. This works “OK” but at times, there is only 1 coal in the chest and this means that one of the chests it is being sent to will not get a coal when the timer fires
   

Has anyone been able to solve this one? I am sure I am just using the wrong block (filter)..

Thanks

[Mr.Hotkeys]

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.

[Malawi]

It might work with two inline filters set to two coal each, and a filter that sends out 4 coal along that tube. But you might end up with all in one of the filters or 4 to one and then 4 to the other.

But I am pretty sure that if you use a second chest, and send 4 coals to that chest before pulling out 2+2, it should be foolproof as the number of coals in the chest should always be dividable with 4.

Edit:BTW, you can place the two chests with a filter in-between(no tube), but remember to place it the correct way and to wire it up with a redstone signal. (Easy to forget if you use redstone tubes)

[Mr.Hotkeys]

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.

[immense]

Great ideas - thank you for the help. I am going to get this up and running =)

[Mr.Hotkeys]

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.