Sorting Machine aggravations...

[Vaygrim]

Running the recommended version of Tekkit Lite, I seem to be having no end of aggravations with my Sorting Machines. I've got 6 of them set up in a chain, with each machine feeding into 2 chests (for a total of 12 chests). The first sorting machine is pulling from a chest, and is on a redstone timer set to 1 second (if I set it any faster my machine starts lagging). The rest of the chain of sorting machines are NOT timer pulsed as I found this just confused the issue in Tekkit Classic.

The setup was initially designed with each sorting machine pushing to two chests and a barrel, but once a barrel filled up (say with dirt) then the entire sorting system stopped functioning until the barrel was no longer 'full'. So I took the barrels out of the equation entirely.

As the setup stands right now.. the first sorting machine has simply stopped pulling from its adjacent chest and quits routing items. I tried picking it up, putting it back down and reconfiguring it. The first half dozen times this actually fixed the issue, unfortunately the problem kept repeating enough that now simply 'rebooting' the machine no longer fixes the issue. I have got on to pickup and reconfigure all of the sorting machines, but nothing ever gets pulled by the first machine.

There is more than enough power to go around, and plenty of clear and concise color coding on the pneumatic tubing. I simply cannot figure out why the system keeps seizing up.

[plowmanplow]

Without knowing more about how you actually have things configured...

1) It is almost always a good idea to have an "overflow" container (big chest) set up on a restrictor tube to catch things that would otherwise have no home and would be bounced back plugging up RP2 machine output buffers (the sorting machine in your case). Once you get the system working as expected you probably won't have anything hitting this chest but it is a great way to see what is "failing" in the sorting system and target the bottleneck.

2) The version of RP2 in Tekkit Lite has some advantages over Tekkit Classic. The sorting machines have two additional modes and one additional feature. The feature is that you can make them auto-pulse (and they do so much faster than once per second). Since there isn't a timer there aren't any lighting updates and one less thing for the CPU to manage so it creates a lot less lag (plus you don't have to worry about running red wire in addition to the blutricity). The two modes are the same as the last two modes from the version in Classic, but they move whole stacks instead of single items. This is so fast compared to the old version when you combine the two.

3) Managers are your friend. Use a sorting machine to peel off the stuff you want separate (ores to process, junk to recycle, etc.) and then just send everything else to a default route. Once the items are bound for the managers you don't usually have to worry about any color coding. They basically "talk" to each other and make sure all your goodies are in the correct location. This is where you would typically put the overflow chest sitting on a restriction tube.

[Maxis010]

First I would remove the RS pulse and put the sorting machine on Auto Pull (it's the box above the sorting mode, looks like 4 arrows)

Second check the sorting mode, make sure it's set to one of the all column or all random modes

Third put a chest without any colour codes in the system to take anything the sorter can't handle

If all of the above fails screenshots please

[Vaygrim]

Okay.. so here goes my attempt at a step by step setup description. (Thanks to all who can help with this!)

Step 1. Diamond Chest sitting on the "input side" of Sorting Machine #1. This machine is set to Auto Pull (the four arrows in a circle) for mode and the "All Random" mode that does singles not stacks.

Step 2. Sorting Machine #1 has pneumatic tube connected to the "output side" that goes three places. Black (a chest), White (another chest) and Red (the default "unknown item" route). Red connects to the "input side" of Sorting Machine #2.

Step 3. The whole setup repeats with each sorting machine using the "default color" as Red, which then feeds into the next machine.

Step 4. This configuration is repeated exactly until Sorting Machine #6, where I have the Red "unknown item" pipe dumping into another Diamond Chest.

I originally had the mode set to default (setting #1, not setting #2) and I had Sorting Machine #1 running off a redstone timer (set to 1 second, if I remember right). System worked just fine that way for a few days, until I started going out and doing some mining and it had to do a large amount of sorting... which somehow caused it to seize up. Since the system has stopped working I have tried removing the timer, setting it to Auto Pull mode (four arrows in a circle) after manually removing and replacing each sorting machine (and reconfiguring each one as well).

Now no matter what I do.. it does nothing as soon as I give it power, beyond pulling the first stack of items from the starter chest. If this isn't descriptive enough, I can post screenshots.

[Industrial Miner]

Well, what you also could do is just put the sorting machines in parallel without using the "unknown items" mode. Then will all the items that aren't getting sorted by the sorting machine not enter the sorting machine. Then you can finally use a restriction tube on the end of the line where all the unknown items go to. BUT: to prevent that your chests where items are sorted in overflows, place tubes without colors to the "unknown items" chest, or simply to a recycler. So then all you have to do is paint all the items in each sorting machine to one color. I can provide screenshots if needed within a few hours.

[Vaygrim]

Hook them up in... parallel? I have to admit, I'm not sure I knew that was possible. Hmm, I'll have to experiment with that and see how it works.

On an unrelated note.. I added a "buffer chest" for each sorting machine to pull from. That seemed to have ironed out the kinks for the time being.