Redstone energy

[Dash16]

So, I've gotten used to the new standard in energy generation, storage and transportation, and was wondering what sorts of builds people were coming up with for storage. I've got a V12 magmatic engine cluster powering my entire base, with a tesseract setup powering a pump in the nether to bring back lava. I've been growing my AE network and now have a steady drain on the system; my engines never lock up. At the moment I have 2 or 3 redstone energy cells in serial connection between the engines and the rest of the machines, and was contemplating if there are better layouts. I'm using 2 conduits between each cube, one pulling power from the cell before it and one putting power into the next cell. Has anyone tried a parallel setup, a grid of sorts with conduits and cells, engines inputting and all cells outputting to one line?

Also, what's the bandwidth on redstone conduits? If I connect 10 cells outputting to one conduit line and configure each cell to output 100 MJ/t, will that conduit be running 1,000 MJ/t?

[lukeb28]

Also, what's the bandwidth on redstone conduits? If I connect 10 cells outputting to one conduit line and configure each cell to output 100 MJ/t, will that conduit be running 1,000 MJ/t?

I don't think there is a limit so yes, 10 cells would give a total out put of 1000 MJ/t

[Calvariae]

Remember that by default, conduits reduce the energy transfered by 5% every time energy leaves a machine/cell/whatever and enters a conduit; not that big of a deal but just something to keep in mind.

[Dash16]

Hmm, good point. The energy loss would be greater in a parallel network. The reason I wanted to increase the overall amount of energy in the conduits over 100MJ/t is some machines will use more. The Energetic Infuser, for example, can pull up to 500MJ. I think I'll prototype some designs in Creative.

[Dash16]

Is there a way to directly connect Redstone energy cells to each other, without needing conduits? Otherwise, it would seem that a parallel setup would actually be better than connecting them all in serial. Given 6 Cells, there are 7 times when the 5% loss occurs in a serial connection. Take those same 6 cells and arrange them in a 2x3 grid, and now there are only 6 times where loss occurs. A 3x2 grid has even better conservation and only loses at 5 times. A 3x2 grid also has the advantage of having a higher total output of MJ, 300MJ/t vs only 100MJ/t on a pure serial layout. I made this layout to demonstrate my findings:

Time to restructure my power grid.

[theprolo]

I think you've got confused with how it works here. Redstone Energy Conduits do a straight 5% power loss in total regardless of distance, not 5% for every conduit.

[King Lemming]

Is there a way to directly connect Redstone energy cells to each other, without needing conduits? Otherwise, it would seem that a parallel setup would actually be better than connecting them all in serial. Given 6 Cells, there are 7 times when the 5% loss occurs in a serial connection. Take those same 6 cells and arrange them in a 2x3 grid, and now there are only 6 times where loss occurs. A 3x2 grid has even better conservation and only loses at 5 times. A 3x2 grid also has the advantage of having a higher total output of MJ, 300MJ/t vs only 100MJ/t on a pure serial layout. I made this layout to demonstrate my findings:

Time to restructure my power grid.

This is beautiful, but post 1.5, incorrect.

Cells and conduits don't lose energy transferring to each other. And yes, conduits are required for now. There are too many issues letting cells transfer directly to each other. IC2 gets away with it because only 1 side of their batteries can transmit. The admittedly easy solution here is to make cells have reconfigurable sides. Honestly, it's something I'd consider, since it would allow me to change how conduits operate too.

[Dash16]

I think you've got confused with how it works here. Redstone Energy Conduits do a straight 5% power loss in total regardless of distance, not 5% for every conduit.

Actually, if the energy were being stored in a cell, then removed from that cell, a 5% loss would be incurred. Distance isn't a factor in my layout, the number of times energy was taken out of a block and put into a conduit was.

This is beautiful, but post 1.5, incorrect.

Cells and conduits don't lose energy transferring to each other.

… which negates the 5% confusion completely. Thanks! A parallel setup still has the benefit of increased MJ output, so I'm still going with that.

The Thermal Expansion Wiki should probably be edited to reflect that using conduits doesn't impose an energy loss. At the moment, it reads:

There is energy loss, it is not distance based; suffice it to say that these are indeed an improvement over conductive pipes.

[Calvariae]

This is beautiful, but post 1.5, incorrect.

Cells and conduits don't lose energy transferring to each other.

I didn't know that, thanks for the info.

[theprolo]

Ah, the red bits are redstone energy cells. That's me derping up, sorry

The admittedly easy solution here is to make cells have reconfigurable sides. Honestly, it's something I'd consider, since it would allow me to change how conduits operate too.

I think that would be quite a nice solution, since it would make compact builds easier and be less confusing. It would also fit Thermal Expansion nicely, since pretty much everything machine-wise in it is configurable like that. Go for it :)

[Dash16]

Oh and thanks for the compliment King Lemming. Although I now realize I left out the redstone inside the conduits, so they look like Energy Conduits before they've been Liquid Transposerized with Molten Redstone. Fail. :(

[King Lemming]

Ah, the red bits are redstone energy cells. That's me derping up, sorry

I think that would be quite a nice solution, since it would make compact builds easier and be less confusing. It would also fit Thermal Expansion nicely, since pretty much everything machine-wise in it is configurable like that. Go for it

Unfortunately there's another set of issues with this. The conduit model as it stands, while it's a bit goofy, is computationally optimal. (You can change the sidedness in the next version). Adding sidedness to the Cell actually makes it far less convenient, as any sort of automated placement has to be aware of the side configuration of that cell. Also it's hard to illustrate the Cell side config on a GUI, since there is no definitive "front."

[Aurrin]

Unfortunately there's another set of issues with this. The conduit model as it stands, while it's a bit goofy, is computationally optimal. (You can change the sidedness in the next version). Adding sidedness to the Cell actually makes it far less convenient, as any sort of automated placement has to be aware of the side configuration of that cell. Also it's hard to illustrate the Cell side config on a GUI, since there is no definitive "front."

If I'm following along correctly, the implementation code holds a map of all endpoints among each connected group of conduits, and storage in each grouping, which only updates when a conduit is added/removed/reconfigured, and then directly updates the endpoints and storage on each tick rather than simulating 'pumping' through each intermediary block? Thus, there would only be a flat 5% loss whenever energy is moved from a storage block anywhere in the grouping to an endpoint in the grouping, no matter what the specific configuration is inbetween? Just curious to see if I'm anywhere close. ;)

[samuraijack619]

What about a setup using a energy tesseract? something similar to a energy condenser flower? If I cover a energy tesseract with red-stone cells and run the input to the outside; Will the tesseract draw energy from all 6 sides at 100 MJ/t from each red-stone cell and transmit 600MJ/t? Would the tesseract drain each cell evenly? If so I could pump MJ in to the inputs and all red-stone cells would fill at the same time and drain at the sometime, with the bonus of remote/multi world capabilities.

I noticed with the 25% power drop from tesseract would I then get 450 MJ/t? If I used some kind of Phased Conductive Pipe System, would that work. If anyone has done the math and test runs, please post.

[Karaktar]

i tried to go parallel but i found it wouldnt draw from all cells only one also well im posting here is there a limit to how much mj a tesseract will transfer im not sure if it was just not pulling from all cells or the tesseract not pulling enough

additionally i have seen posts saying v12 and such im not sure if that means what i think it means my config is better i think

i have 16 engines surrounding conduit like this

e

e c e

e

e= engine c=conduit

i have that stack one on another 4 high with lava intake in opposite corners and rednet in opposite corners

so all together its l=lava r= rednet

l e r

e c e

r e l

sorry i dont have a fancy drawing thing a ma bobber but im sure you get the jyst

with this config by my calc i get 64 mj/t from a bank my power plant runs 7 banks in all

each bank then feeds into three cells in series with a gate on the first to turn of corresponding engine bank when full

[samuraijack619]

That is nice setup and I used it in the beginning, but it is alot of work and space to build. I wasted my time thinking biofuel was complicated. It is way easier. Only pain is getting the first blaze rod.

TIP: Slimes spawn in swamps at night.

TIP: Blazes will spawn in the nether on top of nether bricks, nether bricks can be crafted. (but a fortress is easier)

TIP: Once you have a blaze rod grind it and you get 4 blaze dusts, then use mininum stone to convert them back in to 2 blaze rods, and repeat for infiniate blaze rods.

TIP: Mininum stone will convert to piece of wood in to obsidian. Who needs diamond pickaxes anymore:P

[recommended first setup]

1 biofuel reactor + 1 biofuel engine will produce 160 MJ/t. 1 stack of saplings or seeds will power my generator for a long time and Thermal Expansion machines use 4MJ/t or less per machine. So I recommend spending you first hour into gathering crafting table, furnance, quartz grinder, and then building the biofuel reactor, biofuel generator. Now your operational.This will be more then enough for all Thermal machines.

[Long term plan]

Setting generator up for auto-pilot.

Then use MFR and setup a automatic, self-substaining wheat farm and have the half the seeds automatically transport to the reactor using a diamond pipe, distribution pipe, and a phased transport pipe . The quarry and power-suit are the power drainers.

Video link :

No need for water, lava, or 40 magma engines to get the equality power. P.S. Magma engines are rated at 4MJ/t, the same as a combustion engine according to the wiki.

Bioreactor = 2 plastic sheets, 2 bricks, fermented spider eye, 2 slime balls, machine frame, a sugar

Biofuel generator = 2 plastic sheets, furnace, machine frame, 2 blaze rods, 2 pistons, redstone transmission coil

You don't even need a single diamond. just 10 iron, 1 silver, & 2 gold.

[biofuel reactor][biofuel Generator]>---redstone conduit--->[redstone energycell]

(will charge the cell in a few minutes.)

[samuraijack619]

I sure there is a more compact verison to this, but youtube is lacking new tekkit power-core tutorials. Im not to worried about the energy lost using the -25% tesseract or if this crisscross parallel setup has a energy lost. Due to the fact that I have a MFR automatic wheat farm 9x9 (with tin upgrade and never came close to running out of biofuel, and I don't even try to make efficient fuel. Just a stack of wheat seeds lasts me hours. My main challenge is to find out what the maximum output through a single tasseract/ phased pipe setup, I can output at once. I current have to run 3 energy tesseract at once to keep the quarries racing at the 100mj/t speed.

[Karaktar]

hmmm i will have to look into that btw samurai your pics arnt showing

oh btw i tried putting more conduits to my tesseract and i did get more power out so that works of course you also need more conduits coming out on the other end