control item flowm

[jdk201]

how can i slow down the flow of items out of a chest into a machine? i used to do this with a redstone timers but now the redstone engines wont pull an item out with unless the signal is constant.

Sorry this may be a nub question.

[theMij]

I don't have the answer to your question, but I'm interested to hear it if someone else has it. What I can tell you is some things I do to mitigate the effects of this same basic problem (and some drawbacks).

First off, you can make an offshoot of your main pipe loop back into the chest, so that it has a 50% chance of not making it to the destination. You can add more of these to change the odds if you want it to be really slow.

Pros: Easy and resource lite.

Cons: Inconsistent - it randomly decides a path, not alternates, so sometimes you end up with little hiccups of 5+ items in a row going one way or the other.

Second, you can use insertion pipes to make sure items don't try to go somewhere they can't. Just make the whole thing a big loop and it'll place the item in the first one it sees. Better yet, you don't have to have all items go the same way. Leading out of a chest, then splitting in two and looping around means that you'll get items to both sides of, say, a row of furnaces.

Pros: Moderately cheap, looks cool, no lost items.

Cons: takes a bit more space, might complicate a design a bit more, if you don't design it to not do that, chance of items drifting endlessly in the loop

[cerevox]

Use the ME network. It will pull just the right amount without overflow. It is worth learning the network.

http://ae-mod.info/ME-Network/

[TokiWartooth]

Love love love AE systems the only problem is the resource requirements to start one are pretty steep when you are starting and buildcraft always "seems" more accessible because it is resource cheap but designing an efficient one is problematic. I miss the ease of Pneumatic tubes.

[Euphoreich]

Love love love AE systems the only problem is the resource requirements to start one are pretty steep when you are starting and buildcraft always "seems" more accessible because it is resource cheap but designing an efficient one is problematic. I miss the ease of Pneumatic tubes.

Agreed, it took me about two finished 64*64 quarries before I had enough quartz for a very small home ae system, but you really can't run quarries without a sorting system of some sort first. I don't think this is a bad thing though, I kinda like the progression that you get from it.

[Viktor_Berg]

Agreed, it took me about two finished 64*64 quarries before I had enough quartz for a very small home ae system, but you really can't run quarries without a sorting system of some sort first. I don't think this is a bad thing though, I kinda like the progression that you get from it.

That's a bit of an overkill. 1-2 stacks of Certz Quartz crystals is enough to make a pretty decent system, provided you're not lazy and get a few stacks of Nether Quartz as well (since those can be used for quite a few goodies as well).

[Magicthize]

Has anyone else had an issue with AE and MFR harvesters running an automated wheat farm? I've found that with a basic import bus plugged into the back of the harvester will successfully collect the wheat but not the seeds so the field will eventually run out of crops. The only way I've found to fix it is to collect the harvest with BC pipes into a chest and import to the AE network from there.

[nemmeh]

Has anyone else had an issue with AE and MFR harvesters running an automated wheat farm? I've found that with a basic import bus plugged into the back of the harvester will successfully collect the wheat but not the seeds so the field will eventually run out of crops. The only way I've found to fix it is to collect the harvest with BC pipes into a chest and import to the AE network from there.

I had the same issue and that too was my only solution.

[Lostonexxx]

Put a pipe on the harvester and have it run into an ME interface instead?

[Magicthize]

That might work too though it's not really that much different to my current setup. Both ways are just as inelegant as each other.

[Lostonexxx]

One pipe then an interface is better than several pipes and a chest though, plus the interface is marginally cheaper than the import bus.

[Viktor_Berg]

I am not entirely sure on the mechanics of MFR (didn't experiment much with it yet), but can't you output items from a harvester directly into an adjacent chest, thereby forgoing the pipe?

[Euphoreich]

I am not entirely sure on the mechanics of MFR (didn't experiment much with it yet), but can't you output items from a harvester directly into an adjacent chest, thereby forgoing the pipe?

Or directly to an interface, foregoing all of the above. TBH I'm surprised the import pipe works at all, its only supposed to work on items with an internal inventory, and does not accept pushed items.

[Viktor_Berg]

Or directly to an interface, foregoing all of the above. TBH I'm surprised the import pipe works at all, its only supposed to work on items with an internal inventory, and does not accept pushed items.

He just said that he couldn't connect the interface directly to the harvester, because then it didn't collect seeds.

[Euphoreich]

He just said that he couldn't connect the interface directly to the harvester, because then it didn't collect seeds.

It sounded like he plugged an import bus directly onto the harvester.

[Magicthize]

He I did!

[Euphoreich]

He I did!

Did you try switching it to an interface? I don't know for sure, but I assume that'd work.

[Magicthize]

I'll try it when I get home and report back. If it does work it's a marginal improvement (ingredient-wise) but still involves more hiding of machinery than I would like.

[Dash16]

I know it works because I have an interface connected directly to a harvester and I get the wheat and the seeds. Good luck with your auto farm.

[Darkwood71]

how can i slow down the flow of items out of a chest into a machine? i used to do this with a redstone timers but now the redstone engines wont pull an item out with unless the signal is constant.

Sorry this may be a nub question.

My solution (I needed to send a constant supply of blocks to the powered furnace) to this was to setup two redstone engines for pumping blocks out of storage and connecting them to a programable rednet controller. I selected the square wave timer, and set the constant (wave length) to 70. This turned on the engines for roughly 3.5 seconds which was enough for them to pump one block out each before turning off for 3.5 seconds. Turns out that was exactly the speed that the furnace could handle, so it was contantly processing the blocks I sent to it.

You can switch to ME as others have said, but if you need a cheap solution, this worked really well for me. I guess I'm something of a minecraft luddite because I'm not a huge fan of ME at this point (I did setup a ME network, but I found the cost and power needs to be higher than I wanted to deal with at the time).

[nemmeh]

Did you try switching it to an interface? I don't know for sure, but I assume that'd work.

Very sad to admit that this never crossed my mind.

*Sigh*