Power sources

[Viktor_Berg]

It can only be used to produce fertilizer right now. I doubt it will have much more use than that in the future - fertilizer can be indirectly used to produce power (i.e. to speed up MFR plant farms, generating more biomass).

[Magicthize]

Perhaps, though do we really need any more engines? I suppose it'd be nice having the choice but unless they'd be a higher tier than BioFuel I'd personally get no benefit from it. And either way it's easier and more sustainable to still use your own sources of sewage/sludge than it is to rely upon naturally generated sources.

[Real Darnok]

what to you guys do with the excess of cobble stone? Is there a way to get any energy out of it or help wit getting energy? I guess it can be polvarised but even then it's useless isn't it? I usually just direct is into lava so it does not cause lag on the server... it's a waste though...

[Viktor_Berg]

Cobble is the most plentiful harvestable resource in the Overworld. It can even be generated completely for free with the Igneous Extruder. I don't see why you would think it a waste to just get rid of it.

[Magicthize]

I just store mine in a deep storage unit. I think I currently have about 303k. You'll always have more cobble than you can ever use but I prefer not to throw things away. Besides I often build with stone bricks and it gives me an easy supply of sand and glass via the pulverizer.

[Viktor_Berg]

I use level emitters to constantly keep 512 glass, sand and smoothstone in my ME network at all times. Very useful for large building projects.

[Real Darnok]

303k? why would you even need that? like ever .. ? this deep storage unis - is il like a massive chest or did you just call your storage this way?

[Magicthize]

Deep Storage Units are awesome. You can only store 1 kind of item in them but they can hold up to 2 Billion of that item. Also when you break the block it retains the contents so you don't get like 2 billions blocks popping out.

[Real Darnok]

oh cool I will check it out tonight, I always though that diamond chests are the largest or the C through ones.

[Magicthize]

Since I discovered Applied Energistics I now loathe ordinary chests. I'm so used to being able to either pick up a deep storage unit or an ME drive and skipping off to a new location without having to worry about picking up all the shit that gets spewed out when using vanilla chests.

[Real Darnok]

sound really cool, I will definitely look into this.

[Lethosos]

Might want to hunt up ChestTransporter mod, that has been configured to work on the Iron Chests mod.

[Real Darnok]

what does that do then? just moving chests around - ability to lift it up?

[Viktor_Berg]

High portability is one of big advantages of Appplied Energistics. Drained your area of resources? Fret not, deconstruct your base, stick everything into some additional storage disks and move out! You also don't need to sort anything, if you use an ME drive, it will always fill up existing item types in any partially empty drives first. Of course, it's still a good idea to preformat so that you can keep track of your storage in case you need to move your disks. 5 of my 10 disks are preformatted with various themes (such as minerals, metals, flora/fauna, building materials, as well as the logical dump disk for cobble/dirt/gravel/sand).

The big problem with an ME network is, of course, its high energy consumption. My network currently uses 90 energy units per tick. That's 18 MJ/t. This is where stuff like autonomous biogenerators come in handy.

[EDIT]: Also, good luck moving your autocrafting system, if you have one. My molecular assembly chamber currently has 2.5 pages of crafting patterns. That's approximately 130-140 patterns. Certainly a pain to move around.

[Magicthize]

I use level emitters to constantly keep 512 glass, sand and smoothstone in my ME network at all times. Very useful for large building projects.

What way do you have this configured? Do you have individual machines set up to craft each of these items?

I'm planning to start using Level Emitters on my automated farms soon so I can really stop them running when not needed. As I understand you configure it so that over/under a certain number detected on the network it'll emit a signal and turn on/off the machine. I haven't used any yet because I currently have multiple crops planted in the same field (using the same planter) so I can't control things on a per-crop basis until I build more fields.

[Real Darnok]

this is getting really technical - I'm nowhere near your level of technology but I'm glad to learn from your posts.

[Magicthize]

I highly recommend watching Direwolf20's Mod Spotlight for Applied Energistics. It's how I got started and I'm still learning.

[Viktor_Berg]

What way do you have this configured? Do you have individual machines set up to craft each of these items?

I'm planning to start using Level Emitters on my automated farms soon so I can really stop them running when not needed. As I understand you configure it so that over/under a certain number detected on the network it'll emit a signal and turn on/off the machine. I haven't used any yet because I currently have multiple crops planted in the same field (using the same planter) so I can't control things on a per-crop basis until I build more fields.

Yes, but only because I want to keep things orderly and neat (my machines are embedded into walls). if I wanted to, I could fit up to 5 level emitter + export bus configurations (which is what I use) around a single furnace/pulverizer, but I don't see the need, because the only items I keep a constant level of are smooth stone, sand and glass. Maybe I will eventually add something else, like clay/bricks, I dunno.

As for controlling planters, what you can do is use several export buses instead of one, and then shut them down as needed. You can fit 4 buses around the sides of the planter, plus one side for energy supply.

Actually, now that I think about it, storage buses would be better than export buses. Then you could configure them to only keep 1 stack seeds per slot, so that it doesn't get overwhelmed by 1 sort of seeds.

[Real Darnok]

Do you guys use RedStone Energy Cells to store power at all? Or is there something more powerful? I guess with all this machinery U use it up straight away but U must have some stored as well ?

[Magicthize]

I used to use Energy Cells for quarrys and the Filler but I've since moved on to using Energy Tesseracts. There's a 25% power loss by using them but it's much more convenient as you never have to refill them. I still have a couple of Cells but they rarely get used.

[Viktor_Berg]

I have 4 cells in my network as a buffer, but the problem is, my ME network draws energy so quickly that in case of total power generation failure, they will drain in 11 minutes.

[Magicthize]

Yes, but only because I want to keep things orderly and neat (my machines are embedded into walls). if I wanted to, I could fit up to 5 level emitter + export bus configurations (which is what I use) around a single furnace/pulverizer, but I don't see the need, because the only items I keep a constant level of are smooth stone, sand and glass. Maybe I will eventually add something else, like clay/bricks, I dunno.

As for controlling planters, what you can do is use several export buses instead of one, and then shut them down as needed. You can fit 4 buses around the sides of the planter, plus one side for energy supply.

Actually, now that I think about it, storage buses would be better than export buses. Then you could configure them to only keep 1 stack seeds per slot, so that it doesn't get overwhelmed by 1 sort of seeds.

Emitters can control buses?

[Viktor_Berg]

Emitters can control buses?

Yes. It's even shown in that DW20 video you posted. It's one of the buttons on the interface - you can set the bus to import/export when provided with redstone signal, no redstone signal, or one operation per redstone tick.

[Magicthize]

Ah sweet. I clearly don't remember alot of that video's contents :D

[weirleader]

Do you guys use RedStone Energy Cells to store power at all? Or is there something more powerful? I guess with all this machinery U use it up straight away but U must have some stored as well ?

I really like this method. It still works well for my needs, but I've not gotten around to trying out the AE stuff yet (except the DSU -- so ridiculously helpful).