AE Export Bus Loop

[atomiX_X]

Hi everyone. I have an AE system and it's working pretty well. All ores coming from my quarries are sent directly to macerators with export buses to be processed into dust which is then automatically sent to furnaces using more export buses.

With this setup, I have no loose dust in my system (which is what I want) so ores get processed directly into ingots. Now I found a problem with this once I need dust for other purposes.

If for example I need to create some bronze, the system macerates some copper and tin ingots using a macerator and ME interface. These ores SHOULD now get sent to the molecular assembler chamber and get combined into bronze dust which I can then smelt into bronze ingots but the dust never gets there. Instead of sending the copper and tin dust to the chamber, the export buses connected to the furnaces automatically pulls the dust back into the system for processing back into ingots so a loop is created and no bronze is produced.

I know I could change it so that ingots could be created on-demand and dust would remain stored in the system but it seems much more efficient/faster for me to only macerate ingots when I need to, which isn't often.

Would anyone have a solution to this?

[Lostonexxx]

You could have it all done in a closed loop. Ingots get exported to a pulverizer, fed into an autocrafting table, smelted, then re-enter the me network. The same loop could be used for invar and other things as well with a bit of planning and some clever piping.

Edit, just read your post again. Have it come from the pulverizer directly into the molecular assembler.

[Kalthas]

Or you could set up a level emitter to turn on/off the processing of dusts. This way you set the threshold of how many free dusts you want in your system. Say you want one stack at all times. Set the level emitter to turn on the exports to the furnaces ONLY when you have more than 64 dusts in the system. You could make this more complicated and add a pulverizer that receives ingots to mash if the level drops below 64. Good luck!

[atomiX_X]

You could have it all done in a closed loop. Ingots get exported to a pulverizer, fed into an autocrafting table, smelted, then re-enter the me network. The same loop could be used for invar and other things as well with a bit of planning and some clever piping.

Edit, just read your post again. Have it come from the pulverizer directly into the molecular assembler.

Since the ME network is considered as one "entity", wouldn't the dust still get grabbed immediately by the export buses or would it get processed by the assembler? Does cable length or distance have any effect on what takes priority? I'll have to try it when I get a chance.

A closed loop is also a good solution but would need dedicated machines. Not that it's a big deal but not as compact. I'll definitely do this if there's no other way.

Or you could set up a level emitter to turn on/off the processing of dusts. This way you set the threshold of how many free dusts you want in your system. Say you want one stack at all times. Set the level emitter to turn on the exports to the furnaces ONLY when you have more than 64 dusts in the system. You could make this more complicated and add a pulverizer that receives ingots to mash if the level drops below 64. Good luck!

Normally, this would work great but the way I have it set up, one furnace handles 4 or 5 different dust types so as soon as one of those types would get above the threshold, any one of those 4-5 would get exported, even if they are below a full stack.

Thanks for the input

[Lostonexxx]

I was thinking dedicated machines just for the loop. Though you could have a seperate smaller me network, handling the processing of quarries etc, that outputs into your main system. That way, any conflicts like this wouldnt be an issue.

Otherwise, you could have ingots fed straight into an induction smelter, thereby negating the need to pulverize first.

[atomiX_X]

Yeah I think using an induction smelter might be best in this case. I like induction furnaces because of the processing speed for large amounts of items but for a low volume item like bronze, an induction smelter would be perfect...no need to process the ingots beforehand.