AE query and storage of physical items

[mrcavallol]

hi - i am trying to get my head around AE as i would like to start thinking about setting up a network.

however i am not quite sure what i will physically have to do with all my items. currently i have a very ordered storage facility that is pumping from quarries and sorting into chests.

once i set up my network - do i have to physically move all these items or can i simply connect each chest to the network via network cable? i would prefer to continue having my items stored separately even tho it seems the AE interface shows everyting in the one window.

thanks.

[CharlieChop]

Yes, its possible.

If you wish to use your previous containers because you like them, all you need to use is a storage bus. These buses integrate any block capable of storing items into part of the network. But you have to keep in mind that even like that your chests might get full and you might loose items.

Your second option would be to build a disk drive, and a couple storage disks. And using spacebar while clicking in a container will load or deposit as many items as you can carry or fit into the destination. Using this method + a wireless access will make the transition faster.

Imho you should move into me storage as fast as possible. If you like to use chests to store stuff, you could upgeade to deep storage units and link them with storage buses into the system to save storage disk space.

[PessimiStick]

Simplest way to get things from Chests --> AE System is to build 1 basic import bus, and then just move it from chest to chest until they're all empty.

[Spoonman]

You can check this video about quarries. You can see in this video how he has his chest connected to an ME network. Like the previous posters said you can setup ME chest if you want to separate.

[Prototype958]

The Deep Storage Units connected with Storage Buses are by far the best way to manage large quantities of individual items. I use them for all my bars, Saplings, Seeds, Fertilizer, Foods, excess Dirt/Cobble/Sand, Coal, pretty much anything and everything that you're going to have thousands of late game.

Just make sure that if you do use the DSU that you either have 0 of the item on your network before you connect the storage bus. This way the ME network will prioritize storage on the DSU over your ME Drives. If there is even just one of what ever you're putting into the DSU on your Drives, the ME network will always add to the drive instead of the DSU. What I do when converting to a DSU is to set up where I want it and attach a Precision Export Bus and tell it to transfer stacks of the item I'm trying to store. That way it will pull all of that item off your ME network and dump it into the DSU. After there's none left on the network you can break off the Export Bus and attach the Storage bus in its place. That will let you access all those items in the DSU from your network without using up precious Drive space.

God that sounds way more confusing then it actually is... Lol. Let me know if you have any trouble understanding that!

[Dewfire]

I've always kept an Export BUS on my DSU's just to ensure nothing stays on my drives.

[H4RV3Y]

Do import buses work directly onto Item Tesseracts? I'm just thinking if you have say 2 quarries and a few turtles going to one ender chest it might get full before the system has time to take the items into the system?

[Prototype958]

I haven't tried them directly to a Tesseract, but what I usually do for my quarries is diamond pipe off the tesseract to sort out the crap blocks that I don't need extra of like cobble and dirt. Then the good stuff goes to a Gold chest with an import bus.

[mrcavallol]

thanks so much for your responses. i think i am wasting my time then setting up all my chests. i will look at trying to set up an ME network straight away and DSUs especially for cobblestone, dirt, etc.

i think i understand your post Prototype - good to hear that you can prioritise where the items are stored.

is there any way to control how the ME network interface orders your items? ive noticed on most videos it seems pretty random.

seems there is still a fair bit to get my head around - BC is still so new to me. cheers.

[Prototype958]

You can sort alphabetetically, by quantity or by block ID I believe.

[weirleader]

and besides that, it's pretty easy to just type in an item name to search for it. once you really get your system together and you have auto-crafting of items you'll find the interface so slick that a quick moment to type in an item name is hardly noticeable.

[Dewfire]

I haven't tried them directly to a Tesseract, but what I usually do for my quarries is diamond pipe off the tesseract to sort out the crap blocks that I don't need extra of like cobble and dirt. Then the good stuff goes to a Gold chest with an import bus.

No you can't, at least you couldn't in AE version in 1.0.6. I haven't tried again since. I placed a Precision Import Bus and set it to import Cobble, Dirt sand etc in stacks to keep those from filling the chest, and then placed a 2nd basic import on the chest. As far as I know you can place as many import bus's on a storage unit as it has sides. That's how I got around a chest filling up!

[PessimiStick]

That's the same solution I use. Precision or fuzzy import for high volume blocks, then a basic to clean up the rest.

[Viktor_Berg]

The Deep Storage Units connected with Storage Buses are by far the best way to manage large quantities of individual items. I use them for all my bars, Saplings, Seeds, Fertilizer, Foods, excess Dirt/Cobble/Sand, Coal, pretty much anything and everything that you're going to have thousands of late game.

Just make sure that if you do use the DSU that you either have 0 of the item on your network before you connect the storage bus. This way the ME network will prioritize storage on the DSU over your ME Drives. If there is even just one of what ever you're putting into the DSU on your Drives, the ME network will always add to the drive instead of the DSU. What I do when converting to a DSU is to set up where I want it and attach a Precision Export Bus and tell it to transfer stacks of the item I'm trying to store. That way it will pull all of that item off your ME network and dump it into the DSU. After there's none left on the network you can break off the Export Bus and attach the Storage bus in its place. That will let you access all those items in the DSU from your network without using up precious Drive space.

God that sounds way more confusing then it actually is... Lol. Let me know if you have any trouble understanding that!

Don't forget, you can set the priority to be high for DSU storage buses, and they will always get filled first.

[CharlieChop]

As viktor said. Shift right click your storage bus and order it to have higher priority than 1. Ex 10.

What i do is placing the storage bus, setting it to store cobble and increase its priority to 64. After that i use the io block to dump all items into the dsu. Just format it to whatever is you want to dump, order the io to empty into the disk, and then empty the disk again. Extremely easy to dump items when youre in the hundred thousands. And less cpu intensive.