Loss of Charcoal in Steam Dynamos

[pirahnah3]

Good day to the crew here

 

I am having an issue with my tree farm steam dynamo setup. Currently running on a server (all 2 of us that use it) in the recommended version. My appologies if this belongs on the tracker but I did not think it a bug more of a what have I done wrong. 

 

When logging in I notice that all 12 of my steam dynamos have 0 charcoal in them and that the chest after my red stone furnace is also empty. These had items in them when I logged off. 

 

The tree farm is feeding a red stone furnace as normal, creating charcoal, putting that into a chest and that chest using item ducts out into the dynamos. The setup when I am playing on the server is fine and runs well with no loss of power. 

 

I have tried several times to figure out what is not working properly. Last night I logged off the server and the other use did NOT log in so that we could test if it was that issue, and this morning I log in to all 12 dynamos empty, not producing power as well as 2 chests of charcoal empty. As soon as I log in the dynamos will take fuel and light up indicating they are working. 

 

Occasionally they will not produce power although they will consume charcoal they will only show half full of steam. The water level is full but this will not fix itself until I relog or remove and replace the dynamo, 

 

None of these issues seem to be resolved by recrafting dynamos and replacing (assuming it was a bad item) I have also tried 3 different layouts of the dynamos and piping. 

 

the red stone conduit is not in a loop and terminates at a red stone energy cell that is basically always full.

 

Please any idea would be usefull as to why this is constantly an issue. 

[DanielUSA]

I know that dynamos will use up all the fuel non stop.

 

What you can do is make a lever that you flip so charcoal stops going to the dynamos and then when you log in hit the switch to start your dynamos.

 

Another thing you can do is make an online detector that will keep the machine on while your online and then turn off when you log off.

 

You could try making a poppit shelf to ensure that items are not getting deleted when chunks get unloaded.

 

Your friend could be taking your charcoal.

 

I have also run into this issue and wondered what happened so now I use a lever to control the use of planks.

 

Well planks are more economical than charcoal so switch to a sawmill and remove your furnace.

 

What I do now is that I have a deep storage unit that stores sawdust and one that runs from a chest that stores planks. The chest has itemducts which I turn on and off and I have one item duct that constantly feeds my deep storage unit which holds planks. I usually set the stack size to about 1 or 2 then I up it to 4, this allows my chest to stay full and feed my dynamos but at the same time keep storing planks at a reasonable rate.

[Neonemerld]

Steam dynamos continue to use power, even if they're not powering other machines, to keep up the internal steam pressure. This isn't an issue with other dynamos. The only solution is to turn the dynamo off when not in use. This is the setup I use for my steam dynamos; just a simple lever on the back of the machine. Hope this helps!

[pirahnah3]

As I said in the first post no one was on the server, and these are not in spawn chunks. This power is also shared between bases so it also needs to run when they are online. I realize I can probably use an and or gate and two player detectors but that seems a bit far out to use. I have thought of using sugar and mob essence to run a reactant dynamo setup, but I like the ease of the tree farm setup. 

 

Edit: Added the player detectors, and that works fine for shutting down the feed so thank you for that! The problem of not generating power still is not solved. I have tried replacing all the redstone conduit, the fluid ducts, and the item ducts, there are no levers buttons or anything around these dynamos. They will consume coal but only produce 2040 units of steam and will never produce power however they will still consume the charcoal. I attached one to a hardened energy cell directly just to check and it used an entire stack of charcoal and did not generate ANY power. 

Edited June 27, 2014 by pirahnah3

[DanielUSA]

Remove the entire set up and rebuild it.

 

 

 

Also switch to planks. It is as easy as removing the furnace and installing a sawmill. You could even make a nullifier to take the sawdust if you don't want to keep it.

 

I keep the sawdust so I can make charcoal for storing.

 

 

 

But you get more energy from 6 planks than you do from 1 charcoal.

[pirahnah3]

Swapped out setup totally, replaced from the water up and still nothing they take planks and use them but do not generate more than 2040 of steam. I have tried a new location and all and a steam dynamo will no longer produce RF's 

[DanielUSA]

Are you talking about the gauge on the left staying in the middle? That happened to me but I never noticed a big difference. 

[DanielUSA]

If you are really wondering if something is wrong get two dynamo set ups and and two energy cells. Place them on top of the dynamos and in one burn 6 planks and in another burn 1 charcoal and see how much energy the cell has after the dynamos stop.

[pirahnah3]

Im not worried about the output, was doing very well prior and now will be even better! Thanks! 

 

The problem I am still having is there is no power generation from item use 

 

and 

 

The items disappear with log off. I have tried the player detector and used it on the output side of the chest so that when player was online it would allow items out of the chest via the servo. Logged out with a full chest and running but not generating dynamos, logged back in about an hour later and chest is empty sawmill not working and nothing has anything in inventory. 

[DanielUSA]

Are using any other types of mods?

 

Are you using the latest build? Because if your not you should.

 

If I were you I would switch to the newest version.

 

You could do another test like this. Get a compression dynamo; I think that's what its called. Then add a block of coal and mob essence or LXP (liquid experience). Log off an see if those also erase.

[pirahnah3]

No other mods, server is running the recommended release as the group has always agreed to do instead of testing and causing issues with the map or other things. 

[crafttekknition]

I have issues with RF power when a chunk unloads then reloads. I often have to break wires and replace them to get the power going again, same with itemducts.

[DanielUSA]

The new latest version feels good so far. It should fix a bunch of smaller things.

[pirahnah3]

Slight update to this, I went around and started looking at things, and I noticed when I hovered over my Harvester that it wait "Harvester" and thn below that read <ERROR> and then mfr but would only last a second and the error line went away. I took these out and replaced them (with the same unit mind you) and this error went away and all my connected power cells were able to start gaining power finally. 

 

Ok little update as well. I took everything down again, tried the reactant dynamo with gun powder and energized glow stone. It didn't work until I used a brand new piece of redstone pipe to connect it to a power cell. I was made OP for a bit to do some testing on the server so that I could easily get some of this done. Once the redstone pipe was replaced all was fine. Everything worked fine while I was playing replaced all the other redstone around the dynamos and things were good. 

 

Fast forward until I jumped back on tonight to check on it. Saw mill is empty, no logs, no sawdust no planks, the chest it is feeding into was full and the sawmill pipes were stuffed when I logged off. When I come back as I said sawmill empty and the first row of the chest is now empty. The one engine that feeds the sawmill and tree farm had no inventory in it for planks. 

 

I ran this test on the compression dynamo and it to had the same issue. I had placed a stack of gunpowder and 2 buckets of glow stone into it when I logged off. When I came back the redstone energy cell it was connected to was empty, that dynamo was empty and nothing else was connected to it. Was quite literally, dynamo, one piece of redstone conduit and the energy cell. 

[DanielUSA]

Ok sounds like you got a good set up there. The final step we need to cover is this:

 

You need to create a "poppet shelf".

 

 

The poppet shelf is considered a chunk loader. This will keep the chunk loaded at all times, so your items won't get unloaded when you log off.

 

You can press F9 twice to see the size of a chunk. You may need to make more than one poppet shelf but you will need one loading the chunk your sawmill/plank chest is.

 

If you are still having issues with items disappearing then I don't know what else to tell you.

 

It sounds like your server might have a mod that clears items or unloads chunks. In which case; items in ducts or minefactory machines aren't considered "safe".

 

Also, you can steal stuff from dynamos and minefactory machines even if you have worldguard on.

 

If I were you I would make a single player creative world and test out the disappearance of items there.

 

You could also reinstall the modpack...

 

Honestly if the poppet shelf doesn't do it; I don't have any idea.

 

good luck

Edited June 29, 2014 by DanielUSA

[pirahnah3]

I was thinking poppet shelves. I will give it a shot when I have some time to log on and play. 

[Kalbintion]

Slight update to this, I went around and started looking at things, and I noticed when I hovered over my Harvester that it wait "Harvester" and thn below that read <ERROR> and then mfr but would only last a second and the error line went away. I took these out and replaced them (with the same unit mind you) and this error went away and all my connected power cells were able to start gaining power finally.

That error notice can be ignored. It is just an issue with WAILA not picking up the information as soon as you hover over the block, itll affect nothing in the end outside of a minor annoyance waiting for it to update with the actual information.

[pirahnah3]

That error notice can be ignored. It is just an issue with WAILA not picking up the information as soon as you hover over the block, itll affect nothing in the end outside of a minor annoyance waiting for it to update with the actual information.

 

Thank you, handy to know that is a null issue. 

 

Also just checked again after not playing for about a day, Chest that was full of planks is empty, saw mill is empty, all dynamos have no planks, It seems like there is an error causing one chunk to stay loaded all the time. The tree farms however do not seem to run durring this. 

 

As for chunk borders, yep got one right between two dynamos. However, dynamos on each side of the chunk border were emptied of their contents. I did not install poppet shelves yet, but as this spans two seperate chunks im not entirely sure if that will solve the issue or not. 

 

I also asked the Server admin about any coding at all, and apparently all there is besides the pack is some java dump code when the server starts up but other than that nothing.

 

any further ideas? 

[Kalbintion]

Take screen shots of your entire setup, to the minor details even (duct settings, etc) and post them here so we can view them and potentially see a particular issue that may not be apparent otherwise with word-based descriptions. A video may be also prove useful if you're able to record.

[pirahnah3]

Poppet shelves have seemingly solved the issue. The Admin was kind enough to grant me a few to test with so I didnt have to make a bunch. So far so good, thou it seems to run so long as the server is online. Unless this becomes an issue I "think" the matter will be solved. See what happens this week when we go to 12a. 

 

Just want to say Thanks for the help! It has been greatly appreciated. 

Edited June 30, 2014 by pirahnah3

[Loader]

Just out of curiosity, were you using wires with this setup or conduits?

[DanielUSA]

I figured it was a chunk loading issue and No Problem glad it helped.

[pirahnah3]

Here is a shot of what I have, not fully cleaned back up yet but you get the idea. Its hiding right at the edge of two of my tree farms. Still getting it put back together needs a bunch more piping and all that still.