Limiting amount of a certain resource in an AE network

[Jerx99]

Yeah, so I'm wondering if there's a way to tell an AE system to never keep more than X amount of a certain (or any) resource, without preformatting every single storage space?

For example I would want to limit the amount of Cobble to 64 stacks and having any cobble above that amount voided instead of put in an overflow chest. This might be beewax or honeydrops or whatever, really. I tend to overproduce a lot.

Any ideas welcome

 

[Niels Henriksen]

Use export bus, dark cable and level-imiter.

I have the setup on my Blast furnace where Im making steel. When there are more than 128 units of steel the oven dont import anything. As soon as the amout goes under 128 unites the level-imiter activtes a redstone signal on the dark cable.

So for you it should be:

AE - Storage - Cable - Dark Cable (under this a level imiter thats connected with the previous cable) - export bus - void chest.

 

[KhrFreak]

You don't even need the dark cable, export buses can be set to respond to redstone can they not? so just have a level emitter next to an export bus

 

[Loufmier]

the other option is to use barrels to store such materials and send them directly to barrels and void overflow.

 

[Jerx99]

Ok, but it ends up being one Export Bus+Level Emitter for every resource unless I use barrels for it (which then will use more storage space)... Interesting.

Thanks for the answers anyway

 

[budge]

That's about it, yeah. You can save a little space if you set up rows and rows of emitters, export busses, and something like a tesseract/ender chest/lots of void chests. I recently discovered Thaumic Tinker's transvector interfaces and hooked them all up to one ME condenser. Man those interfaces are cool. Interface + router = mind blown.

 

[bigtwisty]

My option is to set up an ME Bridge from MiscPeripherals. Have an attached computer check a list of resources every 60 seconds or so and send the excesses to a trash can. 3 blocks, and you can manage as many resources as you want.

 

[Dorque]

On this subject, anyone know how to make dark cable/level emitters not kill your queued crafting?

I have a setup to keep cobblestone below a certain level but I have to remove the emitter before crafting anything which kind of makes the whole thing pointless.

 

[netmc]

Any change to the network (adding or removing cable/interfaces) will reset the crafting queue. If the item is something that is automatically crafted, it will be redone when needed. If it is something you requested, there isn't much that can be done. The only possibility would be separating your AE network into two. One would handle your automatic systems, and the other would handle the user requests.

As far as limiting the items, you could use the prioritizing of storage buses and such to limit how much you store of certain items. I myself only have about a dozen items that are mass produced by my farms. I've finally gotten around to setting those up with deep storage units attached to storage buses, so I don't really care how many of those I have now.

One of the interesting things you can do when setting the storage priority is set your normal storage to a low priority, then attach a storage bus to a chest that you will void, and set the priority to a high value, but restrict the void chest interface to only certain items. Now, AE will continue to use the storage with already placed items first, then when that disk is full, it will use the highest level priority. Since your void chest is the highest priority, the cobble and stuff you decide will be automatically voided without having to create level emitters and export buses for each item individually.

 

[Dorque]

I'm running it through a bank of recyclers rather than voiding it, and I do certainly have it in a DSU; cobble just outweighs pretty much anything else I'm terms of being easy to obtain and recycle right now.

That being said, the principles should be roughly the same; it's more a matter of automating the process of recycling without accidentally wiping out my whole supply than anything else. What you've outlined will be somewhat more complex but it should work for that purpose.

The reason it's significant is that my whole network is tied into an insanely large MAC and I make almost everything through it; I can hardly order up a brace of advanced hybrid solars with the network blinking on and off but with the MAC as tied-in as it is (108 pages of patterns to work with =P) I don't want to start sectioning bits off either.

I suppose another option would be to set up some farms and use their products for the recyclers in a separate network. Ideas to consider, anyway.

 

[YX33A]

I'm running it through a bank of recyclers rather than voiding it, and I do certainly have it in a DSU; cobble just outweighs pretty much anything else I'm terms of being easy to obtain and recycle right now.

That being said, the principles should be roughly the same; it's more a matter of automating the process of recycling without accidentally wiping out my whole supply than anything else. What you've outlined will be somewhat more complex but it should work for that purpose.

The reason it's significant is that my whole network is tied into an insanely large MAC and I make almost everything through it; I can hardly order up a brace of advanced hybrid solars with the network blinking on and off but with the MAC as tied-in as it is (108 pages of patterns to work with =P) I don't want to start sectioning bits off either.

I suppose another option would be to set up some farms and use their products for the recyclers in a separate network. Ideas to consider, anyway.

If you need to autocraft and have dark cables which get used now and then, look into subnetworking. Might help, might not, but at least it's a start.

 

[twisto51]

You don't even need the dark cable, export buses can be set to respond to redstone can they not? so just have a level emitter next to an export bus

Better to do it without the dark cable, definitely, since toggling that dark cable is going to reconfigure the network every time, killing any autocrafting jobs that are in process.

I've found it easier/more convenient to just add more power than to switch parts of my main network off/on.

 

[MigukNamja]

I'm a big fan of ME Level Emitters sitting on top of ME Precision Export buses set to redstone signal required. I usually only export if I have more than a certain resource.

I've had my AE and auto-resource-gathering systems up for weeks, but haven't had a storage issue yet and I just have a handful of DSU and a single ME Drive with 16K disks. I put my excess stuff into an ME Matter Condensor.

I've done big-storage-drowning-in-resources in previous playthroughs, but went for small footprint and efficiency this time.

 

[Dorque]

Better to do it without the dark cable, definitely, since toggling that dark cable is going to reconfigure the network every time, killing any autocrafting jobs that are in process.

I've found it easier/more convenient to just add more power than to switch parts of my main network off/on.

In my case it's not about power management, it's about storage management; I want to process certain overstocked resources into scrap but I don't want to accidentally process all of it.

This thread's given me some better ideas on how to accomplish that, though, even if they might get a bit convoluted.

 

[twisto51]

In my case it's not about power management, it's about storage management; I want to process certain overstocked resources into scrap but I don't want to accidentally process all of it.

This thread's given me some better ideas on how to accomplish that, though, even if they might get a bit convoluted.

It is as simple as an export bus with a level emitter pointed at it. Nothing complex or convoluted about it. Also easy to test that the settings on the export bus and level emitter are proper without losing anything.

 

[Dorque]

Considering the speed I want to process things at it's more like 8, but you're quite right; somewhere in there I forgot that it wasn't the level emitter causing the problem.

Fortunately I have space and power to spare, although the network chamber is starting to look a bit cluttered

 

[twisto51]

Be nice if it became a feature of the network controller itself so we could set levels right there for any blockid.

 

[Dorque]

If it's not already on his to-do or the rejected requests file, I'll push it on to AlgorithmX2 at some point, he's one of the best on implementing fixes and suggestions.

 

[PhilHibbs]

If it's not already on his to-do or the rejected requests file, I'll push it on to AlgorithmX2 at some point, he's one of the best on implementing fixes and suggestions.

If what is not on his to-do list? What specific feature are you thinking of suggesting? I can't think of a generic way to "solve" this problem, because the problem is too vaguue. "Set a level for a material" - set it to do what and how? Level Emitters have their problems, in that you need at least two blocks per resource that you want to manipulate, but at least they are flexible tools. I'm a big fan of simple, general-purpose tools that you build up into a custom solution. It's why I love RedPower, and I've warmed to AE as I've become aware of the options for creative use of the components.

 

[Dorque]

If what is not on his to-do list? What specific feature are you thinking of suggesting? I can't think of a generic way to "solve" this problem, because the problem is too vaguue. "Set a level for a material" - set it to do what and how? Level Emitters have their problems, in that you need at least two blocks per resource that you want to manipulate, but at least they are flexible tools. I'm a big fan of simple, general-purpose tools that you build up into a custom solution. It's why I love RedPower, and I've warmed to AE as I've become aware of the options for creative use of the components.

I'm thinking of suggesting precisely what Twisto said would be a nice feature.