There's several ways to keep them running without levers.
(
This one hit me a while back- as levers/torches suck on glass floors, and jam up the filters I had on the back when I attach to the machine).
Without Redpower- I'd say a buildcraft pipe with a iron gate set to '
Inventory empty= redstone signal' if you don't have upgrades. (set to
'items in inventory' if you do)
--> mounted on the back/output of the machine and it'll keep a redstone engine running too.
With redpower you can have redstone tubes connected. (
though it might jam RP blocks connected to the machine.)
However I then figured the most ludicrously awesome way of doing it;
Transformer upgrade on every machine.
MFE under every machine
->MFE Logic:
Emit if full.
Charged energy crystal in every MFE
Redpower tube network replaces empty crystals with charged ones.
(
yeah I was running about 30 or so advanced machines on this setup, once the charging station is built adding more is very easy)