AE Storage Buses & Factorization Barrels

[Vaygrim]

The storage bus supports bi-directional movement of items, it both extracts and inserts items into the attached inventory, as long as it has room, or the block allows the items to be inserted. - AE Wiki

So I checked the AE Wiki and saw that Storage Buses are bi-directional AND they are listed as working with 'storage solutions from other mods', specifically listing Factorization's Barrels.

I know that normal pipes insert into barrels via the top, and extract via the bottom. Does this mean I need to use TWO of AE's ME Storage Buses on a barrel? (One on the top, one on the bottom?) Or just .. one on the bottom of the barrel?

 

[gattsuru]

You can put the Storage Bus on any side of the Barrel, although it must be facing toward the barrel.

 

[Vaygrim]

You can put the Storage Bus on any side of the Barrel, although it must be facing toward the barrel.

So the AE Network will automatically prioritize putting say.. cobblestone.. into a barrel for cobblestone OVER putting on the AE drives? Or do I have to put a piece of cobble in the storage bus itself?

 

[gattsuru]

As a rule, AE will /always/ put items into a drive or storage bus inventory that a) can accept the item, and b) already has one of that item already on the drive or bus. You'll want to put the first unit of cobblestone into the barrel manually (ideally, before even placing the storage bus), but after that all new cobblestone entering the network will automatically try to stack as efficiently as possible. (This behavior actually overrides even priority settings.) Do note that it won't move already already-stored materials, including materials on disk. You need an IO Port or some patience to do that.

It's a good idea to set the item into the storage bus's configuration, too. Won't matter with cobblestone, but with items that could conceivably hit zero it'll save some headache down the road.

 

[Vaygrim]

Okay, I've done some testing and you are 100% correct. Thank you SO much for the advice!

I already have a crapton of barrels and deep storage units filled with stuff. Thanks to the ME Storage Bus I can move it all and hook it straight into a 'starter' Applied Energistics network, allowing me to get one started for cheap. Hooray!

 

[Vaygrim]

So I guess my next question about this would be... What does the Storage Priority tab do on the Storage Buses? I see that it is also on the ME Drives and ME Chests, but I'm not sure if higher is a better numer (higher priority storage) or if lower is a better number? I've been scouring the AE Wiki and it is unfortunately out of date on lots of the more recently added features.

 

[ArcticDreamz]

I think the higher the number the more important the storage location is, so in this case, the higher the priority. I am only assuming this because you can specify negative numbers which wouldn't make much sense if the highest priority would be 0, then 1 etc.

 

[gattsuru]

Items with a higher priority number will receive new items first, while lower (or negative) priority numbers will recieve items later, assuming neither device has any of that item already in it, or both storage devices have some of that item in it.

Note that priority will never override the preference to stick like items with like.

 

[Neecro]

I think the higher the number the more important the storage location is, so in this case, the higher the priority. I am only assuming this because you can specify negative numbers which wouldn't make much sense if the highest priority would be 0, then 1 etc.

You can use negative piority for trash items

 

[Vaygrim]

Storage Buses combined with Factorization Barrels and MFR Deep Storage Units is SO useful. I've got a pretty nice AE system setup and going with ZERO worries for space so far. LOVE IT!

 

[Benjywa]

Barrels < Deep storage + they are both silly cheap
use the latter
Note - Storage buses can be a little buggy on set up
export bus into the deep storage - when finished put the storage bus in its place and you are done