AE2 P2P Confusion!

[Jayrey]

Hey guys, so I've done a bit with AE2 before but not too much, and I'm just starting to work a little bit with P2P networks to try and avoid putting dense cable over long distances, but I've hit a stumbling block that's really confused me so I'm hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction.
I'm just going to explain it in writing but if you need pictures I can get some done for you.
So first of all, I have an ME Controller with a dense cable coming out of it, then an ME glass cable connected to a P2P tunnel, and some quartz fiber connecting to a power supply, then I have a long line of glass cable, that is then connected to another P2P, loaded to the previous ones setting, and this then starts connecting to my crafting terminals that I have dotted around my base, this is all fine and works okay. After about 5 of my terminals, I run out of channels, so I set up a second P2P to access more of the 32 I had at the start and connect that to my import buses, again not an issue, it works fine, HOWEVER, I then run out of space again so I attach another P2P, and load the settings, but the P2P is missing a channel, so I figure I'll remove one of the import buses from the previous line up to free some space, but it still says it's missing a channel, so I connect some smart cable to see and it says im not using any channels before that pvp....I'm so very confused right now and I'm not sure if you will understand what I'm even saying but hopefully I can get some help because I've been trying to solve this for about 2 hours now and it's driving me crazy!!!

 

[Zarkov]

Try putting the P2P tunnel directly on the dense cable from the controller (no glass cable).

 

[Jayrey]

Yeah I should have mentioned I tried that too but it was the same result

 

[Someone Else 37]

I suggest that you watch the video found here. It's a very thorough explanation of all the details of channel manipulation in AE2, including several ways to use P2P tunnels.

 

[Adonis0]

If the video above doesn't help, would you be able to post some screen shots to show us the set-up?
At least I personally got confused with your explination

 

[Jayrey]

I suggest that you watch the video found here. It's a very thorough explanation of all the details of channel manipulation in AE2, including several ways to use P2P tunnels.

Thank you for that link it was really fantastic and taught me a lot...however, it still didn't solve my problem unfortunately

 

[Jayrey]

If the video above doesn't help, would you be able to post some screen shots to show us the set-up?
At least I personally got confused with your explination

Yeah, I read it back myself and had trouble following it lol! Anyways, I'll show you some pictures here and try to talk you through everything and what my thought process was, although it is difficult to show everything as the wires sprawl across the entirety of my fairly large base.

Ok, so first of all, I have a dense cable coming out of my controller and as you can see next to the controller there is a p2p tunnel connected, surrounded by fibre cable to keep power running, keep in mind that this p2p tunnel is currently working and online, and the Cable shows 2 channels being used.

This cable runs for a little while, then connects to another p2p with again the fibre cables around it to keep power running, this p2p is also online and running fine.

The cable then splits off in 2 directions, one of the directions takes it directly to another p2p tunnel which is currently OFFLINE and missing channels for some reason, and then connects to 3 storage bus' which are attached to JABBA barrels. This is the first issue I have.

Like I said the cable splits into 2 directions, the other direction it goes to 2 crafting terminals (back to back) which are online and working fine and then it goes to another p2p network (I know I shouldn't need this many but as I was always missing channel I tried to decrease the amount of devices I was using as much as possible) which again is offline.

This then goes on to 2 crafting terminals, which are online, but only have access to my potatoes (which you will see in a bit) .

This cable then splits in 2 directions again, it goes to the right where it connects to an import bus on a chest which is where my smelted items go, and this import bus is online

And then finally it goes to the left where it ends up at my potato barrel with a storage bus on it, which is online.

So yeah, this is a bit worse than I explained it before, but I tried to fix it and it got worse...lol

The thing I don't understand is why all the p2p networks apparently have no channels, and why my main dense cable says I only have 2 channels when I clearly have more just in terms of terminals...hopefully these pictures might help show my stupidity and you can clarify for me where I'm going wrong...sorry for the long drawn out explanations of everything lol, I am still learning AE2 so it takes me a while to try and explain things in laymans terms

 

[GreenZombie]

First - use more smart cables.
Next - for bonus points, a p2p tunnel spans a network over another network. If a network is powered, it is powered on both sides of a tunnel. So you typically can dispense with the glass fiber power connections on one of the sides.
Third - use more smart cables.
Fourth - there should be a channel being used on your P2P "service" network for each connected P2P device (assuming none of them are pointing the wrong way) as the P2P service networks rarely include a ME controller this means they max out at 8 P2P tunnel devices - for between 4 and 7 tunnels depending on how they are linked.

So, to debug what is going on, use more smart cables on your backbone P2P network. Perhaps add a ME controller to it because it looks like you are exceeding the 8 available channels available to controllerless networks (although that should shut the whole network down?).

 

[Jayrey]

First - use more smart cables.
Next - for bonus points, a p2p tunnel spans a network over another network. If a network is powered, it is powered on both sides of a tunnel. So you typically can dispense with the glass fiber power connections on one of the sides.
Third - use more smart cables.
Fourth - there should be a channel being used on your P2P "service" network for each connected P2P device (assuming none of them are pointing the wrong way) as the P2P service networks rarely include a ME controller this means they max out at 8 P2P tunnel devices - for between 4 and 7 tunnels depending on how they are linked.

So, to debug what is going on, use more smart cables on your backbone P2P network. Perhaps add a ME controller to it because it looks like you are exceeding the 8 available channels available to controllerless networks (although that should shut the whole network down?).

Umm...I mean...in the very first picture you can see the ME controller that the Dense cable is connected to, and the very first sentence I used when explaining my issue was "kk, so first of all, I have a dense cable coming out of my controller" so I thought that would have explained that it's not a controllerless network, in addition to the fact that there are way more than the 8 channels I am using

 

[GreenZombie]

You have at least 2 networks.
A network with a controller on it with many channels, storage busses etc.
And a "backbone" network that carries P2P channels.
Unless you drop those glass fibers in the first pic - which will cause its own, hard to diagnose set of issues - the P2P service network only has 8 channels available to it.

 

[Jayrey]

I'm struggling to follow what you mean, you have to understand I'm new to the mod and have no knowledge of networks in the real world either.
From what I understand I have a dense cable connected to my controller which gives me 32 channels on that dense cable, I then have a P2P Tunnel connected to the dense cable, the glass cable is after the dense cable to cheapen the cost of running wiring long distances and that glass cable has access to 8 channels but is only using 2, 1 for each of the P2P tunnels, the P2P tunnel on the other side should then have 8 more, new channels available to it, and the 3rd P2P tunnel should have yet another 8 channels available too it, all of which should link back to the main dense cable and use some of the 32 channels it has available too it

 

[GreenZombie]

I see your problem then.
You are trying to run P2P tunnels *through* P2P tunnels.

Symbolically you seem to have a network that looks like this:

[C]==>---------<--+-<--^^^

A controller `[C]`, connects via dense cable `==` to a p2p tunnel that runs over a glass network to a p2p tunnel `>---<', that then runs branches to some other p2p tunnels `<--+--<`, including one that connects to the storage busses `--^^^`.

Strip out the 2nd p2p tunnel in your description so that the main network p2p tunnel can directly see the p2p tunnel that links to the storage busses.

[C]==>-----------+-<--^^^

 

[Jayrey]

The problem is that then I won't have enough channels for everything I need as that would Limit me to 8 channels but I need about 10

 

[GreenZombie]

The problem is that then I won't have enough channels for everything I need as that would Limit me to 8 channels but I need about 10

Then put a controller on your carrier network.

[C]==>---+--[C]--+--<--^^^

 

[Jayrey]

Is that really the most efficient way of doing things though? I watched one of DireWolf20's old videos and wanted to recreate what he did in his episode, which is at

at around 15:30

 

[GreenZombie]

Dire's setup was complicated but at no point was he running p2p tunnels over p2p tunnels. That is not possible. Sadly.

 

[Jayrey]

Hmm, seems this is all just going over my head, clearly something I'm not understanding lol, oh well

 

[ratchet freak]

Color the cables

one for the P2P backbone and one color for the Actual network.


Also note that the cable coming out of the front of the P2P is not part of the P2P backbone network. so Connecting P2P buses loaded from the one on the dense cable will not work:

instead of

[C]==>---------<--+-<--^^^

you should do

[C]==>---------<--+-
            |
            --<--^^^

 

[Someone Else 37]

Yeah, I read it back myself and had trouble following it lol! Anyways, I'll show you some pictures here and try to talk you through everything and what my thought process was, although it is difficult to show everything as the wires sprawl across the entirety of my fairly large base.

Ok, so first of all, I have a dense cable coming out of my controller and as you can see next to the controller there is a p2p tunnel connected, surrounded by fibre cable to keep power running, keep in mind that this p2p tunnel is currently working and online, and the Cable shows 2 channels being used. View attachment 25388

This cable runs for a little while, then connects to another p2p with again the fibre cables around it to keep power running, this p2p is also online and running fine.View attachment 25389

The cable then splits off in 2 directions, one of the directions takes it directly to another p2p tunnel which is currently OFFLINE and missing channels for some reason, and then connects to 3 storage bus' which are attached to JABBA barrels. This is the first issue I have. View attachment 25396

Like I said the cable splits into 2 directions, the other direction it goes to 2 crafting terminals (back to back) which are online and working fine View attachment 25399 and then it goes to another p2p network View attachment 25400 (I know I shouldn't need this many but as I was always missing channel I tried to decrease the amount of devices I was using as much as possible) which again is offline.

This then goes on to 2 crafting terminals, which are online, but only have access to my potatoes (which you will see in a bit) View attachment 25403.

This cable then splits in 2 directions again, it goes to the right where it connects to an import bus on a chest which is where my smelted items go, and this import bus is online View attachment 25404

And then finally it goes to the left where it ends up at my potato barrel with a storage bus on it, which is online. View attachment 25405

So yeah, this is a bit worse than I explained it before, but I tried to fix it and it got worse...lol

The thing I don't understand is why all the p2p networks apparently have no channels, and why my main dense cable says I only have 2 channels when I clearly have more just in terms of terminals...hopefully these pictures might help show my stupidity and you can clarify for me where I'm going wrong...sorry for the long drawn out explanations of everything lol, I am still learning AE2 so it takes me a while to try and explain things in laymans terms

Ok, for one thing, you can't nest P2P tunnels. That's why the storage buses on those three barrels aren't working. Channels powering P2P tunnels can't be P2P'd again.

Second, as others have mentioned, you're getting different subnetworks confused. The reason your potato monitor is only letting you access your potato barrel is because the particular network it's attached to only has the potato barrel attached to it, and not your main storage.
One way to clear up this confusion is to paint your cables. Do note that the cables on opposite sides of the a P2P tunnel are on separate networks and should be painted different colors, unless you connect them together somewhere else.

Alternatively, you could just put everything on the same network. You can eliminate those quartz fibers and the little loopbacks (most of which were probably superfluous anyway) that way, as well as eliminate all the confusion with separate networks. Just make sure there's a line of cables leading from the back of each and every P2P tunnel straight back to your main controller. Including, of course, the controller-side P2P tunnels that send the channels outward, which will indeed loop back to the controller (but without any quartz fibers).

 

[Jayrey]

Ok, for one thing, you can't nest P2P tunnels. That's why the storage buses on those three barrels aren't working. Channels powering P2P tunnels can't be P2P'd again.

Second, as others have mentioned, you're getting different subnetworks confused. The reason your potato monitor is only letting you access your potato barrel is because the particular network it's attached to only has the potato barrel attached to it, and not your main storage.
One way to clear up this confusion is to paint your cables. Do note that the cables on opposite sides of the a P2P tunnel are on separate networks and should be painted different colors, unless you connect them together somewhere else.

Alternatively, you could just put everything on the same network. You can eliminate those quartz fibers and the little loopbacks (most of which were probably superfluous anyway) that way, as well as eliminate all the confusion with separate networks. Just make sure there's a line of cables leading from the back of each and every P2P tunnel straight back to your main controller. Including, of course, the controller-side P2P tunnels that send the channels outward, which will indeed loop back to the controller (but without any quartz fibers).

Thank you! Thank you for actually making sense. Instead of talking about backbones and subnetworks and weird askii pictures and carrier networks, you actually understood that I don't understand all this strange lingo, you put it in black and white and it made sense, and I managed to fix my system, so thankyou friend