AE2 - Why is the Charger so finicky?

[Brian Cherrick]

Long story short I have an interface with the recipe (1 certus quartz > 1 charged certus quartz). Sometimes it makes it almost instantaneously, others it takes 10-15 seconds to craft. What be be the cause of this hold up when it was plenty of power, and is connected to the network? While a minor annoyance, it can be quite frustrating when trying to deal with autocrafting.

The interface is set in the rear of the machine with the arrow point towards it, and imports the normal certus quartz just fine, and there is an import bus set to import charged certus quartz.

Thoughts?

Using the DW20 1.0.3 pack.

 

[yotus]

No idea why the charger sometimes work fast and sometimes not.

What you could consider, is putting a storage bus on a ME interface somewhere in your network, and configure the interface to have like a stack of charged certus quartz at all times. Also, put a crafting card in the interface.
You will always have a stack available for crafting, and this will auto-craft charged certus as soon as you use some.

Doing this with pure crystals is also a good way to spare time when auto-crafting AE stuff

 

[Yusunoha]

I don't know either, but I do know that steve's factory manager makes it incredibly easy to automate it.

 

[ratchet freak]

I don't know either, but I do know that steve's factory manager makes it incredibly easy to automate it.

any filtered import makes it easy to automate (that includes the import bus)

 

[Brian Cherrick]

I don't know either, but I do know that steve's factory manager makes it incredibly easy to automate it.

Don't really know how to use it, and i don't particularly care for the graphical representation of some of the blocks. But if I knew how to use it, I'd give it a try. But that still wouldn't take away from the fact that sometimes the charger processes it right away, and others there is a day.

any filtered import makes it easy to automate (that includes the import bus)

The way now works just fine though. The method I choose to bring items into the charger isn't gonna help how the charger handles those items (some instantly, versus some delayed).

 

[Yusunoha]

Don't really know how to use it, and i don't particularly care for the graphical representation of some of the blocks. But if I knew how to use it, I'd give it a try. But that still wouldn't take away from the fact that sometimes the charger processes it right away, and others there is a day.

I'm no expert on SFM either and I didn't know how to use it either, but the program was really easy to setup for a charger.
simply input certus quartz from a chest to an output charger, set a condition to whether or not a charged certus quartz is in the charger, and if true import the charged certus quartz from the charge to an output chest

 

[ratchet freak]

I'm no expert on SFM either and I didn't know how to use it either, but the program was really easy to setup for a charger.
simply input certus quartz from a chest to an output charger, set a condition to whether or not a charged certus quartz is in the charger, and if true import the charged certus quartz from the charge to an output chest

or just a whitelisted import on the charger

 

[Brian Cherrick]

I'm no expert on SFM either and I didn't know how to use it either, but the program was really easy to setup for a charger.
simply input certus quartz from a chest to an output charger, set a condition to whether or not a charged certus quartz is in the charger, and if true import the charged certus quartz from the charge to an output chest

I don't think the issue is how the item gets in there, but rather how it processes once it is. I can give it a whirl, but I will still have the same issue of it being fast one time, and taking forever the next

or just a whitelisted import on the charger

Which would turn my 1.3k Certus into charged heh

 

[Infallible83]

I might be missing something or making an incorrect assumption, but I thought that it was deliberate. I understood that it is a random amount of time to charge a shard, rather than a set time based on power etc.

 

[Golrith]

Solution as mentioned earlier is to set up a system that automatically crafts and stores a fixed amount of the charged certus quartz, so you've always got a ready supply, and your setup can happy charge away while you go off and build something.

 

[ljfa]

any filtered import makes it easy to automate (that includes the import bus)

No need for filters. It even works with a hopper sticked beneath it.

I guess it's just that it takes a random amount of time, so it's sometimes longer and sometimes shorter.

 

[Brian Cherrick]

I might be missing something or making an incorrect assumption, but I thought that it was deliberate. I understood that it is a random amount of time to charge a shard, rather than a set time based on power etc.

Not certain on that. Where did you read that at?

No need for filters. It even works with a hopper sticked beneath it.

I guess it's just that it takes a random amount of time, so it's sometimes longer and sometimes shorter.

You have to use a filter import bus because the charger would dump the regular certus as fast as it got it if you didn't have it set to just import "charged".

 

[ljfa]

You have to use a filter import bus because the charger would dump the regular certus as fast as it got it if you didn't have it set to just import "charged".

I automated the charger in the past and I never needed any kind of filter for pulling items out. Just an unupgraded import bus or a hopper will do the trick.
Or did that change at some point?

 

[Brian Cherrick]

I automated the charger in the past and I never needed any kind of filter for pulling items out. Just an unupgraded import bus or a hopper will do the trick.
Or did that change at some point?

I have tried hoppers, conduits from ender io, and buses from AE2. Each time (and it may have to do with that timing issue) the quartz was being dumped back out before it charged, but if it's random time for each charge, that would certainly account for that.

 

[ljfa]

I have tried hoppers, conduits from ender io, and buses from AE2. Each time (and it may have to do with that timing issue) the quartz was being dumped back out before it charged, but if it's random time for each charge, that would certainly account for that.

That's weird. I'm also using DW20 1.0.3 and having no problems. I stuck the interface to the side of the charger and not to the rear though, but I doubt that this changes anything.

 

[Brian Cherrick]

That's weird. I'm also using DW20 1.0.3 and having no problems. I stuck the interface to the side of the charger and not to the rear though, but I doubt that this changes anything.

Did you wrench it at all to force the stuff into the charger, or just set it, and go?

 

[rdemay91]

I have tried hoppers, conduits from ender io, and buses from AE2. Each time (and it may have to do with that timing issue) the quartz was being dumped back out before it charged, but if it's random time for each charge, that would certainly account for that.

Use a filter so it won't pull out until its charged certus quartz

 

[Brian Cherrick]

Use a filter so it won't pull out until its charged certus quartz

I've already done that. We're discussing other options at the moment.

 

[asb3pe]

Here's how I view this kinda stuff - naturally, we want to automate everything. However, sometimes it's simply more trouble than it is worth. Charged Certus Quartz, for instance... I just sit there with a stack of Certus and put them into the Charger one by one, and I wait until I have 64 Charged Certus. Then I go make my Fluix Crystals by hand. I can pretty much guarantee I will be done long before the OP has figured out how to automate the Charger. That's not a knock on anybody, like I say, we all have the goal to automate everything in this game - but my point is, sometimes it just isn't worth it and I just take the time and do it manually. I dunno about you, but once I've got a couple of stacks of Fluix Dust, I really don't use the Charger after that point, I really have no need for 50 stacks of Charged Certus or Fluix.

I have to assume the variable time period to turn Certus into Charged Certus was the mod designer's way of trying to make it difficult to automate the machine. Sometimes machines are designed to be operated manually and are not intended to be automated (which for some players is simply a challenge and they will spend all their time trying to get around the limitation LOL).

 

[Goof]

A hand-wavey explanation would be that each crystal has its own latent energy already present, so some crystals need less power imbued into them before they are 'charged'. The fact that one comes across naturally occurring charged crystals adds weight to this theory.

Also, chargers are really quite cheap, and don't take that much energy. 4 chargers running at once are easy to manage, and one can craft a stack of crystals in only a couple of minutes, if that. I think maybe 6-8 would be the limit of what one could manage by hand though