Alveary automation and Thermal Dynamics

[Anton_]

I'm having a problem getting things out of and into an Alveary, using Thermal Dynamics ducts.

I'm playing along with DW20's LP S9. While his LP episodes are now interspersed with other things, I've been passing time trying out breeding Trees and now Flowers with an Alveary. (I've got Bees sorted using Gendustry and I've got all the useful bees I wanted. I also have the Trees I wanted (to max Seed Oil production).)

Now I'm trying to get Princesses, Drones, Combs, Pollen, etc., out of the Alveary's product slots, and get Ps and Ds back into the left-hand slots. I've watched a few videos which make it look easy using EnderIO (and another system) but not Thermal Dynamics, which is what I have available in this modpack.

I've connected Itemducts with Resonant Servos, set to ignore redstone and an empty blacklist, coming off each of the three main levels (in case there's a difference) and feeding into a Small Storage Crate. But nothing moves - not Princesses, not Drones, not combs or pollen - nothing.

What am I doing wrong?

PS: I also can't get the pollen sieve block, loaded with Woven Silk, to produce any Binnie's pollen after a few hours running with loads of vanilla flowers around. Larvae are generated fine, though.

 

[Pyure]

Bees are packed with fancy nbt and/ore meta data. If you're using the higher-level servos you'll have options to turn these off. (I'm especially looking at nbt here, which I believe stores information about the bee's traits)

Actually, you have some products that aren't bees. Can you most screenshots of your setup?

 

[Anton_]

Bees are packed with fancy nbt and/ore meta data. If you're using the higher-level servos you'll have options to turn these off. (I'm especially looking at nbt here, which I believe stores information about the bee's traits)

Actually, you have some products that aren't bees. Can you most screenshots of your setup?

Thanks for your reply, Pyure. The screenshots that follow show the servos and the filter set to whitelist the Dripping Combs that are in the Alveary (I took out half of them and used that to configure the whitelist), and set the NBT/metadata/oredict/modowner to Ignore - so it should let anything that's remotely like a Forestry comb through. After having done the screenshots, I then removed the combs and set the servos and the filter to empty blacklists, which should then let anything through. I used the existing Dripping Comb for the test as it won't get mutated/changed.

Here are the screenshots.

 

[Pyure]

these screenshots are excellent. Do you have something attached to the pipe there on the chest-side? It looks like a retriever or something. Generally speaking, the "target" doesn't need any kind of attachment. Can you confirm what's going on there?

 

[SolManX]

Try pulling out from the bottom.

 

[Anton_]

these screenshots are excellent. Do you have something attached to the pipe there on the chest-side? It looks like a retriever or something. Generally speaking, the "target" doesn't need any kind of attachment. Can you confirm what's going on there?

That is a Resonant Filter on the destination Crate (5th screenshot). I think I put it there because nothing was moving, but it didn't help. I've just removed it, but still no movement.

 

[Anton_]

Try pulling out from the bottom.

Okay, I tried that, with a Resonant Servo (empty blacklist), coming out from underneath the Alveary, but still nothing moving

 

[SolManX]

Ah - was just a thought. I messed around in a creative world with all types of servos and ducts (also ex2 transfer nodes/pipes) and no luck.

But a hopper placed underneath does work (EDIT on the simplest alveary at least).

 

[Pyure]

Weirdness. Have you tried
a) a regular minecraft chest destination?
b) moving the chest one way away from the alveary in case its getting treated as part of the multiblock? (I know this is stupid, but, whatever)
c) pulling from a non-alveary to confirm the pipes work at all?

 

[Anton_]

Weirdness. Have you tried
a) a regular minecraft chest destination?

I've just tried a vanilla Chest - no difference.

b) moving the chest one way away from the alveary in case its getting treated as part of the multiblock?

I moved the Crate 3 or 4 blocks away - no change. Same with a vanilla Chest.

c) pulling from a non-alveary to confirm the pipes work at all?

I put down a Crate along the line of the existing Itemduct, with a Servo, and popped some Dripping Combs in - they were whisked away to the Chest immediately, so the ducts do work.

In desperation, I broke down the Alveary, and the Itemducts, and rebuilt it all (Servo again set to empty blacklist). No change

I'm sure I must be be missing something really fundamental - which may simply be that Thermal's ducts just don't work with Alvearies?

 

[Anton_]

But a hopper placed underneath does work (EDIT on the simplest alveary at least).

Yes, a Hopper into a Crate works perfectly.

What is really wierd is that I can Itemduct directly into the Alveary from the receiving Crate, exactly as it should be. I thought I might have to use another Hopper to do that but, for the sake of science, tried a direct itemduct instead, and it worked - it put the new Princess and Drone into the right Alveary slots on the left.

 

[SolManX]

Hooray for science! Glad it's working now.

 

[Anton_]

Hooray for science! Glad it's working now.

It's certainly usable now. Import (i.e., into the Alveary) works, but I still don't understand why export doesn't.

 

[SolManX]

They're pretty new versions, so it could be bugs. It's possible it's at the forestry end, rather than thermal dynamics only because the extra utilities pipes also don't work.

 

[Anton_]

They're pretty new versions, so it could be bugs. It's possible it's at the forestry end, rather than thermal dynamics only because the extra utilities pipes also don't work.

Interesting - I haven't tried EU pipes. Really glad your workaround helped - thanks!

 

[Pyure]

Anton, if you get bored, can you try something just for my curiosity?

Can you try a Retriever on the chest? Retrievers are cool as hell: they pull from inventories on the pipe. A retriever on the chest would theoretically pull everything from 30 alvearies.

 

[Anton_]

Can you try a Retriever on the chest? Retrievers are cool as hell: they pull from inventories on the pipe. A retriever on the chest would theoretically pull everything from 30 alvearies.

I'll have a go at that in the morning - it's a good idea! Thanks.

 

[SolManX]

Anton, if you get bored, can you try something just for my curiosity?

Can you try a Retriever on the chest? Retrievers are cool as hell: they pull from inventories on the pipe. A retriever on the chest would theoretically pull everything from 30 alvearies.

I'll have a go at that in the morning - it's a good idea! Thanks.

Couldn't resist trying myself and bingo - yes retrievers work. In particular, I put a resonant retriever on a chest and connected itemducts to one of the sides.

https://imgur.com/a/IOEbB

Pulled out everything.

 

[Pyure]

Couldn't resist trying myself and bingo - yes retrievers work. In particular, I put a resonant retriever on a chest and connected itemducts to one of the sides.

https://imgur.com/a/IOEbB

Pulled out everything.

Nifty. Again, pyure's curious: Are you able to get itemducts to pull from alvearies the way anton is trying to?

 

[SolManX]

Do you mean using servos on the alveary end? If so, then no, all I could make work was your suggestion to use only a retriever on the chest end.

Alveary -> chest
-----------------
Attaching a servo to the alveary doesn't work.
Attaching a retriever to the chest does work.

Chest-> alveary
-----------------
Attaching a servo to the chest does work.
Attaching a retriever to the alveary doesn't work.

So (it seems) attaching servos/retrievers to alvearies is where the problem lies!