An AE Conundrum

[SpoonsV]

I have searched and there aren't really any threads tackling my exact problem.

I want my AE system to keep 10 silicon in the system at all times. To achieve this I have a powered furnace + export/import bus + level emitter setup. I thought the level emittter would do the trick but it doesn't stop the the export bus until it detects 10 silicon back in the network, and by this time, the furnace is full of quartz dust (which is at a premium for me at the moment).

The export bus is set to single items but is still rather fast at exporting. The problem is the powered furnace is too slow and the export bus is too fast.

Is there anything (apart from complicated redstone circuits) that can pull EXACTLY 10 quartz dust from my storage and then stop? I feel like I am missing something obvious.

Any help much appreciated.

 

[kittle]

try this:
Change your recipe for quartz dust to specify 10 netherquartz in and 10 dust out. instead of 1 and 1.

Another option is to setup multiple furnaces to smelt the stuff faster. I have my AE network setup with 4 furnaces and a roundRobin transport pipe so the items get distributed between all 4 furnaces and the work gets done much quicker.

lastly - you could try tweaking the value in your level emitter to something less than 10. But this will need a bunch of experimentation, and it wont request more when you get below 10.

 

[NTaylor]

The simplest solution is somewhat as little said but slightly different, the easiest way to do this would instead of keeping the system stocked with 10 silicon is to get a faster furnace, possibly use an IC2 induction furnace or electric furnace overclocked and then use the external processing of the MAC to create silicon as you need it. There is a way to keep just one stack stocked quite simply but that is not quite what you want.

If you are wondering the way to keep it stocked to one stack is to put a storage bus onto any form of inventory that can be made to store only one stack of items. The BC filtered buffer works well for this.

Aside from that you could achieve what you wanted it to do by using a sub network. (This link may help you build one to do what you want http://ae-mod.info/Subnetworks/Supplier/) I would build the sub network in some way so that it has its own MAC and a small amount of storage then export quartz dust to the network and use a level emmiter to make it so that the sub network only has 10 quartz dust in it at any one time and that it has a furnace on the network with an interface on top. Then set the interface to know how to make silicon from quartz dust. Then over near your main network have an interface that is told to keep 10 silicon dust in it at all times and that should keep 10 silicon in it. Then attach that interface to your main network using a storage bus and that will give you access to the silicon in it from your main network.

EDIT: You could also build the interface that keeps 10 silicon in it on your main network but then there is a little bit of a chance for it to bugger up a bit.

 

[netmc]

Another option is to set it up on an me interface to craft on demand. It will make it as needed. It still doesnt address the issue of keeping a set amount stocked, but does adress turning your entire stock into silicon.

You might also be able to adapt the automation that dw20 used with the smelteries, dark cable and me interfaces to keep an exact number stocked, but this goes back to complicated redstone contraption.

 

[dlord]

I haven't really tested this out yet, but since AE and LP is supposed to work well together, why not have LP handle the crafting and supplying part?

 

[Captain_Oats]

Perhaps using a ME dark cable with a level emitter set to output redstone (or stop outputting redstone signal, I forget which will cut stop the ME dark cable from working) signal when there is less than 1 or 2 silicon in system in combination with the regular export bus and level emitter set to export when there is less than 10 silicon in your system will work as an adequate buffer.

That way when <10 Silicon, dust gets sent through into the furnace, once at least one dust has been smelted into silicon the dark cable cuts the dust from further entering the furnace. Might take a couple tries to get the timing right, but relatively simple. Only would have to adjust the emitter on the dark cable a couple times or add a overclocker or two to the furnace to get it right.

Another possible option would be to use nether quartz, and allow the macerator to be the buffer. But this might be a little more tricky to set up.

IMO the dark cable is the easiest solution.

edit: you would need to bypass the dark cable with an import bus so that even when the dark cable cuts off the export bus, the silicon can still be imported to the system. Still pretty minor though.

 

[Hydra]

Why is it a problem that you end up with slightly more? You need craptons of silicon anyway. I use a similar setup but I use the level emittor to turn on/off a powered furnace. You won't ever end up with exactly 10 of that item but who cares anyway.

 

[Bibble]

My reccomendation would be to switch the furnace setup for an interface, rather than an export bus (meaning that you can craft more, if you need to), and have another interface and precision/fuzzy export elsewhere. Point the export into the interface, and tell it to stock silicon, and set to always craft. Plonk a level emitter behind it to stop it when you get to 10.

The interface will craft 1 at a time, so, when it's turned off, there won't be a stack in the furnace.

 

[SpoonsV]

Great help so far guys, thanks.

Why is it a problem that you end up with slightly more? You need craptons of silicon anyway. I use a similar setup but I use the level emittor to turn on/off a powered furnace. You won't ever end up with exactly 10 of that item but who cares anyway.

We have recently started a new world and I don't have enough quartz dust to just turn it all into silicon as I need it for fluix dust as well. Eventually we will have a mining age constantly being quarried and this will no longer be a problem but quartz is hard to come by at the moment because even after running a quarry I only got 40 quartz and quartz dust from it.

Am I missing a crafting recipe for silicon or something? I thought you had to smelt quartz dust to get it? Everyone is telling me to craft it.

 

[Golrith]

If it's early days for resources, then don't even bother with trying to manage stock levels, as it'll cost you more of your valuable resources to get that system in placed, compared with manually making the silicon when needed.

 

[SpoonsV]

If it's early days for resources, then don't even bother with trying to manage stock levels, as it'll cost you more of your valuable resources to get that system in placed, compared with manually making the silicon when needed.

We have an infinite lava ocean mystcraft age - power is not an issue - just certus quartz and it's dusty bedfellow as it doesn't really appear too often and you don't necessarily get dust with every ore. We have 1000's of iron etc so we aren't poor, it's just this one loop in my autocrafting that I can't quite get perfect.

I am constantly making the AE processors so I put them in my MAC so I can auto-craft as needed. Of course that needs silicon and I don't want to have to smelt the dust in between, otherwise it's not really auto-crafting. Plus, like I say, I can't afford to smelt all of my quartz dust to silicon as it is needed for the fluix dust to create cables etc.[DOUBLEPOST=1377689195][/DOUBLEPOST]Lol I thought I was just missing something simple but obviously not.

I am using Unleashed so I don't have LP.

I think between all the answers you guys have provided I can find some sort of solution or just give up and smelt the silicon myself like a loser. At least I can auto-smelt the raw processors as they craft which is better than nothing.

 

[Deftscythe]

Am I missing a crafting recipe for silicon or something? I thought you had to smelt quartz dust to get it? Everyone is telling me to craft it.

I'm kind of new to AE so there may be a simpler way to do this but what I think everyone is referring to is putting "one dust = one silicon" on a pattern, and then putting that pattern in the "processing" slot of an ME interface block that is connected to any type of furnace. What then happens is whenever you request silicon the system sends dust to the furnace and smelts it. If you have an import bus also attached to the furnace, it then puts the resulting silicon back into your AE system.

 

[Mirality]

Use interfaces. If you attach an interface to some kind of furnace (I prefer IC2's induction furnace because it's nearly instantaneous on single items) you can teach it crafting patterns just like with the MAC. So you can tell it how to craft silicon from dust, and then just leave the dust in the system and it will only smelt up as many as are needed for however many processors you just ordered. Of course, you still have to keep an eye on your dust supplies to avoid ordering a stack of processors when you only have 16 dust left...

 

[Staxed]

you can use nether quartz dust to make silicon, and it's much more common than normal quartz.

 

[SpoonsV]

you can use nether quartz dust to make silicon, and it's much more common than normal quartz.

Shiiiiieeeeeeeeet!

How did I miss that?! We have a mystcraft age with pillars of the stuff above ground in the overworld. I am so noobish but thank you, that solves a lot of problems.

 

[Staxed]

Shiiiiieeeeeeeeet!

How did I miss that?! We have a mystcraft age with pillars of the stuff above ground in the overworld. I am so noobish but thank you, that solves a lot of problems.

easy to miss because I don't think NEI shows the nether quartz recipe. I just tried it one day to see and it worked, only reason I know about it.

 

[SpoonsV]

Legend.

Game on.

 

[bigtwisty]

Use an ME Bridge from MiscPeripherals and program a computer to check the AE inventory every so often. Then have it tell your system to craft the difference between what it has and what it wants for each recipe you set up. The advantage to this is that it is EXTREMELY scalable, in that you can have the one computer maintain minimum levels of as many items as you want.

 

[SpoonsV]

I really wish I had the LUA skills to pull off a bit of Direwolf style turtle/computercraft magic but I simply do not.

That would be perfect though. If I could LUA, I would have a master computer controlling everything and displaying everything on to a monitor in my base and then exporting it onto an Excel spreadsheet which was emailed to me hourly so I wouldn't even need to login to enjoy FTB.

Sweet, sweet data.

 

[bigtwisty]

...and then exporting it onto an Excel spreadsheet which was emailed to me hourly so I wouldn't even need to login to enjoy FTB.

I just lol'd! That might be going a bit far.