Applied Energistics autocrafting

[zilvarwolf]

Well, I thought I could figure this out, but I'm running into a roadblock, so...HELP

I want to autocraft everything that can into a storage block. No gregtech, so I don't have to worry about using the compressor.

I thought I run everything into a packager using an ME Interface, but it doesn't work like that apparently.

The only thing I can come up with is a wall of autocrafting tables (I'm really short on quartz so far, so I can't make a crafting station yet), with export buses.

I suppose I could do the crafting before it hits the system, but that doesn't seem as fun

 

[Zjarek_S]

I'd just dump everything to one chest, put filter and packager on the bottom, connect via transposer packager to ME interface, wire side of packager with filter on top and connect it all to a very slow timer.

Edit: If you have more items to autobox you can just replace filter from the chest with sorting machine.

 

[Skirty_007]

I ended up making a special room for packaging. After messing with lots of sorting machine/packager options, I couldn't get it to only send the right no. of items without it being in that mode that cycles through columns, and which ends up leaving stuff behind as it waits for something in the column it's at. What I did in the end was set up a sorting machine that sends things to be packaged to certain chests, which each have 4 fabricators connected, configured to deal with the 4 items that are sent to each particular chest. Then a retriever pulls everything out of all the fabricators and back into my input chest to my system. (I use enderchest/sorting machines going to an AE system)

 

[Zjarek_S]

Checkerboard pattern in sorting machine makes it work like a filter with bigger inventory. I use it all the time for GT centrifuge and electrolyzer, for most of centrifuge recipes one sorting machine is enough for whole set of them, because they usually take divisor of 64 number of items.

 

[Skirty_007]

Checkerboard pattern in sorting machine makes it work like a filter with bigger inventory. I use it all the time for GT centrifuge and electrolyzer, for most of centrifuge recipes one sorting machine is enough for whole set of them, because they usually take divisor of 64 number of items.

Mine kept sending one dust to the packager, which held up everything else. I'm enjoying my completely overengineered solution though, it's letting me learn about xycraft and stuff.

 

[zilvarwolf]

You should try using an interface. You can put patterns in the bottom part of the interface. Just stick that on the top of the machine and have the patterns for the stuff you want to be blocks and it will do it. Just put an import bus on the side where you would normally have the RP filter.

I thought that setup was for autocrafting things as they're called for in the crafting inferface? What skirty described above is similar to our setup currently.

 

[Milaha]

psh, who needs to compress down to blocks when we have deep storage units. I am seriously in love with these things. They are like barrels on steroids, work great with AE, and have a non-trivial cost component to balance them out a bit.

 

[Skirty_007]

psh, who needs to compress down to blocks when we have deep storage units. I am seriously in love with these things. They are like barrels on steroids, work great with AE, and have a non-trivial cost component to balance them out a bit.

I'm not compressing down to blocks, I'm making tiny dust into big dust. (I know Greg has a machine specifically aimed at that, too).

 

[YX33A]

I'm not compressing down to blocks, I'm making tiny dust into big dust. (I know Greg has a machine specifically aimed at that, too).

What was that block from Factorization called that took one type of item, and tried making a 2x2 grid of it to craft something or a 3x3 if 2x2 didn't work? Might help.
That being said, I'm curious how one could set up AE to craft those automatically instead of just doing so when you tell it to. I recall hearing about a block or something that you can tell what you want it to pay attention to how many of which are in a network, but I don't know if it could be used to automatically detect any number above zero but not specifically 1. So 0< but not 0<=.

 

[netmc]

In AE, the ME Interface block will put X number in it's inventory (whatever you tell it). You just keep pulling the item out of the inventory using RP, autocrafting table, etc., and AE will refill the ME Interface until there is nothing left. Then you place the finished product back into AE to store.

 

[Zjarek_S]

I recall hearing about a block or something that you can tell what you want it to pay attention to how many of which are in a network, but I don't know if it could be used to automatically detect any number above zero but not specifically 1. So 0< but not 0<=.

You can always use 2 to check for accurate number/range.

 

[brujon]

You could try using Fabricators for each storage block you'd like to use, and hook them up to the ME network. Since they can access adjacent inventories and craft using them, they should automatically and instantly access the ME network for the raw materials, and dump them back in block form into the network. Hook up cables to them and you can toggle your Block making on and off! Pretty neat. Remember fabricators can be turned off via Redstone signal, so you can even toggle specific fabricators if you use Insulated Alloy Wire, with a master switch using Bundled Cable. Pretty nice huh?

And of course, you teach the unblocking pattern to your network, so you can have your items on demand. Those items that don't have blocks available to them? Well, that's what Carpenters are for. Crate em' all. These two together should give you max storage density possible, storing nearly every raw material in the game as either crates or blocks. Very cool.

 

[budge]

In AE, the ME Interface block will put X number in it's inventory (whatever you tell it). You just keep pulling the item out of the inventory using RP, autocrafting table, etc., and AE will refill the ME Interface until there is nothing left. Then you place the finished product back into AE to store.

The thing to watch for with this is that AE will still place items in the interface even if there aren't enough to satisfy the filter. For example, if you tell the interface to keep 9 lapis lazuli stocked and you only have 6 in the system, it'll put those 6 in the interface and jam up the packager. So currently we still need a filter or sorting machine to be certain the packager won't be jammed with insufficient items.

 

[brujon]

Yeah... That's bad. Should definitely have a toggle mode to only move when there's enough of the item to move at a time, so it doesn't jam the system up. Meanwhile... Still have a way of fixing this, not so bad.

 

[noah_wolfe]

I'm not compressing down to blocks, I'm making tiny dust into big dust. (I know Greg has a machine specifically aimed at that, too).

Not specifically for dust, just an Electric Crafting Table in Dust Mode. My favorite tiny dust solution.

 

[budge]

What I would like to see is a combination interface/storage bus that works just like a Redpower manager. For example, I wish to tell AE to keep this iron chest stocked with 8 flowers at all times, and import anything that does not match the filter. You can do exactly this with an interface and two managers, but it'd be nice to have a smaller, AE-only solution.

 

[Skirty_007]

What I would like to see is a combination interface/storage bus that works just like a Redpower manager. For example, I wish to tell AE to keep this iron chest stocked with 8 flowers at all times, and import anything that does not match the filter. You can do exactly this with an interface and two managers, but it'd be nice to have a smaller, AE-only solution.

Does it have to be an iron chest? You could use an Interface for that. It would accept items from another network (not sure if that's what you're doing), but it will also expose items of your choice for export from the system (ie keep those in "stock" in a specific area of the block ready to be exported). My explanation is a bit "wordy", here it is from the wiki.

The thing to watch for with this is that AE will still place items in the interface even if there aren't enough to satisfy the filter. For example, if you tell the interface to keep 9 lapis lazuli stocked and you only have 6 in the system, it'll put those 6 in the interface and jam up the packager. So currently we still need a filter or sorting machine to be certain the packager won't be jammed with insufficient items.

Sorry for quoting in a different order, but I've had this issue when trying to use the interface with a sorting machine/packager. I guess you might not want to use it as my reply above if it's for packaging!

 

[budge]

Well let me give an example of a usage for such a pseudo-manager block. I was experimenting with Modular Power Suits for the first time and wanted to make it convenient, so I set up a chest with a handful of each component. There are about 19 different parts in use by the tinkering table right now, so one interface didn't cut it. What I did was set up 3 interfaces out of sight, each one stocking 1 of each part, and a manager on each one with a copy of each part and set to the mode that allows any number of that type. Then I had one manager on the chest with every part in the exact amounts I wanted, set to stock specifically in those amounts.

It works very well - items are restocked within moments, and excess or non-tagged items are immediately pulled out by the manager and deposited into the ME network through the interfaces. However, it takes 3 interfaces and 4 managers to do what one machine could do, if designed as a combination Storage Bus/Interface. Also, as long as it had more than 8 filter slots, that'd be great too.

Edit: To be clearer, I want the interface's functionality to be available to non-ME inventories. Picture the ME network keeping a line of project tables stocked, for example (even if they're made obsolete by ME crafting).

 

[Skirty_007]

Edit: To be clearer, I want the interface's functionality to be available to non-ME inventories. Picture the ME network keeping a line of project tables stocked, for example (even if they're made obsolete by ME crafting).

I'm thinking of some way of using an emitter to turn off the cable to an interface when there are enough items in the adjacent inventory, but it kinda requires lots of them. I'd ideally like to use something like this also, mind you I have a million managers in a chest somewhere that I used to use for my machines, so I could do something similar to yourself. I might have a think about it, it can probably be done another way.

 

[Hydra]

You could have an export bus set to craft those items (assuming you have the pattern in your MAC) into an interface. This way every ingot of that type gets crafted into it's corresponding block. That way you can 'craft' 8 items per export bus and you can connect 5 export busses to that interface.