[Applied Energistics] ME network

[MigukNamja]

It may not be the easiest or most efficient setup, but I use Forestry 2x. MultiFarms Blocks for Managed Apple Oak Tree farms. The wood gets turned into charcoal. The apples get squeezed into apple juice via Sqeezers for the Fermenters along with the saplings. The Fermenters make Biomass (green liquid), which gets turned into Biofuel (aka Ethanol) via Stills. The Biofuel (Ethanol) powers liquid-fueled 36HP boilers while the charcoal powers solid-fueled 36HP boilers. I try to use all products and waste none.

It's all automated with a combination of ME, Tesseracts, and BC3 pipes. I really should look into replacing some of this with LogisticPipes now that 1.1.1 Unleashed includes LP, but my setup works nonetheless. It's taken about a week to understand it, tweak it, and get the mats from my 1 quarry I re-deploy to get it fully automated (I'm limiting myself to just 1 quarry. Quarries are a bit OP, if you ask me, but they do cut down on the tedious work of constant spelunking).

If I had to do it again now that I know how to do it, it might take a day to get a small setup going with 1 each of Forestry 2.x MultiFarm, Squeezer, Fermenter, Still, and 36HP boiler.[DOUBLEPOST=1375372332][/DOUBLEPOST]

God damnit, the boiler blew up, fml -.-

I'm guessing it didn't have a steady supply of water. Beneath each of my boilers is a 3x3x1 or 5x5x1 pool of water (no flowing blocks - all water sources) with 1 BC Pump above it powered by 3x Redstone engines. That supplies *plenty* of water and is a reliable source. For a more compact setup, you can use Liquid Tesseracts. Even better, you can use *both* a pump setup and a Liquid Tesseract as a backup.

 

[Volcarox]

Can anyone recommend a different source of power to the ME network? because i think 3 nuclear reactors now is a bit ridiculous..

 

[MigukNamja]

Nuke reactors come in all sizes, but unless your ME network is massive and your Nuke reactors are small, there's a problem here.

My ME network uses around 70 ME "units" per tick, which works out to 70 / 5 = 14 MJ/t, which is less than 2x Industrial Steam Engines. A single 36HP boiler powers up to 18 of these, so that's less than 1/9th of a 36HP boiler.

If you're using EU power, the conversion factor is 2. So, 70 units/t would require just 70/2 = 35 EU/t.

In contrast, my quarry can use between ~45MJ/t and ~100MJ/t, which is *way* more than what my ME network uses.

What's the power draw of your ME network ? Click on your controller to find out. Also, what else is drawing power ? I'm assuming you have a quarry (or a few), some machines, MFSUs, etc.,. Your ME network power draw should be among the least of all of these.

 

[Volcarox]

I have about 6 macerators, 6 induction furnaces and the ME network which draws 86 eu/t

 

[MigukNamja]

That sounds about right. Any quarries ?

Also, what are your nuke reactors providing ?

 

[Volcarox]

No, my quarries are all powered by different solar panels that power electrical engines, the nuke reactors are connected to 7 mfsu's

 

[AlanEsh]

One moderately upgraded MFR Planter and Harvester will power multiple boilers. Get the logs into Powered Furnaces and have the resulting charcoal eject into a chest adjacent to a solid fuel firebox. MFR is by far the simplest tree farm. With Oak trees and a mid-level upgrade you won't even need fertilizer.

Once you have enough power, just use deep storage units and you ME network to feed the charcoal directly into the boilers powering your network.

 

[ratchet freak]

are the MSFUs full? if your production is inadequate then they'll be empty, if they are full then the transport is to blame

 

[Volcarox]

All 7 are full.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I have about 6 macerators, 6 induction furnaces and the ME network which draws 86 eu/t

I think our idea of 'nuclear reactor' is very different, because one nuclear reactor should handle allthat unless your macerators have 10+ OC's in them each.

Before we go for the nuclear option, however, I'd like to explore a Geothermal option with you.

Geothermal generators produce 20 EU/t, and run on lava. Thus, we can get some crazy energy going fairly rapidly, using banks of geothermal generators.

For your AE Netowrk, you only really need about five Geothermal generators to maintain. However, I'd also like to give you some 'growing room'. So I will share with you a cheap and efficient 'battery' which can be repeated as necessary.

Parts list:

• 9x Geothermal Generators
• 4x Liquiduct Cable
• 1x Liquid Tesseract
• 6-8x Copper Cable
• 1x MFSU

Blueprint:

  Gc
  Gcc
  Gc
 
  LG
TLLGM--
  LG
 
  Gc
  Gcc
  Gc

G= Geothermal Generator
c=copper cabling
L = Liquiduct
T = Tesseract
M = MFSU
- = output wiring

In effect, this compact little system outputs 180 EU/t and runs on a remote lava source coming in from the Liquid Tesseract. Due to multi-dimenionality of the tesseracts, this can include pumping nether lava. Pumping station will need to be secured from threat, then contain a Pump (The BC one which is the Mining Well + Tank), a Liquid Tesseract, and probably a Magmatic Engine and liquiduct to share lava with it to power the thing.

 

[Methusalem]

All 7 are full.

Then you are producing more than enough energy, you are just not getting it into your ME controller.

What setup are you using exactly? Low voltage (32 EU) coming out of a Batbox by any chance?

 

[MigukNamja]

The MFSUs have input on 5 faces and 1 and only 1 output face. The one with the dot on it. It'll be impossible to spot in most configurations. Right-clicking it with the IC2 wrench will cause the output face to "face" you. Shift-right-click will cause that output face to be the opposite side from you.

IC2 does many things well, but "facing" is not one of them.

Also, do you have any transformers between the MFSUs and your equipment ? Up trans requires a redstone signal, but downs trans does not. But, again, there's the facing issue.

 

[Volcarox]

Then you are producing more than enough energy, you are just not getting it into your ME controller.

What setup are you using exactly? Low voltage (32 EU) coming out of a Batbox by any chance?

I have all the mfsus hooped up to HV-MV-LV transformers because If I don't do that all my advanced machines will blow up.[DOUBLEPOST=1375377275][/DOUBLEPOST]

I think our idea of 'nuclear reactor' is very different, because one nuclear reactor should handle allthat unless your macerators have 10+ OC's in them each.

Before we go for the nuclear option, however, I'd like to explore a Geothermal option with you.

Geothermal generators produce 20 EU/t, and run on lava. Thus, we can get some crazy energy going fairly rapidly, using banks of geothermal generators.

For your AE Netowrk, you only really need about five Geothermal generators to maintain. However, I'd also like to give you some 'growing room'. So I will share with you a cheap and efficient 'battery' which can be repeated as necessary.

Parts list:

• 9x Geothermal Generators
• 4x Liquiduct Cable
• 1x Liquid Tesseract
• 6-8x Copper Cable
• 1x MFSU

Blueprint:

  Gc
  Gcc
  Gc
 
  LG
TLLGM--
  LG
 
  Gc
  Gcc
  Gc

G= Geothermal Generator
c=copper cabling
L = Liquiduct
T = Tesseract
M = MFSU
- = output wiring

In effect, this compact little system outputs 180 EU/t and runs on a remote lava source coming in from the Liquid Tesseract. Due to multi-dimenionality of the tesseracts, this can include pumping nether lava. Pumping station will need to be secured from threat, then contain a Pump (The BC one which is the Mining Well + Tank), a Liquid Tesseract, and probably a Magmatic Engine and liquiduct to share lava with it to power the thing.

This looks like a good setup, i'll get to that now.

 

[MigukNamja]

I think our idea of 'nuclear reactor' is very different, because one nuclear reactor should handle allthat unless your macerators have 10+ OC's in them each.

Before we go for the nuclear option, however, I'd like to explore a Geothermal option with you.

Geothermal generators produce 20 EU/t, and run on lava. Thus, we can get some crazy energy going fairly rapidly, using banks of geothermal generators.

For your AE Netowrk, you only really need about five Geothermal generators to maintain. However, I'd also like to give you some 'growing room'. So I will share with you a cheap and efficient 'battery' which can be repeated as necessary.

Parts list:

• 9x Geothermal Generators
• 4x Liquiduct Cable
• 1x Liquid Tesseract
• 6-8x Copper Cable
• 1x MFSU

Blueprint:

  Gc
  Gcc
  Gc
 
  LG
TLLGM--
  LG
 
  Gc
  Gcc
  Gc

G= Geothermal Generator
c=copper cabling
L = Liquiduct
T = Tesseract
M = MFSU
- = output wiring

In effect, this compact little system outputs 180 EU/t and runs on a remote lava source coming in from the Liquid Tesseract. Due to multi-dimenionality of the tesseracts, this can include pumping nether lava. Pumping station will need to be secured from threat, then contain a Pump (The BC one which is the Mining Well + Tank), a Liquid Tesseract, and probably a Magmatic Engine and liquiduct to share lava with it to power the thing.

Lava is incredibly powerful and a bit OP, IMHO. One magmatic-powered pump in the Nether plus a couple of liquid Tesseracts and a Chunk Loader lets you jump from early game power to late-game power, skipping right over mid-game power. Very simple setup with low material costs - just a few diamonds and an Ender Pearl are the most expensive mats. I have yet to find a simpler and more efficient alternative to Nether lava that allows you to leap as far on the energy ladder.

Example ladder would be:

1. Stirling Engine
2. Nether Lava
3. End-game power (HV Solar Arrays, etc.,.)

The downside to Nether lava if you're using the non-GT pump (like I do) is the flowing it creates, which causes server and client performance issues (when your client is in that chunk). You also have to go back and re-position the Nether lava pump. There's a *lot* of lava in the Nether, but the pump's reach is only so far.

This map, I went all organic, for some role-playing:

1. Peat
2. Biomass engines
3. Industrial Steam Engines + Biogenerator
4. ???

There's not a server-friendly, massively scalable organic (plant-based) end-game power solution that I know of. I may just stack HV Solar for thousands of EU, stay in the hundreds of MJ/t with 36HP boilers, and call it done. HV Solar Arrays are kind of boring, though.

They don't make any cool wheeshing or pumping sounds.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I have all the mfsus hooped up to HV-MV-LV transformers because If I don't do that all my advanced machines will blow up.[DOUBLEPOST=1375377275][/DOUBLEPOST]

This looks like a good setup, i'll get to that now.

I would agree with the past two posters.... there's a problem which exists between your MFSU's which are full and the systems demanding power. Either one of your Transformers is set up wonky, or there's an inadvertent redstone signal being applied to one of them from somewhere, or there's a break in the cable somewhere.

 

[MigukNamja]

I would agree with the past two posters.... there's a problem which exists between your MFSU's which are full and the systems demanding power. Either one of your Transformers is set up wonky, or there's an inadvertent redstone signal being applied to one of them from somewhere, or there's a break in the cable somewhere.

Agreed. Transformers are a PITA to "face" correctly, especially a 3-stack HV-MV-LV sequence. Also make sure there is *no* redstone signal near those. They will turn into "up transformers" and refuse to downtransform if there is a redstone signal or lever on an adjacent block.

 

[Methusalem]

I have all the mfsus hooped up to HV-MV-LV transformers because If I don't do that all my advanced machines will blow up.

The LV transformer can supply at most 4x32 = 128 EU. If you have a couple other machine hanging on the same line, then there might not be enough left for your ME Network.

I'm only using MJs for the ME stuff, but pretty sure that at least medium voltage is ok. Try to use a cable coming from your MFSU, connect it to an MV transformer and from there to the ME controller. That gives you up to 4x 128 EU and should be enough, even when you extend the network in the future.

 

[Volcarox]

So that setup is being made in the nether or overworld?[DOUBLEPOST=1375378272][/DOUBLEPOST]

The LV transformer can supply at most 4x32 = 128 EU. If you have a couple other machine hanging on the same line, then there might not be enough left for your ME Network.

I'm only using MJs for the ME stuff, but pretty sure that at least medium voltage is ok. Try to use a cable coming from your MFSU, connect it to an MV transformer and from there to the ME controller. That gives you up to 4x 128 EU and should be enough, even when you extend the network in the future.

If I do that the MV transformer explodes so I have to do the HV-MV-LV link.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So that setup is being made in the nether or overworld?[DOUBLEPOST=1375378272][/DOUBLEPOST]
If I do that the MV transformer explodes so I have to do the HV-MV-LV link.

The MV Transformer should not explode in this setup. Please be sure the line from the MFSU is going into the three-dot side.

 

[Methusalem]

So that setup is being made in the nether or overworld?[DOUBLEPOST=1375378272][/DOUBLEPOST]
If I do that the MV transformer explodes so I have to do the HV-MV-LV link.

Really? An MV Transformer can only explode, if you feed Ultrahigh voltage (512...2048 EU/package) into the input side. This sounds very much like you have a redstone signal on one of your HV transformers ... but then your glass fiber cables should blow up as well.