Applied Energistics - ME Storage detect how much i have?

[KingTriaxx]

@PhillHibbs: Open the storage bus menu, and on the left side, there's a tab with a disk/magnifying glass. Set that to read-only mode, and it will only read the items and not try to actively place them in.

@AlanEsh:

1)No, it extracts the specific items out of the network and holds them in the right side. So you tell it to hold 8 bricks, it'll place eight of them in the right hand side, available for extraction via pipe or other method. What you're thinking of is what it does when patterns are used to request crafting.

2)No, the left side is basically ghosts of the item. So if you tell it hold a stack of stone in the left, it will try to keep a stack of stone in the right hand side, crafting it if necessary.

3)Yes, but like noted above, you'll have to set the Storage Bus to read-only mode.

The left side only tells it what to keep in the right side, which acts like a normal inventory.

 

[AlanEsh]

Fantastic explanations, thank you both. One more question regarding:
" 2)No, the left side is basically ghosts of the item. So if you tell it hold a stack of stone in the left, it will try to keep a stack of stone in the right hand side, crafting it if necessary."
The Interface is going to ask the entire Network "can you craft this for me?" just like when a user asks for something via the ME Terminal right? i.e. this requesting Interface doesn't have to have actually have the pattern inside it?

 

[casilleroatr]

The requesting interface can request from a MAC and other interfaces that have patterns in.

 

[AlanEsh]

Hm, I must be doing something wrong.
I set up a "holding" Interface with 8 each Basic and Advanced Processors in the left side. As expected, this caused my MAC to churn out 8 new Assemblies of each type which were automatically cooked by another pattern. In short order there were 8 of each Processor in the right side of the "holding" Interface, so far so good.
Then I pointed a Storage bus at the "holding" Interface and attached that bus to my Network. But my crafting/access terminals don't see the 16 Processors stored in the holding Interface. I played with the storage buses settings a bit, but it didn't make any difference.
Any ideas? Am I going to have to put down a chest to hold those Processors and point the storage bus at the chest instead? I'm on Unleashed 1.1.4.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Weird. I'm away from my playing computer, but I'll have a look. It should work. If all else fails, the chest is an effective backup.

 

[PhilHibbs]

The chest is pointless, the processors have to be in the interface or else it will keep pulling them out of the chest into it or craft new ones.

*Edit* Has anyone actually done this? I expect it is deliberate to prevent loops, if the Interface is set to hold 2 processors, and it has 1 processor in it, then it would probably see 1 processor in the Storage Bus and try to pull that to increase the number in the Interface to 2. So just as you need the storage bus to be Read Only to cope with over-stock, you need it to be Write Only to deal with under-stock. Clearly it would do nothing if it were both.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Looks like it's not working. I could swear I'd done this trick before.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Well, it will still autocraft, you'll just have to manually pull the processors out to use them.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Well, it will still autocraft, you'll just have to manually pull the processors out to use them.

You will have to go to the interface to pull the processors out, and it won't autocraft with them. It will autocraft new ones, but a large part of the point of this is to ensure that the components are available for autocrafting. If I want to make a Precision Export Bus, I don't want to wait for the CPUs to cook (especially if they are dealing with an ore backlog). No, this is not a solution, my Export Bus with two Level emitters is working fine and I'll stick with that. Phew, I no longer have to worry about what to do with all those Level Emitters!

 

[MigukNamja]

Yes, Prec Exp Bus + LE is brute force, but effective. By the time I can churn those out, I'm not terribly worried about power or space. Early game, I'll just manually manage my inventory.