Applied Energistics

[whythisname]

To get the interface to insert items into the machine, you use the Pattern Encoder. You make a pattern with the inputs that you want inserted, and the output that it creates (you can overwrite the output slot in the pattern encoder, so for a glass crafting pattern you would put a sand into the input grid and a glass into the output slot in the encoder). Then you take that pattern and put it in a "processing" slot in the interface. That item will now show up as craftable in the access terminal/crafting terminal, and selecting it to be crafted will cause the interface with the pattern in it to eject the items in the input side of the encoded pattern into adjacent pipes/inventories (so in the sand -> glass example, you would put the interface with the pattern in it next to the input side of a electric/powered/blulectric/induction/whatever furnace, and when you tell it to craft glass it will eject sand from the network into the furnace).

For things you just want to do automatically, export buses are generally simpler, though - I find this method is more useful for things that you will occasionally want to have, but don't necessarily want to keep in stock all the time.

I've also been thinking about this and I thought "what if you make multiple 'stations' like that and use the dark cable to turn on/off parts of the network with the possible recipes depending on what resources there are in the network".

So for example you have 2 Plantball production lines, one uses Saplings the other Seeds. Normally it will use Saplings, but you can use a Level Emitter and Dark Cable to turn off that part of the network when you have (for example) 1 stack of Saplings left and then switch on the part of the network that uses Seeds to make Plantballs.

I have no idea if that would work though, it could be that turning off part of the network it's currently using also jams up the crafting process. And I don't know if you can even add/remove recipes by shutting down parts of the network.

btw, I love how this mod gives massive storage and easy transport quite early in the game. Don't think that this is a late game mod, you can have a 1K storage module and ME chest really early on and it is extremely handy (at least I love how it stacks items together, it keeps things a lot more organized).

Edit: Well I made small test network with my setup, using Fabricators to craft plantballs. It works in the sense that it disables 1 recipe and activates the next, but it does lose the queue for requested items when it has to switch (so you have to request the items again or however many you still need). What breaks the queue is when it loses the recipe it was using to craft something.

Also, you can't really make it stop when 1 stack is left because the items get transported instantly through the network, so by the time the Level Emitter switches the cable everything is already sent over to the ME Interface.

 

[Daemonblue]

Your system is something that I was actually thinking of as well - using the level emitter to turn off some of the auto-crafting functionality. That said, considering the massive amount of storage you can get and the fact that the system is relatively late game limiting it to stop or start with low amounts of items seems like a bad idea in general. At that point in the game I'd try to keep at least 5-6 stacks of the different items - probably more.

Anyway, you could possibly set up an automated non-request plantball crafting machine by setting an export bus into a chest than then feeds an auto-crafter that feeds back into the system. This part would be fully automated so you shouldn't have any problems with the crafting aspect and your level emitter should turn off the auto0crafting line if your supplies get too low. I'd have to work it out, but you could possibly even use an interface in place of the exporter and chest.

 

[whythisname]

Yeah, you can very easily make a machine/mine that just produces stuff until you have a certain amount and then shut down on its own. It's only in mid game that efficiency like that plays a role and usually (for the same resources) you can setup a factory/machine that just pumps out the stuff you need 24/7 (especially if it's farm-able, mining might be a bit harder fully automated mid game).

 

[CaptainBinary]

First off i would like to say a big thank you for making this mod, the storage method and principles brought around from this are innovative to the game and increases its possibilities and playability ten-fold.

The mod itself is pretty stable for being in early development and diamonds for you!

I do however have a problem i have run into, i am sorting out a system to allow AE to craft ore blocks into dusts and then smelt them. I have successfully set this up in the follow setup :


Access Terminal >> Crafting Monitor
^^^^^
^^^^^ >>>>> MAC (4x4x4; 2 patterns, 6 cpu's)
^^^^^
Controller >> Drive >> Interface(1) >> Hopper* >> Macerator >> Import Bus
>> Interface(2) >> Hopper* >> Electric Furnace >> Import Bus


The above system will work and 'Slowly' churn the ores into dusts and then turn them into ingots.
However that is the problem, it is very slow.

Example:
Interface(1) has an encoded disk stating: 1 gold ore = 2 gold dust
Interface(2) has an encoded disk stating: 1 gold dust = 1 gold ingot

i have 64 gold ore in the Network, through the Access Terminal i send a request for 32 gold ingots.

The ore then gets sent to the macerator, 1 block at a time with 2-3 seconds after the macerating is finished before another ore block is put in.
The same with smelting however 2 dust gets put through at a time with around 2-3 seconds after those two dusts are smelted before another 2 are done.


I have tried exporting this to a chest and using BC Pipes and RedPower Tubes, however the same problem, only one ore/two dust are being sent through at a time.
I am sure i am missing something very simple, however after 5 hours of trying to solve the issue/figure it out. I am now asking here in hope a fresh pair of eyes and more experienced players can help this predicament.

Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks for reading.

* Have tried with and without the hopper

 

[Hydra]

I really don't think that processing ores 'on request' to ingots is the best way to go. There really isn't any reason not to pulverize all your ores into dusts and then smelt these into ingots. It takes WAY too long to have to wait on all these ingots.

I have AE just dump everything into my pulverizers when stuff comes in. That way I always have access to the ingots. I don't like to wait.

Dusts you only need for stuff like electrum and you can very easily just pulverize some ingots back into dusts manually.

 

[CaptainBinary]

That is very true =P i already had a nice RP setup before hand, i'll stick with that and use AE as a third/first party between automatic smelting from mining trips and storage. Thanks for the quick reply.

Guess it would be, dump everything (Conditionals of ores of course) into a chest where it is then pumped through the macerating/smelting system and into another chest at the end which is connected through a input bus. So much easier to see with another viewpoint on the matter. Thankyou.

Knew it was something simple, like my entire viewpoint on what i was doing xD usually the way haha.

 

[Kendra Kirai]

Incidentally, I tried loading the ME Interface with export stock and it *does* feed Fabricators. Instantly, I might add! So, with some level emitter conditionals, you could set up a line of fabricators for a bunch of stuff, having it craft until it reaches a certain level range...with multiple emitters, you could even set up 'if/then' conditions. Up to four emitters can be on a xycraft Fabricator, since you'd need to have an Interface on one side, and an Import Bus on another.

One useful way to do it would be to have a 'Master switch' that if it's on, will disable the Fabricator, no matter what other conditions are true. With some Redpower colored cables, you could even make it controlled via an RP computer, but that's way above my pay grade.

....Hmmmm. With level emitters you could even turn on/off whole sections of *other* networks, too, depending on available resources...an emitter tied to a line of BC engines, or an IC2 detector cable, or a Railcraft line....

Put one at an Energy tesseract feeding a quarry...when the network, say, runs out of iron, it turns on the tesseract which sends power to the quarry....Oh my.

This mod is even more powerful than I thought....!

 

[budge]

Regarding upcoming changes for the 1.5 version:
From http://ae-mod.info/dev/

1. Added Basic Import Bus.
2. Added Basic Export Bus.
3. Added Fuzzy Import Bus.
4. Added Fuzzy Export Bus.
5. Added Fuzzy Storage Bus.
6. Right Clicking the search bar in the terminal clears it now.

Of all the changes in the list, I think these are my favorite. I've been missing NEI's right-click/clear functionality, so much so that rather than deleting a search in the terminal, I've been closing it and re-opening it for every search.

Later on the page is an explanation of fuzzy busses - it sounds like they can treat items with different damage values as similar, like storing all of your diamond pickaxes in a tool chest without needing all 1562 variations preformatted onto a disk.

I didn't see any description of the Basic busses, but I'm hoping it means regular busses are getting an upgrade to be able to stock an inventory the way a Logistics Pipes supplier pipe would. That would be awesome.

Edit: I don't want to spread this all over other threads so I'll just throw this suggestion here. There's one problem with AE that Logistics Pipes has never had an issue with, and that is with displaying the result of a request. With Logistics Pipes, not only do you get a success or fail message, you also know when it is done because it throws the request at your feet. With AE, unfortunately, you may request something, close the terminal, and then you'll have to search the terminal again to see if it is finished, and if it isn't, then you'll have to open your crafting monitor to see why, and then open the terminal to request it again, and then maybe check again later for the item.

My suggestion to fix this is a "recently requested" or "recent items" line somewhere on the terminal interface. Perhaps it could show 5 or 6 items that you recently interacted with or requested, so you could just open the terminal and pull the item out without first searching. And for feedback, perhaps it could use colors (like it does with invalid crafting patterns) to show that an item is currently held up for a missing resource. And heck, maybe even a mouse-over tooltip could tell you what it's stuck on.

Even without that, however, I think AE is my new favorite mod.

 

[DoctorOr]

I really don't think that processing ores 'on request' to ingots is the best way to go. There really isn't any reason not to pulverize all your ores into dusts and then smelt these into ingots. It takes WAY too long to have to wait on all these ingots.

There are at least three reasons

1) You don't have an industrial grinder setup yet.
2) You don't have Factorization setup yet.
3) You're fiddling with IC2 crops, some of which require iron and gold ores.

 

[Peppe]

First off i would like to say a big thank you for making this mod, the storage method and principles brought around from this are innovative to the game and increases its possibilities and playability ten-fold.

The mod itself is pretty stable for being in early development and diamonds for you!

I do however have a problem i have run into, i am sorting out a system to allow AE to craft ore blocks into dusts and then smelt them. I have successfully set this up in the follow setup :


Access Terminal >> Crafting Monitor
^^^^^
^^^^^ >>>>> MAC (4x4x4; 2 patterns, 6 cpu's)
^^^^^
Controller >> Drive >> Interface(1) >> Hopper* >> Macerator >> Import Bus
>> Interface(2) >> Hopper* >> Electric Furnace >> Import Bus


The above system will work and 'Slowly' churn the ores into dusts and then turn them into ingots.
However that is the problem, it is very slow.

Example:
Interface(1) has an encoded disk stating: 1 gold ore = 2 gold dust
Interface(2) has an encoded disk stating: 1 gold dust = 1 gold ingot

i have 64 gold ore in the Network, through the Access Terminal i send a request for 32 gold ingots.

The ore then gets sent to the macerator, 1 block at a time with 2-3 seconds after the macerating is finished before another ore block is put in.
The same with smelting however 2 dust gets put through at a time with around 2-3 seconds after those two dusts are smelted before another 2 are done.


I have tried exporting this to a chest and using BC Pipes and RedPower Tubes, however the same problem, only one ore/two dust are being sent through at a time.
I am sure i am missing something very simple, however after 5 hours of trying to solve the issue/figure it out. I am now asking here in hope a fresh pair of eyes and more experienced players can help this predicament.

Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks for reading.

* Have tried with and without the hopper

This mod is so much more fun than i thought it would be. I thought it would just be easy mode storage, but there is a little subtlety and flexibility to the system it can create... and making stuff is fun


If you scale up the recipe will it do more per crafting operation? Like tell it the recipe is 32 gold ore = 64 gold dust instead of 1:2? That way it processing more in batches...

I've only tinkered with AE a little bit. Could not find a demand type level to auto craft up to a X level block/setting. But i think you can make it happen with all the tools in the mod.

Tried a few methods. I ended up really liking the interface block to trigger crafting in one network -- had it exporting one of each of these isotope, quad thorium cell, and plutonium. A second network pre-formatted to just store the quad cells and plutonium and storage bus to a turtle for the isotopes (16). So to limit production you could use inventories of varying sizes on the second network and the first network will supply/craft to fill that storage.

In my case:
The reactor network would pull from the interface as it needed materials. If the interface did not have a material the first network would work to craft those materials.

Spoiler

Blue network is supplying to the interface. Green is taking out what it can fit to run the reactor.

Since these were creative tests i did not really pay attention to cost or power usage, but looks like interface is a component to most buses, so if you can do something in just an interface it should make a cheaper/survival friendly network.

Taking this as a model you could have an ore storage network with ingots as its export. You could use an emiter to control how much ingots are pulled out of the ore interface.

If you cut power to a interface it looks like the inventory stays available, so you could get aggressive about power management and run sections of network only when the interface is out of items. Pool the items in a master network where you have all your required inventory levels.

 

[Shizuka]

So like a lot of people I'm coming into AE planning on converting my LogisticsPipes system to be way more compact and not laggy, though the lack of a proper Remote Orderer means I'll probably end up putting LP back into my Ultimate setup anyway.

I wonder, though, is there any way to limit the amount stored of one item, and send overflow elsewhere on the network? In LogisticsPipes, I abused the default route and requested items configs to make a diamond chest request, say, cobblestone. Once the chest filled, cobble would continue on to the next pipe requesting cobble, which led to my recyclers for UU production. This let me just run a quarry overnight, end up with a total of 8k-ish cobble in my warehouse, and the rest would go toward producing scrap until the quarry ran dry or space opened up in the cobble chest.

With AE though, I know I can preformat a disk to accept cobble, and cobble will obviously fill that disk. If I have a cobble-disk and a general disk in a drive, and the cobble fills, what happens to new cobble entering the network? Does it try to fill the general disk? Does the network reject it outright (which would make the quarry spew)? Is there some way I can tell the network that when the cobble fills its disk that any excess cobble should be dumped out this pipe?

I tried the most obvious setup of a level emitter connected to an export bus, exporting cobble, but that didn't quite do what I wanted. Set to a test level of 10 (a 1k disk taking a diamond-chest worth to fill, which is still a lot of clicking in Creative time), the tenth piece of cobble would trip the emitter, and the export bus would dump out four pieces of cobble before the emitter realized the level was under its threshold again. If I increased the bus to export by stack, ensuring it keeps ahead of quarry input, all the cobble dumps out before the emitter updates.

TL;DR I know my quarries will routinely generate tens of thousands of cobble/dirt/gravel/etc, which I don't want filling up the network. How do I place a limit on the number of cobble/dirt/gravel/etc and have the rest be dumped out somewhere, without dumping more than necessary?

 

[Peppe]

So like a lot of people I'm coming into AE planning on converting my LogisticsPipes system to be way more compact and not laggy, though the lack of a proper Remote Orderer means I'll probably end up putting LP back into my Ultimate setup anyway.

I wonder, though, is there any way to limit the amount stored of one item, and send overflow elsewhere on the network? In LogisticsPipes, I abused the default route and requested items configs to make a diamond chest request, say, cobblestone. Once the chest filled, cobble would continue on to the next pipe requesting cobble, which led to my recyclers for UU production. This let me just run a quarry overnight, end up with a total of 8k-ish cobble in my warehouse, and the rest would go toward producing scrap until the quarry ran dry or space opened up in the cobble chest.

With AE though, I know I can preformat a disk to accept cobble, and cobble will obviously fill that disk. If I have a cobble-disk and a general disk in a drive, and the cobble fills, what happens to new cobble entering the network? Does it try to fill the general disk? Does the network reject it outright (which would make the quarry spew)? Is there some way I can tell the network that when the cobble fills its disk that any excess cobble should be dumped out this pipe?

I tried the most obvious setup of a level emitter connected to an export bus, exporting cobble, but that didn't quite do what I wanted. Set to a test level of 10 (a 1k disk taking a diamond-chest worth to fill, which is still a lot of clicking in Creative time), the tenth piece of cobble would trip the emitter, and the export bus would dump out four pieces of cobble before the emitter realized the level was under its threshold again. If I increased the bus to export by stack, ensuring it keeps ahead of quarry input, all the cobble dumps out before the emitter updates.

TL;DR I know my quarries will routinely generate tens of thousands of cobble/dirt/gravel/etc, which I don't want filling up the network. How do I place a limit on the number of cobble/dirt/gravel/etc and have the rest be dumped out somewhere, without dumping more than necessary?

You might try it with the sizes of cobble you will be dealing with. The emitter is slow to update. Usually ~2-4 transfers can go off while the emitter updates. So if you want to hold a stack of something in a chest you should set it to 60-61 level and it will keep around 61-64 of the item. Deal with 100+ stacks of an item just set it to something close to what you want and it should be within 1-3 stacks of the target.

To get similar functionality to your old network you could set a storage bus for cobble to your recycle chest/network and give the storage bus a higher priority than your main network. So cobble will prefer the recycle network -- tie that bus to a emitter signal and it will only be the priority destination when you have over X cobble in the main network.

 

[hotblack desiato]

as far as I understand AE, the new cobblestone will prefer your preformatted disk, until it's full. then it will use other diskspace, until everthing is filled. I guess, if the network isn't capable of accepting anything, it will just leave the stuff in the chest (or is it possible to connect a quarry directly with the AE network?).

and if the chest runs full, the quarry will drop everything that doesn't fit into the chest.

 

[budge]

Like Peppe said, the level emitter is a little delayed. I have mine set to activate an export bus at 400,000 cobblestone, and it usually gets to about 400,100 before activating, and will continue down to about 399,500 before reacting again.

Unfortunately, you'll have to do this for every single item you want to limit.

 

[Bigglesworth]

It's good enough to considering going from Mindcrack to Ultimate. However the inclusion of shit like EE and Soulshards makes me want to create my own non-cheesefactory pack.

 

[Harvest88]

Due to the speed of AE would this be able to pull out damaged items like OC heat vents? And non damaged ones? Cause I wanting a high speed system that can run without dangerous failing of RP timers+filters, since if the server is restarted the whole timing is missed up and there goes the reactor if that actually happen. Then I can get a couple of Regulators to make sure there enough OC heat vents in it and have an auto shutdown if there isn't. So the reactor doesn't blow up. I'm going to have high outputting Plutonium reactors with the HVC method since it's only automating is like the only thing that can fail provided you have enough cooling reactors and OC heat vents flowing around.

 

[SmokeLuvr1971]

Hah...never knew this thread existed. Now all my AE questions have a home

Speaking of which...I want to keep then number of blank patterns in the pattern encoder at a certain/reasonable level and have the network craft more as needed. To with, I've got a regular storage bus underneath the encode [configured to store only blank patterns]...a precision export bus is affixed to the side of the encoder [active with signal / move singles and craft]...level emitter directed towards exporter and set to emit when levels are below the limit / limit set to 10...and an encoded pattern in the chamber for the blank pattern.

Power levels are good and everything's wired up. But the network just will NOT see the number of blank patterns within the pattern encoder. It will craft blank patterns and stuff them into the encoder. It will also suck out encoded patterns. But it's maintaining the number of blank patterns at 64. If I search the terminal for patterns, I see the craft placeholder only for the blank pattern...not the number in the encoder.

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[AlanEsh]

Hah...never knew this thread existed. Now all my AE questions have a home

Speaking of which...I want to keep then number of blank patterns in the pattern encoder at a certain/reasonable level and have the network craft more as needed. To with, I've got a regular storage bus underneath the encode [configured to store only blank patterns]...a precision export bus is affixed to the side of the encoder [active with signal / move singles and craft]...level emitter directed towards exporter and set to emit when levels are below the limit / limit set to 10...and an encoded pattern in the chamber for the blank pattern.

Power levels are good and everything's wired up. But the network just will NOT see the number of blank patterns within the pattern encoder. It will craft blank patterns and stuff them into the encoder. It will also suck out encoded patterns. But it's maintaining the number of blank patterns at 64. If I search the terminal for patterns, I see the craft placeholder only for the blank pattern...not the number in the encoder.

Am I doing something wrong?

Yes, you're crossing that fine line between "reuse old thread" and "necro"
(oops, hit submit too quick, this was supposed to be more than a smartass post, will edit it )

Your level emitter is looking for X blanks in your ME Network, not in your pattern encoder. The Pattern encoder is not part of your network so its inventory isn't readable by the level emitter.

/another edit:
^^^ That's my guess. I tried to use an ME Interface's export inventory as part of my network with a Storage bus, and it would not work. I suspect the same thing is going on with the Pattern Encoder.

 

[SmokeLuvr1971]

Yes, you're crossing that fine line between "reuse old thread" and "necro"

And here I was, all excited that the reply would contain helpful infos

The reason why I'm using a storage bus under the encoder, instead of my usual fuzzy import bus, is so that the inventory of the encoder gets included in the network. Storage bus includes external inventories in the network. This would allow the level emitter to function correctly in this case. That's my limited understanding of the storage bus anyway. I even went as far as to put a ghost image of a blank pattern in the storage bus' GUI, so any encoded patterns will be removed.

It's cool if it ain't fixed...already made the investment of mats to get a full stack of patterns. Just that the wiki states this machine specifically "fully supports automation", and unless it's a conceptual difference on "automation", that statement/claim is untrue [if my setup is correct]. Hopefully someone has an idea what's going wrong.

 

[AlanEsh]

Well it looks like a bug to me, same as my experience with the ME Interface's export inventory not being seen by an attached Storage Bus. A storage bus attached to anything with an inventory should register that inventory, but it appears to not be the case with some blocks.

Question -- when you look in your access terminal, do you see the 64 blanks that are in your Encoder? If not, try fiddling with your storage bus configuration, but like I said, I don't think it's going to work as advertised.