Auto feeding IC2 generators...

[Crownz04]

Alright, running into a slight issue. Here's a couple pictures:

What I'm trying to do is auto feed the blaze rods from the farm in pic 1, into my 8 generators in pic 2. The generators are powering a few IC2 machines, and my AE system.

I had it configured with Filters, Pneumatic Tubes, and Timers. However, the tubes would fill up with the rods faster then the generators would burn them, draining my barrels into the tubes to bounce back and forth.

I was thinking of hooking the tubes up the the AE network, and auto feeding them that way. Maybe an interface block, or would a storage bus work as well?

What I'm mainly asking is what would be the best way to make sure my generators are constantly topped off since it's a continual drain?

 

[ratchet freak]

export buses are made for exactly this...

 

[Crownz04]

Yup, I forgot completely about the export bus. I'm still a noob to AE, but as soon as I hooked them up, it's all working good now. Thanks for the help.

 

[natnif36]

However, placing an export bus directly under each generator would be very costly as an option.
Connecting the export bus to a router, set to put items into the bottom, would be cheaper, both energy and resource wise. This solution would also be more easily expandable by simply adding more generators and an extra cable on the top. Make sure to have some backup power also, becaue the biggest danger of using energy ie ae to make energy, is that if for whatever reason, your power stops/unloads etc, you then have no access to anything, and therefore no way to generate enough power to keep itself self-sustaining.
Something like a thermal generator some spare lava in a tank or something may be a good solution.

 

[ratchet freak]

or even a chest of backup coal...

 

[whizzball1]

Gates from Buildcraft. Make a gate that emits a redstone signal when the inventory is empty. It will send one signal to the filter, which will pull out a stack of blaze rods and send them into the generator. Problem solved!

 

[Harvest88]

However, placing an export bus directly under each generator would be very costly as an option.
Connecting the export bus to a router, set to put items into the bottom, would be cheaper, both energy and resource wise. This solution would also be more easily expandable by simply adding more generators and an extra cable on the top. Make sure to have some backup power also, becaue the biggest danger of using energy ie ae to make energy, is that if for whatever reason, your power stops/unloads etc, you then have no access to anything, and therefore no way to generate enough power to keep itself self-sustaining.
Something like a thermal generator some spare lava in a tank or something may be a good solution.

Or someone who have No idea on routers could also pump rods via an export bus on the Relay and hook up Pneumatic Tubes under the generators. Unlike BC pipes they won't spill and just add more tubes for more power generation. I would like to know how routers really work though any good wiki on it or video explaining how to use those?

 

[Zjarek_S]

If you use energy all the time (for example for mass/matter fab) then just BC pipes will work. Let's assume that you first cook your wood in powered furnace. One furnace take 80 ticks to cook one wood. One charcoal is enough for 4000 Eu, which equals to 400 ticks. So you need 5 generators for each furnace. Autharchic gate will normally extract wood from inventory once per 10 ticks, so you can just send wood to 8 powered furnaces and then to 40 generators, all just connected with normal pipes under them (I'd split charcoal input in 4 lines of 10 generators to cut down on item travel time).

Edit: With pneumatic tubes you can do something similar. One blaze rod burns 600 ticks, so for example to fill 20 generators you need to get one rod every 30 ticks. I'd just pulse filter set to 64 blaze rods every 96 seconds and it will get just enough rods to run this setup.

 

[natnif36]

The reason I suggested routers instead of pneumatics was due to me trying not to use RP this world, primarily so that I wouldn't feel empty in 1.5 and onwards.
Using bc pipes an counting on demand being more than supply can be risky on a server, particularly as if there is lag, it's more likely to break and spill items, which then causes more lag and so on.