Automating Factorization

[Stuwik]

Hey! I decided to rely a lot on Factorization in my FTB world, and quickly set out to construct the entire ore processing chain to receive the glorious 300% output. What I quickly noticed was that automating this process wasn't easy, especially without RP2. Buildcraft pipes aren't really up to the task, but I've managed to make it semi-automatic, meaning sort of working up to the crystallizing point, where my main issue lies.

At least I won't have to babysit the mixer, but automating the crystallizer would be golden. How do I best go about this? I don't fully understand how pipes interact with it, and I'm wondering if RP2 would solve most of my problems or if Factorization routers are the only solution? They sound kinda complicated and I've been scared of trying them, so how do they work?

Thanks a lot for any and all input, I'm guessing others have been wondering this as well.

 

[Freightrain]

You can input items in the top or on the sides of the Crystallizer, and pull out the bottom (like the mixer and grinder, if I'm not mistaken) so you won't want to put your heater there. Unfortunately the way the system works is it will stack up until one of the five open inventory slots is full, rather than distributing them evenly. Either you'll need to do so manually, or put in a whole bunch of clean reduced ores (if I have my names right) all at once. It's possible to get a similar system to RP2 with Railcraft loaders and unloaders, so that is an option. However it means you're going to need up to five stacks of ore to start with. It might be worth it to make multiple crystallizers and place them all around the heater if you just want to route with pipes.

Keep in mind despite the five slots, a Crystalizer can only take one ore type at a time, or it won't run (I think, not 100% sure on that)

 

[SilvasRuin]

How did you automated the mixers? Automating the Crystalizers doesn't bother me as those just need quick manual distribution every so often. The mixers are what frustrate me in the process. When I noticed how easily input can wind up in the output slots, I kind of despaired on the mixers.

 

[Freightrain]

For Mixers, I put a Liquid Transposer (TE) next to the input pipe (and made said pipe iron, inputting into the top again as it's the only input accepting side of the Mixer), outputting water buckets into the system. I then routed the buckets with a diamond pipe back up into the Transposer (which requires an engine/energy. 2 MJ/t I think). I had an Aqueous Accumulator (with two adjacent water source blocks for optimal pumping) feeding water into the Transposer.

And yes, you can use two, even three or more buckets. I tested if two water buckets in the mixer would prohibit it from functioning, but it just ignores the second water bucket. I wouldn't use more than three though, otherwise the inventory slots might fill up with water buckets when it's not receiving new grinded ores. Putting a Gold Pipe just after the wood pipe speeds up the bucket system too.

I don't know if cells or bottles work, so I can't comment on that, but besides some external energy it's a completely closed system for the buckets.

 

[Brooks]

For the mixer I used filters. That worked well for me. One to pull full water buckets from a deployer and one to pull empty buckets from the mixer.

 

[Icarus White]

I recall going the RP2 route myself, although the version I was working with had a rather annoying quirk: a deployer wouldn't fill a bucket if it was facing down. Sideways, yes, but not down. Other than that, it worked like a charm. I was using transposers, barrels and a sequencer, but two filters would probably have been more robust.
Also, it's quite notable that the mixer will do the right thing if you put more than one bucket in at a time - that is, it'll use the filled buckets one at a time, and stack them in the output. Very helpful.

Edit: Mixer fills in the top, outputs sides. Sorry, forgot.

 

[vScourge]

For the Crystalizer you can also use multiple Routers, each set to insert a different slot. I tried that in creative and it worked well enough. Not exactly cheap to set up in SMP, however.

 

[LastElf]

I had someone on my server set up a fully automated system from start to finish including the crystallizer. Also, it was a system for every type of ore, so there was 6 of them running side by side.

From him: "It worked, but I wasn't happy with it. You can also make it way more compact than that."

 

[Abdiel]

Quoting myself from elsewhere:

Spoiler

It's about efficiency, not about time needed. When you don't quary or use any automatic mining devices, you want to get the most out of your ores. There is no other method I am aware of that gives an (average) of 300% output with no outside inputs (rich slag). And I don't mind throwing ores in the machine and getting my ingots the next day, I always maintain a healthy storage.

This was set up in Beta A and hasn't been touched since, so it has some archaisms that could be done slightly easier nowadays (Advanced Regulators, Routers sending items to other Routers, automatic processing of sludge into clay, etc.) Once I rebuild this in my current world, I'll post new screenshots if this thread is still alive.

 

[Brooks]

That does look a little arcane. I fond this just by searching and it looks like people are still very interested.

I would be very interested in a method for full automation of the crystallizer without routers. If it is possible?

 

[Dragonfel]

I've heard of people automating this system with golems. Might be worth looking into.

 

[Abdiel]

That does look a little arcane. I fond this just by searching and it looks like people are still very interested.

I would be very interested in a method for full automation of the crystallizer without routers. If it is possible?

The problem with crystallizers is that you want to insert items into all five input slots for maximum efficiency. And the input slots aren't sided, so you have to use something that can put items in a specific numbered slot. This is, to my knowledge: Routers, Advanced Buffers, Advanced Regulators, and turtles with the inventory upgrade. Advanced Buffers only allow you to insert into one slot, so you don't really have enough space around the crystallizer for 5 buffers + heating + output - unless you want to move the machines around with frames. Any of the other three could be used for automation. The advantage of using routers is that the same set of five routers can be used to service many crystallizers, therefore making parallelization much easier.

 

[Abdiel]

Yes, I have a set of crystallizers (and routers) for every metal. You could in theory automate it to always send 5 items at a time with CC or some advanced RP. I went for the simpler and easier to extend setup, at the cost of higher initial resource investment.

 

[Lambert2191]

especially without RP2.

then use RP2? There is only 1 reason why I wouldn't use RP2 for transport purposes and that's bees, because of the apiarist pipe... for most, if not every other situation, RP2 tubes are vastly superior to BC pipes

 

[KirinDave]

Last night I got luck, found a dungeon with 2 logic programmers, so I've prioritized playing with routers now.

They are the undiscovered country of automation. What I don't know if most people realize is how well they interact with TE machines. Because you can configure input and output sides arbitrarily you can make very wide ore processing pipelines extremely compact.

As for automating factorization stuff, I found a post by the author claiming that the entire process is automatable by routers and is designed with that in mind.

 

[Zjarek_S]

Here is my old system, even before TE for 1.3: http://imgur.com/a/NKSHH . Now I'm building one using a bit of RP2 to save on Routers, because without frames you need 6 for each crystallization tower:

 

[Dogt03]

old thread i know, but just thought i'd like to add my two cents to this, my current mostly automated setup, as compact as i could get it with having a seperate route for each type of ore that is proccessable in factorization

from left to right:

2 Aqueous accumulators, golden waterproof pipe (upgradable to liquiducts), 5 liquid transposers, energy conduit hooked up to energy tesseract to power farm, 5 mixers, lead wires to power mixers, wooden pipes with autarchic gates, 5 grinders fed by hoppers

on top i have the different sections separated by cobblestone pipes and stone pipes.

using RP i have the ores directed to the hoppers, hoppers to the grinders, grinders into the pipes leading to the top of the mixer, any other side leads to the output slot and does not get mixed, out of the mixer down to diamond pipes which funnels the products to a diamond chest (Temp) while sending the water bucket to the liquid transposer, have to automate the sending of clean chunks to the slag furnace yet, but thats the easy part, still trying to figure out a way to automate the sending of reduced chunks to the proper crystalizers.

all in all setup takes a 4X8X5 block space for just going thru the mixing stages, as stated at the top, this allows for the simultanious processing of all 5 types of ores, iron, gold, silver, tin and copper

~Dogt03~

 

[fburt112]

Old thread, I know. Dogt03, would you mind explaining the diamond pipes? How do you set up the system with them?