Automating smelting/pulverising/compressing etc with AE

[carmont492]

Apologies if this has been covered but I'm on taps talk and it fails as an app. (Search function is about as good as stevie wonder playing pin the tail on the donkey)

I'm looking at upgrading my systems to increase the amount of automation. So all the goodies that my turtles collect can be doubled where possible and smelted ready for crafting.

What I would like to know is any insight on how to accomplish this.

Power isn't a problem due to a bank of 30 magmatic engine being fuelled by the nether.

Many thanks

 

[Hydra]

Err. Use AE to dump ores into puilverizers. Output to AE interface or import bus. Use AE to smelt pulverized metals into ingots. Pretty trivial. Why not try it out in creative first? It would help if you had a specific question.

 

[namiasdf]

An AE export bus is limited to 8 unique items. If you have more than 8 ores that require processing in one machine you will need an additional export bus and another side of the machine, else you will have to build an additional machine.

Another solution would be to program an ME storage bus to all your ores. A storage bus has endless preformatting compared to the export bus, but you will need to pump the items out of the chest using whatever method you choose, should it be autarchic gates or translocators.


My ore processing system consists of 3 GT grinders. Each with an export bus. One for mercury cell grinding, the other to for all others. Once my system receives an ore, it'll automatically output them to my grinder. The products are recovered and then send to the respective processing areas. Dusts are automatically send to furnaces via export bus and tiny dusts have been preformatted into a storage bus attached to a chest. These are then pumped out into a bank of autocrafting tables formatted to creating full dusts. Those dusts are then recovered and once again, send to furnaces.

Additionally for things like quicksilver and thorium, those are automatically send to my canning machine via export bus. For things like uranium ore or iridium ore, those are automatically send to my compressor via export bus as well.


For things like compressing, if you are considering having them for "on-demand" building recipes. i.e. If you need a compressed metal block for a certain recipe, you may want to consider IC2 machines that can be overclocked. Though it would increase the energy demands, you had mentioned that is not a problem.

Consider this example for producing AE processing chips (the golden/diamond ones used in almost every AE recipe). My AE system will send the quartz to an overclocked furnace via ME interface should I need silicon. Then my system builds the raw core and then sends it back out to the same furnace to be cooked.

Another would be my diamond making system. When I request 8 diamonds, my system will send 64 coal, in 8 coal increments to my rotatory macerator, form the respective coal balls/chunks and then send them to my singularity compressor for compressing. This is achieved by using ME interfaces.


For AE automation, export buses are for things that should be done continuously. They can be controlled with level emitters, but that's another topic. Interfaces allow for programming of recipes like << 1 ingot = 1 dust >>. This is useful for times where you might need diamond dust. The system would simply understand that sending a diamond here will result in the reception of a dust.

 

[triblades]

Err. Use AE to dump ores into puilverizers. Output to AE interface or import bus. Use AE to smelt pulverized metals into ingots. Pretty trivial. Why not try it out in creative first? It would help if you had a specific question.

Or more detailed:

Put a TE furnace and TE pulverizer next to each other and supply them with power.

Then put an AE precision export bus next to the pulverizer. Open the interface of the export bus and click every ore type in you want to automatically be pulverized. (set on stack mode if you'd like)
Then put an AE basic import bus against the pulverizer and watch it all go be pulverized and sucked back into the AE network.

Then to the same with the furnace but with the dusts/pulverized stuff, the pulverizer made, in the precision export bus so it'll be turned into ingots.

 

[WTFFFS]

What I did was setup a BC pipes\TE machines (3 pulverisers\4 powered furnaces) processing line which dumped into an ME interface, diamond pipe sorted into hoppers and anything that didn't need processing bypassed the TE machines and went straight into the interface what I liked about this was due to the pipe runs I had room for a tesseract\enderchest and MFR laser all on the input side so when manual mining I could dump my entire inventory through the enderchest including all the chest finds, my quarry was happy to also dump through the tesseract and with another diamond pipe any of the non-pulverisable ore outputs from the laser were easily shuffled off to a different method of processing or sent straight to the interface and I also sorted out all the cobble and fed it into a condensor.

I had another set of machines for on demand processing like silicon\ME chips\glass\coal dust things like that, it was a compressor\macerator\induction furnace with wrenched interfaces on the top pointing down and a basic import pipe on the side\rear as well as a pulveriser\induction smelter set up the same mostly for TE items and sand.

 

[carmont492]

Thanks for the replies! I don't think I've ever had such a well informed and detailed response.

Btw I'm on unleashed, but I'm sure that those methods are compatible.

 

[Staxed]

My ore processing system consists of 3 GT grinders. Each with an export bus. One for mercury cell grinding, the other to for all others. Once my system receives an ore, it'll automatically output them to my grinder. The products are recovered and then send to the respective processing areas. Dusts are automatically send to furnaces via export bus and tiny dusts have been preformatted into a storage bus attached to a chest. These are then pumped out into a bank of autocrafting tables formatted to creating full dusts. Those dusts are then recovered and once again, send to furnaces.

You have this and everything else mentioned setup similar to how I have it (or will have it once I get going again since I just started over).

My question to this specific section though. I don't automated my ingot creation (I just have autocrafting and do it on demand) simply because of alloys like invar and electrum. How do you go about making those if every dust input into your system is automatically sent to the furnace?

 

[Deftscythe]

You can use an induction smelter to create those alloys. Alternatively, you can have a pulverizer with an me interface set aside for the creation of dusts and make the ingots on demand.

 

[angelnc]

You have this and everything else mentioned setup similar to how I have it (or will have it once I get going again since I just started over).

My question to this specific section though. I don't automated my ingot creation (I just have autocrafting and do it on demand) simply because of alloys like invar and electrum. How do you go about making those if every dust input into your system is automatically sent to the furnace?

ME Interface connected to an Induction Smelter can be used there.

 

[triblades]

My question to this specific section though. I don't automated my ingot creation (I just have autocrafting and do it on demand) simply because of alloys like invar and electrum. How do you go about making those if every dust input into your system is automatically sent to the furnace?

I had the same question just now in my head.

I was thinking a precision bus with a level emitter set on 'active if more then 1 (or 2) dust' but I can't say from my workplace if that works with multiple dusts.

 

[namiasdf]

You have this and everything else mentioned setup similar to how I have it (or will have it once I get going again since I just started over).

My question to this specific section though. I don't automated my ingot creation (I just have autocrafting and do it on demand) simply because of alloys like invar and electrum. How do you go about making those if every dust input into your system is automatically sent to the furnace?

I don't use invar and I centrifuge lava for electrum. Though I understand what you're trying to get at, I don't really have a solution for you that would involve not setting up a proxy automation system. i.e. When you request invar/electrum you interface those materials into a system isolated from your main AE network. From there it's quite simple.

 

[Hydra]

My question to this specific section though. I don't automated my ingot creation (I just have autocrafting and do it on demand) simply because of alloys like invar and electrum. How do you go about making those if every dust input into your system is automatically sent to the furnace?

I always keep a supply of X dusts for these types if 'mixtures'. I then autocraft the mixture and toss them into a furnace if the supply gets low.

I don't use interfaces to 'autocraft' these because everytime you need the stuff you have to way. Pre-making the stuff works better.[DOUBLEPOST=1378205948][/DOUBLEPOST]

Or more detailed:

If you give people who can't be bothered to google what they want they never learn.

 

[KingTriaxx]

My Ultimate setup was using several export buses pumping into BC Hoppers feeding into an Industrial Grinder.

If you're using Pulverizers and Powered furnaces, don't bother with more than one interface and one export bus. Actually what I'd suggest is to build them in a plus shape with a hollow middle, then run power down the top. Put your Furnaces on top, inputting from the bottom, outputting up into pipes, connected to an ME Interface. Pulverizers on the bottom set to import from the bottom, and export up. Or the other way around if your power comes from above.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I actually had a bank of four pulverizers feeding dusts into one induction smelter and it kept up just fine (had a hopper as a buffer anyways) with the secondary outputs going separately to a powered furnace.

If you don't care about a marginal (5-10%) increase in productivity, however, you can just hook up straight to the Induction Smelter, which outputs double ingots per raw ore automatically (and has a chance for Rich Slag, which will actually let you TRIPLE ore output).

4x pulverizers + Induction Smelter goes by a lot faster (you process four times the ores thanks to the loadsharing of the pulverizers, and the smelter processes dusts FAR faster than ores), but just plain smelters are easier to set up.

 

[WTFFFS]

You have this and everything else mentioned setup similar to how I have it (or will have it once I get going again since I just started over).

My question to this specific section though. I don't automated my ingot creation (I just have autocrafting and do it on demand) simply because of alloys like invar and electrum. How do you go about making those if every dust input into your system is automatically sent to the furnace?

The Induction Smelter can make the alloys from ingots it just doubles the output.

 

[Riuga]

Never underestimate the ME Interface + Transvector Interface combo. Ever.

Resolves the limited recipe / config space issue.

If not then you could always get a turtle to pull from an enderchest a ton of ME Bus Memory Cards and right click a bus with it.

 

[Staxed]

I don't use invar and I centrifuge lava for electrum. Though I understand what you're trying to get at, I don't really have a solution for you that would involve not setting up a proxy automation system. i.e. When you request invar/electrum you interface those materials into a system isolated from your main AE network. From there it's quite simple.

This is what I currently do, was just curious if you had some other method of doing it since you seem to have quite an advanced setup going.

I've got a small secondary network for the creation of the electrum/invar, the main network inputs the ingots to the macerator, then they get imported into the secondary network so they don't just get resmelted by the main network, combined into the alloy dust and then smelted and sent back to the main network. That's the easiest way I've found to do it so far. Will enable me to autocraft the normal ingots and then request alloyed ingots on demand.

(I haven't set it up yet, just what I've been thinking of to solve the problem of alloy automation if all normal dusts get autocrafted by the main network).

 

[mushroom taco]

Well, first, don't use tapatalk. Use a web browser instead. (I'm using safari on my iPhone)

Now, I'd suggest having at least a pulverized for each ore you want to process, to make sure each and every one of those oresies don't have to wait but a second to be grinded the heck out of and then burned so hard it turns into a solid metal.
Having half the number of ores would also work, but you aren't guaranteed to have an open slot all the time.

 

[PhilHibbs]

An AE export bus is limited to 8 unique items. If you have more than 8 ores that require processing in one machine you will need an additional export bus and another side of the machine, else you will have to build an additional machine.

Or use a vertical stack of hoppers to attach more export buses to.

 

[triblades]

Or use a vertical stack of hoppers to attach more export buses to.

Lol, that's a fun idea I did not considered!