connecting multiple AE networks

[Jacobbelveder]

Hello everyone, I am currently messing around with AE & I have a plan but no idea how to execute it. I want to have two separate networks, one for processing and auto crafting & one purely for storage. I want them to be able to pull items from each other, the closest I can get is an ME interface and a storage bus, but that only works one way. does anyone else have any better ideas on how I can manage this? or am I better off just having one larger network?

 

[Loufmier]

what's the point of having a network purely for storage? 1 network can handle both tasks.
however if you really need to do so the only way i can think of to achieve this is to have only external storages(chests, barrels and alike) connected to storage buses from both networks.

 

[snooder]

Hello everyone, I am currently messing around with AE & I have a plan but no idea how to execute it. I want to have two separate networks, one for processing and auto crafting & one purely for storage. I want them to be able to pull items from each other, the closest I can get is an ME interface and a storage bus, but that only works one way. does anyone else have any better ideas on how I can manage this? or am I better off just having one larger network?

AE really works better with just one larger network. There's no benefit at all to having two separate networks in the way you are envisioning.

However, that said, you might consider moving away from AE for part of your processing/crafting. Export and Import busses can get pretty expensive, both for power and material cost. But if you interface with a more traditional item transport mechanism like itemducts or BC pipes, you can save quite a bit of that expense.

For example, my ore processing works by having a precision export bus into an ender chest. The ender chest feeds a seperate network of pulverisers, redstone furnaces and itemducts, which are fed back into another enderchest. This ender chest is the main entry point into my AE system that most of my farms feed.

 

[MoosyDoosy]

One large network is the best as you have all your storage in one place. What you can do is use a sorting system like Extra Utilities / Logistic Pipes / Thermal Expansion Itemducts. Make a sorting chest. Export things from that chest. Have an intersection where the ores go one place and everything else goes another. The ores get processed through whatever you have before going into a chest. The ingots now get exported from the chest and into your AE network. As for your stuff that got intersected, have them go into your AE network. I suggest Logistic Pipes which are a bit dense to use, but are super powerful with AE.
Just think of an AE network as a huge chest where you just shove everything into.

 

[Bgraywolf]

I have almost exactly that setup

1 crafting network, 1 storage network, 1 production network, and a separate network just for my bees.

I use Logistics pipes as the connective tissue between the various networks and then each network can access parts of the others. This isn't fool proof and it requires a fairly robust LP pipe network to pull off but I am very happy with the results.

Items currently enter the storage network, they are then shunted to the processing network via storage busses. the processing network moves items around as needed from there and then passes back to a chest that I have an LP extractor on. LP can then determine which location that item needs to go to based on Item sinks and terminus pipes.

The crafting network just as an ME interface with a LP requester slapped on. The crafter can then pull any item stored on any network and can even take advantage of the LP autocrafting I have setup.