DW20 : Autocrafting Systems?

[Yeraze]

I have a huge barrel system currently running with a massive RP2 pipe network, and I'm about to upgrade it all to Routers (now that i finally understand how they work).

Has anyone found an elegant way to build an autocrafting system akin to the Logistics Pipes systems? I'ld love to have a single station where I could just request Pistons, machine blocks, gears, etc. Closest I've seen so far involved using dozens of RP2 Managers, which seems a bit excessive and not very space-friendly. (I'ld have to build a whole 2nd tube network just for the extractor side of things). I tried hooking a RP2 retriever up to a Router with the Ejector upgrade but that didn't work either (The Router just instantly empied a stack from the first available barrel and wouldn't supply anything else).

 

[b0bst3r]

Routers are great for sorting but absolutely useless for pulling stuff out.

 

[Bibble]

I was recently cogitating this very issue (after watching the Solar Panel auto-crafting deely). I don't think you're ever going to be able to get anything as elegant as the RP2 system (for obvious reasons), but you could get something not dissimilar with a fair amount of effort.

My thought would be to have a similar system to the solar auto-crafter (i.e. a sorting machine which feeds source chests for auto-crafting tables, which passes the component's around until the finished product is passed down a return line), but, instead of having it hooked into a chest, have it hooked into a retriever/bank of retrievers pulling from your main storage area. You could add in item detectors as a kind of "feedback loop" to prevent requests from backing up (i.e. when a request is made, the retriever won't accept any more until the results have passed trough the detector), and have the entire system hooked up to a computer/button system.

So, the system would go:


Redstone input > Retrievers (which become locked) > Detectors (to unlock the retrievers) > Sorting machine > crafting circuit > output


With this, it would, theoretically, be feasible to make more complicated tempalates by having one module craft the components, and another craft the product.

I was also thinking that a timer could be put on the locking circuit to request that a resource be made out of UUM when there's none in stocks.

 

[Abdiel]

CC Turtles are amazing. If you're a decent programmer, you can make a turtle pull all the needed materials from chests and craft whatever you want. I have a network of turtles which could make pretty much any item in the game, all I had to do was to type its name in a computer. Unfortunately in the Mindcrack pack rednet is broken and crashes servers. :-(

 

[Korenn]

In the sorting machine comparisons thread, someone posted a system using RP managers to achieve some form of auto crafting. I tried it in a creative world and it sorta works, but it creates large amounts of surplus items (the managers are stupid and send 10 items when one is required, then take back 9). It really breaks on non stacking items where the surplus has no where to go and jam up the system. The OP of the system suggested buffers but that doesn't work because they get instantly filled with products form the GT auto crafting tables resulting in the same situation.

 

[Yeraze]

With a bit of tinkering I did get this working, which seems fairly expandable, if not a bit pricey.

So I'm using routers for the sorting of items into Barrels.. Then a 2nd pipe network connected to my autocrafting system. the idea is that the column of devices closest to the player could be replicated for each desired autocraft. The system is Retriever (set to collect the parts), a Chest to store them, an autocrafting table, wooden pipe with engine to extract (I used an autarchic gate) then whatever to store the result (I used a relay so I could pump it back to somewhere else RP2 style).

Then you just need something to trigger a redstone pulse to the retriever. The system could be boosted a bit more by adding an item detector to trigger than the item was built. 2-tier constructions could trigger multiple builds in sequence, with the results of the 1st being sent to a temporary chest, for later retrieval (I think, haven't tested it).

Probably have to use a Computer to driver it, so you could select what you want to build from a Menu system, that behind the scenes could address & trigger the appropriate retriever.

Not as "automatic" as a Logistics Pipe system, but doable. There's an upfront cost of the Bluepower system and a computer or massive Button panel to control it, then a Retriever+Chest+AutocraftingTable+Pulling system per autocraft. Thoughts?