Help! Automated Fermenter filling

[TomT]

Ok, I have seriously been banging my head against the wall on this for two days. I have a feeling there is a simple solution, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet.

I have 4 Fermenters.

I have two seperate Pneumatic pipe networks feeding saplings into the top of the fermenters and fertilizer into the bottom. Strangely enough, the info from the wiki says:

Input

• Any Side: Organic Items (III)
• Any Side: Fertilizer, Compost or Mulch (IV)
• Any Side (Waterproof): Liquids (II)

Powered Output

• Any Side (Waterproof): Biomass or Short Mead (V)
• Any Side: Filled Cans (VII)

It doesn't seem to work that way, but in any case, I have the tube network set up and it seems to work. My problem is that I get saplings and fertilizer bouncing around in the pipe network. What I want is to just send something down the network if there is a spot available in one of the fermenters.

I have tried to use a sorting machine but I still get bounce back. I have used filters, but the filter just fires a steady stream of stuff down the network. I have used two retrievers one for each item, with a stack of 16 to try and limit the amount of traffic into the pipes. I've reduced my tick time on my timer to 20 seconds, but I still end up with a pipe full of items bouncing around.

Any ideas on how to make this work?

 

[NTaylor]

Pictures of the setup would make it easier to see where you have gone wrong though the new wiki (http://forestry.sengir.net/wiki.new/doku.php?id=energy:fermenter) does say red power tubes behave differently to build craft pipes near the bottom and I have known RP tubes to be weird with forestry stuff setting it up with BC pipes would most likely make it work properly and use gates to control the supply of items.

 

[TomT]

BC pipes for the win! I just couldn't get RP tubes to work the right way. The new emerald pipe (is it new?) is just flat out awesome! Biofuel production is in full, automated, effect!

 

[Hydra]

For some reason pneumatic tubes don't work properly with compost and stuff. So yeah, as far as I know BC pipes is the only way. It's how I do it in my base.

 

[Grunden]

Fermenters with tubes require specific sides. Most forestry machines are "smart" when interfacing with BC pipes and will automatically put things in the proper slots. With tubes you'll have to do individual sides. 1 for power, side for liquid, bottom for fertilizer, top for saplings and a another side for output.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Here's a simple way to reduce 'bounce'.

Have your tubes hooked up to your fermenter be painted, and hooked up to a sorting system. Also in this line is a barrel for saplings, but it is set up so that the fermenter is the first available inventory. So if there is room for saplings, it goes to the fermenter. If there isn't, it goes to the barrel.

Option 2: Hopper. Use a BC hopper on top of your machine. That's where the saplings go to. In addition to having multiple inventory slots to buffer saplings and ensure you won't slow down your biogas production, they also play a lot more friendly with tubes. Set up a barrel as overflow as above.

Also, you can set up a 'craft on demand' system for your 'fertilizer' of choice. If you use Mulch, it's easy. You'll have a fair stream coming from your source, which toggles on and off depending on your supply in the storage chest. Put a gate that says "fuel < 25%" -> "Red Pipe Signal", then run that red pipe to your storage chest with a wooden pipe and an autarchic gate set to go off when red pipe signal is triggered.

For Compost, you can simply use a craft on demand system with an Automated Crafting Table, and an autarchic gate set to craft when it gets a red pipe signal. Make sure it has a chest or two with the materials necessary on hand, depending on how you craft your compost.

I wouldn't suggest using actual Fertilizer anymore, since it is now only created with Apatite, and you'll need to reserve it for your new multi-block farms.