How to set up a 'queue' of ores?

[McJty]

Hi all, I'm trying to find a good solution for automatic ore processing. I have a series of three extractors (from RotaryCraft, they do approx 5x ore multiplication) which I'd like to use on various types of ores. At this moment I'd like to stay with three extractors because I don't have sufficient power to constantly run more then those three (at least right now) but there are many more ores then three. The problem is that when I hook up my AE system to the extractors the three extractors will get immediatelly filled up with three random types of ores (or even the same type). And as long as that type of ore remains in my AE system the extractor will keep on processing that. What I'd like to do is find a system where the extractor gets one stack of a certain ore and only one stack until the first slot of the extractor has room again for a stack of possibly another type of ore.

So I'm trying to find if there is a way to make sure the extractor(s) gets various types of ores and not stick with one ore until that is depleted. So a bit like a queue of stacks of different ores which are processed in order.

Can someone think of a way to do this? I have access to a bunch of tech mods (LP, AE, TE, RotaryCraft, MFR, Mekanism, Buildcraft, BigReactors, ReactorCraft, Expanded Redstone, Project Red, IC2, Metallurgy, OpenBlocks, QuarryPlus, RedLogic, Redstone In Motion, Remote IO, Wireless Redstone, Teleport Pipes, Translocator, Modular Force Fields).

Thanks!

 

[Ieldra]

Hmm..there should be ways around this. What I'm doing is processing mined ores as they come in. I'm sorting ores away from the rest of stuff before they enter the AE system to be processed, so that there is never a significant build-up of unprocessed ores. Then, the amount that needs to be processed at any time is a mere trickle and doesn't overtax my machines. Should the time come when you're mining fast enough that that "trickle" overtaxes your machines, you should have enough power to run more extractors.

 

[McJty]

Well the problem is that my RoC borer machines have been running for a long time already (they are permanently on). I have more then 5000 ores of almost any type (iron, gold, copper, tin, ...). I'm sure there must be a way to design a kind of 'pipe' to enforce that stacks of ore alternate between different types. Have to think about this problem a bit more I guess.

 

[Ieldra]

Well the problem is that my RoC borer machines have been running for a long time already (they are permanently on). I have more then 5000 ores of almost any type (iron, gold, copper, tin, ...). I'm sure there must be a way to design a kind of 'pipe' to enforce that stacks of ore alternate between different types. Have to think about this problem a bit more I guess.

In that case, it's a one-time problem, right? No need to design a permanent fully automated solution. Maybe design a system that sorts the ores away before they enter the system, stop the mining until the jam is removed, and resume normal processing.

Anything else is just too needlessly complicated for solving a one-time problem. You could design a system with filtered itemducts and chest buffers, which would take up a lot of space and wouldn't look neat.

 

[McJty]

Well I'm not sure it is a one time problem given that some ores are more rare then others. For example, diamond ore might never get a chance to be processed because there will always be more common ores sitting in the extractors. Anyway, I like the challenge of solving this so I will try anyway. Maybe I'll come up with a relatively easy solution. If I do I'll post it here.

 

[epidemia78]

This sort of thing is more trouble than its worth. Just wait a few minutes for your system to catch up.

 

[myrddraall]

Simple.. If you have computer craft. Ae interface with a stack of ore in each slot. Translocate one stack of each into turtle. Have turtle cycle through its slots dropping ore. If the drop fails you sleep and try again. When some drops advance to next slot

 

[epidemia78]

Computercraft is cheating IMO. Unless you wrote the script completely on your own, but even then.

 

[McJty]

Hmm that's actually an idea. I would use OpenComputers though as that is what I have installed and I would obviously write the program myselves

But first I'll try other solutions. Thanks for the hints so far in any case.

 

[myrddraall]

Computercraft is cheating IMO. Unless you wrote the script completely on your own, but even then.

I write all the programs myself. I'm a software engineer. Honestly if you write your own progs its not op at all. Sure they are powerful.. But the time invested can be huge

 

[MacAisling]

When I'm facing a back-log, I'll manually move anything I need processed right away into the machines until the AE system has caught up. I used to pre-sort & process ores before they went into my AE system, but AE can import items much faster than pipes can extract items.

For a simple solution requiring some manual moving, put a vanilla hopper & a chest feeding into the machines & put a stack of each ore into the chest. When the machine stops, refill the chest. I'd leave 2 machines set to process your 2 most common ores, then do this with all the other ores on the 3rd. As others have said, once the system catches up, it should be able to keep up with the input as it comes in, although with that much material on hand, I doubt I'd have to do any more mining until the next world-breaking game update.

 

[Lordlundar]

Computercraft is cheating IMO. Unless you wrote the script completely on your own, but even then.

Oi, with all the people claiming "<blank> is cheating" pretty soon the only thing that won't be regarded as cheating is vanilla minecraft.

 

[malicious_bloke]

Oi, with all the people claiming "<blank> is cheating" pretty soon the only thing that won't be regarded as cheating is vanilla minecraft.

Vanilla is OP. If you aren't playing indev, you're cheating.

 

[Wagon153]

Oi, with all the people claiming "<blank> is cheating" pretty soon the only thing that won't be regarded as cheating is vanilla minecraft.

OP is a bad word in my book.

 

[Bruigaar]

you can transfer all of your ores into barrels and then use a rotating timer to pulse TE pipes in what ever order you set. I would have this one setup leading to all 3 processors in a series so that if it backs up the pipes it can clean itself out easier. You would have to mess with the timing of things but once you get it set correctly you will have a perfect ore rotation with no backup.


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[kittle]

... mabye im missing something here.

You said you have 3 extractors.
Set 2 of the extractors to process the higher priority ores. ex: 1 for diamond & gold. 1 for copper & lead. Then set the 3rd extractor to process everything else.

If your priorities changes (ex: Out of silver). Then just change the AE export bus settings accordingly.

 

[Reika]

For what it is worth, I ran into this exact problem in my SSP world with tin and copper overclogging my 15 extractors for a while. My solution was to tell only four to prioritize those ores, and the rest to process everything else first. Remember, the order in an export bus is the priority of export.

 

[Iluvalar]

I write all the programs myself. I'm a software engineer. Honestly if you write your own progs its not op at all. Sure they are powerful.. But the time invested can be huge

So you could open your save world and add some zero to your diamonds count then. What stop you to doing this ? If you want to use turles. Get real and have them mine and build an entire pseudo randomly generated 3d maze. And have them multiply themself with the ressources. That would be great !

If you use turtles and your coding skill only to round-rubbin your ores in extractors, you do something wrong. We know already turtles can do anything from 3 bits of coal with a bit of clever coding. Turtles are a way to bypass the problems, not to solve them. As such, it's a cheat.



To answer the question : you really dont need to automate that. You should have enough extractors to deal with the ore you gather. Otherwise, just slow down the quarry since it's quite pointless. Simply get all the ores out of your AE network temporarly and put it in a chest just beside your main access point. Feed into the AE network the ores you need the most or a small sample of each until you have more ingots of any type then you care micromanaging. Will be faster then to design a dedicated system just for that small puzzle.

(tough I'd be interested to ear someone come with a solution...)

 

[McJty]

Thank for all the replies so far. I'm considering it a challenge now to solve this problem even though I'm fully aware that there are many easier solutions that you proposed above. Nevertheless I'd like to try to solve the queue problem. If only for the challenge (for me that's what MC is about anyway).

I'll keep you posted if I manage to do it.

BTW, I'm not going to deactivate my boring machines as I need a huge deal of smoothstone in order to make singularities for a networked AE system.

 

[McJty]

Ok, I think I may have come up with a solution but I still have to implement it. I'll try to explain it here though. When I get some time to build it I'll let you know if it worked:

• First connect a single chest to the three extractors with a TE item conduit that is set to need a redstone signal to suck out itemstacks. The chest is setup so that it only has room for a single stack of items. i.e. all spots in the chest are filled with a single cobblestone (or anything else) except for one slot. So that basically reduces the chest to a single stack ore container.
• Put in a slow timer which sends a pulse every few seconds.
• Every cycle of the timer the item conduit will get powered long enough to potentially suck out the single stack to one of the extractors if there is room in one of them.
• For every type of ore that I want to process with these extractors I will set up an exporter bus from my AE system. All these exporters are connected (through item conduits) to my chest. But only one of a time because every tick of the main clock a 'sequencer' (that I will make with ProjectRed logic gates possibly) will shift the active exporter. Because it is essentially random when the chest empties to an extractor a random new type of ore will get inserted depending on the time when the chest empties.
• To prevent the chest refilling constantly with the same type of ore I will add a comparator next to the chest to close the input of new items if there is about a stack of items (also counting the dummy items in the chest) in it.

This isn't *too* complicated to set up and I think it might work.