Iron Tank level sensing.

[DJHenjin]

Hey, i am looking for a way to sense when an iron tank is full, I had an idea that using a valve in the very top layer that liquid gets stored in, with a liquideuct running down to the very bottom level into a valve as well, and along the run have some sort of liquid detector, the top end of the liquiduct would be set to suck mode, and if theres any liquid in the pipe, then the sensor would sense that, and when the liquid level drops below the top valve the pipe will empty and shut the sensor off. Is there any sensor i can use for this?

EDIT**
Tried the valve at the top of the tank, but apparently even if the tank is full, the valve wont suck liquid out the top.

 

[brujon]

Gates attached to BC Pipes can sense whether a container is full or not, and emit a redstone signal. They can even detect percentages, and they work with liquid containers, Iron Tanks included. If you just add a second valve with a waterproof pipe running off of it and a gate attached, you could then set it to output a redstone signal whenever a certain condition is met, including when the tank is full, below 25%, above 50%, empty, etc... Unfortunately, liquiducts can't have gates attached to them yet, so you have to have that second pipe in order to sense the conditions you want to. Depending on where your tank is set (against a wall, for instance), you can hide the pipe, though.

 

[heggico]

And if you place a liquiduct on extractmode next to that gate it will automatically start pumping out when it's full for example. But yeah, you could use gates, or switch the tank for a xycraft one, as those can have level detectors build into the tank.

 

[DJHenjin]

brujon, would you mind posting an image with a simplistic set up of what you suggested? I am using stacked tanks for more capacity as well.

 

[brujon]

No, if the Liquiduct ran off of the gate signal, then it would only run when the tank is full, meaning it will intermittently suck stuff out of the tank, but immediately stop once it's no longer full. Depending on what you want, there are several ways of doing things. If you want the thing to run until it's empty, then stop for a while, you need a gate with If No Liquid = Redstone signal, then run that to an inverted redstone clock, that turns off the Liquiduct for a period of time, while the tank fills up. If you just want it to stop if it's empty, it's a hell of a lot easier, you can just do the same If No Liquid = Redstone Signal, and just invert it with a redstone torch, hook it up to whatever you need it to.

EDIT: w8 a second i'm going into creative and should have something for you shortly.

 

[DJHenjin]

I dont understand which "gate" you mean, nor do i understand exactly what you are describing. I learn visually would you please post a simple pic

 

[brujon]

This is the setup you want for the Gate. BTW, the Gate is made in an Assembly Table, which needs to have a couple lasers powered by it. It's Buildcraft, and you can look it up in the wiki. I just used a regular Gate, which has only one condition.


This is how the setup ended up looking like. I tried to make it compact, and used Iron Blocks so it would mesh well with the Tank, but you could easily run something like this out the back, into the ground, and back up, but for demonstration purposes, this does nicely.



Basically, the waterproof pipe on the left is only there for the gate to be attached to, detecting if the container is empty. If it is, then it emits a redstone signal. Now, the container is empty, and the redstone signal is off.


If i were to put more liquid inside, the redstone signal would be turned on.

 

[DJHenjin]

i think i found the right gate, how do i get it to use percentages?[DOUBLEPOST=1364200486][/DOUBLEPOST]what I want is the restone signal to be on if there is less than 75%-90% liquid in the tank, I dont see any options for percentages in the gates setup

 

[brujon]

I believe it's found in the more advanced gates, such as the Iron AND Gate, and the Iron OR Gate. If that doesn't show up, try connecting a Cobblestone Structure Pipe to any side of the tank, and see if the option appears. http://minecraftbuildcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Gates

According to the Wiki, it should appear whenever the gate is adjacent to a Tank.


EDIT: It might also be a Forestry thing, because i used this mostly to deal with that kind of stuf
And...

Yes, it is a Forestry thing. http://ftbwiki.org/Gates the % options only appear when connected to Forestry machines.


You still get Empty, Full & has Space conditionals, which should be enough for 90% of the situations.

 

[DJHenjin]

Well, the tanks are in use, so theres constantly liquid flowing in and out of them, what i want is to be able to shut off the stuff that provides liquid to the tank when it is fuller than a certain percentage.

I suppose i could setup some CC stuff to guess the percentages

 

[ApSciLiara]

I beliebe OpenCCSensors has a thing that can detect how much liquid there is in a tank. Might pay to check it out. Sorry for no link, I'm on my phone.

 

[DJHenjin]

I take it openCCSensors is not built in.

 

[ApSciLiara]

Unfortunately, no. It would be really great if it was, though... hint somebody take that to the Mod Suggestion thread please thank you ^-^

 

[<*///><]

Just use a liquid sensor on the tank, and put the resulting card into a nuclear information reader from MiscPerf, that way you can get the exact amount and max storage in the tank (and thus do the percentage calculation)