Is There A Way To Shut Off The Power Flow To Pipes?

[Styrkyr]

So here's the problem I've been running into. I've got a energy tesseract connected to my power grid supplying power to another tesseract at my quarry. But when when the quarry hits bedrock, it automatically shuts off, and the pipes connecting from my electrical engines explode.

Basically:

Ultimate Hybrid Solar Panel > Glass Fiber Conduit > Electrical Engine(x5) > Wood Conductive Pipe > Gold Conductive Pipe > Energy Tesseract.

It's my gold conductive pipes that keep exploding. I'd like something that senses when the pipes are full and shuts off the energy flow in the pipes. Any ideas?

 

[EternalDensity]

Yeah, don't use BC pipes.

 

[Styrkyr]

Thanks. That was extremely useful.

 

[Silent_007]

The slightly more helpful version of that response would be to use TE energy conduits instead.

If you want to stick with BC pipes for some reason you could use BC gates to output a redstone signal to the tesseract when the quarry has work to do, and then set the tesseract to shut off without a redstone signal.

 

[Bomb Bloke]

Gates can be placed in pipes to "detect" the status of nearby blocks - eg, "does this machine still have work to do?" - and then do something in response (eg, transmit a redstone signal). Not 100% sure they work with quarries specifically but they're what you want.

Another option is a set of conduits, which don't explode, automatically stop sending energy when it's not needed, and their energy loss has a 5% cap regardless of distance (assuming you're not sending the power from Thermal Expansion sources, in which case they're apparently completely lossless).

 

[Major_Heartfire]

Redstone energy conduits are great for this kind of thing. I'd highly recommend them.

 

[Styrkyr]

Are redstone energy conduits the same as TE energy conduits?

 

[Bomb Bloke]

Yes.

 

[EternalDensity]

Thanks. That was extremely useful.

You're welcome. I don't know why people persist in using them. Especially those who have the tech base to produce energy tesseracts.

 

[Major_Heartfire]

Yep. They are the same thing. Redstone Energy Conduit is the name of the TE alternative to BC's explosive energy pipes.

 

[Bomb Bloke]

I don't know why people use reactors, for that matter. Especially those who can make solars.

 

[Styrkyr]

Thats what I use. A massive Ultimate Hybrid Solar array.

 

[EternalDensity]

I don't know why people use reactors, for that matter. Especially those who can make solars.

Some people find reactors more interesting to design.

 

[whizzball1]

Don't use BC pipes.
Use Conduits.

 

[Omicron]

You're welcome. I don't know why people persist in using them. Especially those who have the tech base to produce energy tesseracts.

Because conductive pipes have less loss for distances of 6 blocks and below. And because they allow gates

For example, I have a battery of combustion engines hooked up with short conductive pipes to a redstone energy cell, which then feeds a conduit network. Because of this setup, I get only around 2% instead of 5% power loss, and I can let the engines manage themselves via a "can store energy -> red pipe signal" conditional gate on the energy cell.

An engineer uses the proper tool for the proper job. Not using conductive pipes is just as limited and short-sighted as not using redstone conduits.

 

[Heliomance]

Some people find reactors more interesting to design.

Yeah, but the effort to reward ratio is completely borked for reactors. Any sustainable reactor doesn't produce enough energy to be worth it, and any reactor that does produce a decent amount of energy is a massive PITA to automate the condensators for. They really need to produce more energy than they do.

Fusion reactors, OTOH, are totally worth it. I really ought to get one running.

 

[Hydra]

An engineer uses the proper tool for the proper job. Not using conductive pipes is just as limited and short-sighted as not using redstone conduits.

Yes. And conductive pipes are hardly ever the proper tool. When there's more input than output they blow up, that makes them invalid for pretty much any setup where you don't manually turn on/off engines.

 

[Bomb Bloke]

When there's more input than output they blow up, that makes them invalid for pretty much any setup where you don't manually turn on/off engines.

... unless you use gates, as has already been mentioned.

 

[immibis]

Yes. And conductive pipes are hardly ever the proper tool. When there's more input than output they blow up, that makes them invalid for pretty much any setup where you don't manually turn on/off engines.

This is actually incorrect.

A conductive pipe network will split all available power according to the ratio of the amount of power requested by various machines.
If there are two machines, and one requests 7 MJ/t, and one requests 3 MJ/t, then 70% of the power input will go to the first machine and 30% to the second, regardless of the absolute value of the power input, and ignoring loss.
If there's one machine requesting 7 MJ/t, and there's 10 MJ/t available, all 10 MJ/t will go to that machine. The machine doesn't get to limit its power input, although it might discard the excess power.
Power only builds up if nothing requests power at all, or if there's a loop.

In the latest version (for 1.5) and possibly earlier, wooden pipes will stop accepting energy when they have stored power. Power will then build up in the engine that feeds them.
The effect of this depends on the engine. Stirling engines will probably explode. RC steam engines will sieze up. Combustion engines will keep running, waste fuel and not explode (provided they have water).

Note: This might not be 100% accurate, it is based on my understanding of BC and is has not been confirmed by experiment.

 

[Hydra]

This is actually incorrect.

A conductive pipe network will split all available power according to the ratio of the amount of power requested by various machines.
If there are two machines, and one requests 7 MJ/t, and one requests 3 MJ/t, then 70% of the power input will go to the first machine and 30% to the second, regardless of the absolute value of the power input, and ignoring loss.
If there's one machine requesting 7 MJ/t, and there's 10 MJ/t available, all 10 MJ/t will go to that machine. The machine doesn't get to limit its power input, although it might discard the excess power.
Power only builds up if nothing requests power at all, or if there's a loop.

In the latest version (for 1.5) and possibly earlier, wooden pipes will stop accepting energy when they have stored power. Power will then build up in the engine that feeds them.
The effect of this depends on the engine. Stirling engines will probably explode. RC steam engines will sieze up. Combustion engines will keep running, waste fuel and not explode (provided they have water).

Note: This might not be 100% accurate, it is based on my understanding of BC and is has not been confirmed by experiment.

Yeah whatever. This still makes them pretty useless and I really don't understand why the author of BC is trying to get people to NOT use it's pipe on purpose.[DOUBLEPOST=1370266147][/DOUBLEPOST]

... unless you use gates, as has already been mentioned.

Gates are a late-game item. By that time the 5% power loss conduits have really doesn't matter at all.