Item Buffer? (Bee Analyzing)

[weckar]

Hi, for personal reasons I'm playing a 1.4.7 version of FTB. I cannot upgrade, but I could add mods if needed.

I am at the point where I want to automate analyzing bees. Drones, specifically. Now, analyzing individual bees is a lot more costly than analyzing stacks of them, as either will only use one unit (100mB) of honey. Therefore, I was wondering whether there was maybe somesort of item buffer item I could use.

This item (or structure) would take drones of multiple types into an inventory (up to 14 types) and will only eject full stacks once full stacks exist in the inventory. I have thus far tried many redpower combinations, but those don't seem to work.

I feel I must be overlooking some item, because a 'wait for stack, then eject' block seems like a pretty basic idea. Compactor pipes don't exist for 1.4.7, as far as I am aware. They at least don't exist in the default 'additional buildcraft pipes' mod.

Anyone have any advice?

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Redpower regulator should do it.

Though I think the autoanalyser only does 1 bee at a time, regardless of stack size.​

 

[weckar]

It does full stacks. I've tried this manually.

The regulator waits for a full inventory match. It would take 14 regulators in a rather large setup to make this work, as well as 14 stacks of unused drones to use as a template. Isn't there a more... economical solution/.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

AE level emitters would be more compact.
Or 3 analysers, and provide an 'amount' of honey everytime the system gets backstuffed.

drones aren't too hard to come by BTW; why are you analysing all of them?

 

[weckar]

Because double yield when throwing them into the genepool.
How exactly would a level emitter help my problem? It would seem to me that gives me the information, but not the extraction capability. I'd also prefer for this to be an inline system, although a really clean solution could make me budge on that.
How would I detect the backstuffing, exactly?

 

[namiasdf]

Hmmm.

If you are able to acquire stacks of bees fast enough, such that you require the process to be automated I don't think you will have a DNA problem. The amount of DNA required to perform the tasks you require can be supported by manually identifying single bees, or just dumping unidentified bees from my experience. Though, I was only concerned with creating super bees.

Now I'm playing with Gendustry... It's so OP.

You will have a DNA overkill, so I would suggest that this would be a waste of time. Utilize that honey to amplify biomass production or something. That is a more involved project and would give you a lot more things to do.

Also, remember that alveary scented paneling requires honey.

 

[weckar]

Well, all that is exactly why I want to SAVE honey, because my production is slow. Instead of spending honey on every bee, I'd rather spend it on every stack. And I am producing drones faster than I produce honey.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Because double yield when throwing them into the genepool.
How exactly would a level emitter help my problem? It would seem to me that gives me the information, but not the extraction capability. I'd also prefer for this to be an inline system, although a really clean solution could make me budge on that.
How would I detect the backstuffing, exactly?

Most redpower machines had a redstone signal when its backstuffed- also buildcraft gates work [inventory detection]

Level emitters emit a signal when a certain item count is reached- and AE makes for some pretty neat/compact systems.
(I [ab]used it to its full in 1.4.7- had a little system churning out perfect quality serums)

I tried going the honey route- but I produced bees a lot faster than honey- its actually more efficient to burn them direct in the genepool rather than try to extract double. You've effectively got infinite droning ability anyway, so it doesn't really matter too much.

You're honestly better off saving all your honey [In material terms that is; sometimes its worth it for a fun build- screw efficiency]
--Alvearies will go through a lot of honey (trust me I had those automated too)

Even with my serum factory keeping a whole server stocked, my XYtank was always full- with the extra drones going over into some recyclers.

Whoever said bees can't produce UUM lied.​

 

[weckar]

Fair enough. I just prefer high-efficiency builds, in general. If no other solution presents itself, I will be going the regulator route. Unwieldy, but efficient.

 

[namiasdf]

The efficiency lies in that the time you spend on this build does not translate into time well spent, since you will overproduce DNA, and then spend time trying to deal with that extra DNA.

If you choose to dump those bees... Well where did any of that intended efficiency go? Down the drain with the bees =).

 

[Raga_RBM]

It's interesting what you want to achieve with this though. I haven't really fully imagined on what you're trying to do, but from my experiences, I can always rely on BuildCraft Gates and Pipes with these kind of things.

 

[namiasdf]

Well, the only way you could achieve pulling out a stack is using a combustion engine, or anything with 4-5 MJ/t + to power the wooden pipe. That'll pull out a stack at a time. You can use a gate on the beealyzer to detect the inventory, send red pipe signal to a gate which activates the engine via redstone. Though, I don't know how reliably you can get one pulse.

Also, though I suspect this isnt' a problem. Combustion engines have a cool down after being activated. You could try doing this with a steam engine instead, or the like. Just make sure it pulls a stack at a time.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Well, the only way you could achieve pulling out a stack is using a combustion engine, or anything with 4-5 MJ/t + to power the wooden pipe. That'll pull out a stack at a time. You can use a gate on the beealyzer to detect the inventory, send red pipe signal to a gate which activates the engine via redstone. Though, I don't know how reliably you can get one pulse.

Also, though I suspect this isnt' a problem. Combustion engines have a cool down after being activated. You could try doing this with a steam engine instead, or the like. Just make sure it pulls a stack at a time.

Forestry's Electric engine - with the right upgrade.
Or Redpower's engine.

RP Relay feeding direct into a chest, with a BC gate [detecting inventory] and a state cell
-thus allowing items through the relay, but firing the engine when its backstuffed.

If you start getting more than 27 bee types; use a bigger chest.

 

[weckar]

I experimented with a few things, and I decided that the regulator is the most reliable. Thanks for all the help
-Weck

 

[asb3pe]

I used to analyze all my bees before melting them down into DNA, but after a few play-thru's of different mod packs, I've realized that I always end up with far more bee DNA than I could ever possibly use. Therefore, I stopped analyzing my bees, I just dump them into the Genepool and don't worry about getting double the DNA from them. It's definitely a lot easier and less hassle on automation.