Looking for a good Auto Maceration and Smelting Line.

[iiRag3Kniif3]

Basically I'm designing my base but I can't think of a good design for a maceration then furnace line, to completely automate maceration then going directly into smelting. Hoping to use Buildcraft piping, IC2 works to slow with how fast my machines are. And I'd prefer if it was pretty compact.

Let me know and pleae post some pictures.

Thanks,
[SC]Rage

 

[Guswut]

Item tesseract from sorting system -> hopper -> hopper -> macerator with a few overclocker upgrades -> hopper -> hopper -> electro furnace -> item tesseract into sorting system.

Pull out from the macerator and electro furnace using a wooden pipe with a redstone engine, or if that is not powerful enough, an electrical engine.

 

[iiRag3Kniif3]

Item tesseract from sorting system -> hopper -> hopper -> macerator with a few overclocker upgrades -> hopper -> hopper -> electro furnace -> item tesseract into sorting system.

Pull out from the macerator and electro furnace using a wooden pipe with a redstone engine, or if that is not powerful enough, an electrical engine.

Pics?

 

[Guswut]

Pics?

Sure:

 

[iiRag3Kniif3]

Sure:

...I meant In game pictures...

 

[Guswut]

...I meant In game pictures...

Instead of creating a custom texture pack using a picture of my post, I'll skip the work of that and post this so you can simulate the result for yourself.

If you do not understand what I've suggested, you should review some of the basics of buildcraft (wooden pipes, redstone engines), IC2 (macerators, electro furnaces), and then come back and review my post.

Good luck!

 

[iiRag3Kniif3]

Instead of creating a custom texture pack using a picture of my post, I'll skip the work of that and post this so you can simulate the result for yourself.

If you do not understand what I've suggested, you should review some of the basics of buildcraft (wooden pipes, redstone engines), IC2 (macerators, electro furnaces), and then come back and review my post.

Good luck!

I understand it but It's just easier to see it from in game pictures...

 

[Guswut]

I understand it but It's just easier to see it from in game pictures...

Alrighty:

Hopefully those give you the ideas you need. Good luck!

 

[KirinDave]

Basically I'm designing my base but I can't think of a good design for a maceration then furnace line, to completely automate maceration then going directly into smelting. Hoping to use Buildcraft piping, IC2 works to slow with how fast my machines are.

What the heck does the bolded part mean? IC2 can net the fastest machines by far. Between Advanced Machines and huge investments into IC2 upgrades, nothing else even comes close.

And it depends which pack you're using and what mods are available. The new king of efficiency in ore processing lines is dedicated Applied Energistics networks, but only people playing Ultimate can do that (and you really are rewarded for doing hand mining with this). More details, please.

And I'd prefer if it was pretty compact.

AFAIK in the packs we use, the very very most compact builds use Gregtech Automated machines and factorization routers to do their jobs, with occasional pipes thrown in just for route-arounds. The second most compact system use similar principles with Thermal Expansion machines, but these require a lot more external power lines (GT automated machines can carry power forward and have substantial internal buffers suitable for use with LV pipelines). All of them can be rendered more efficient by using Applied Energistics (although AE requires substantially cleverer builds; buildcraft makes it positively easy by comparison).

Of course, all that assumes you aren't using Gregtech advanced machines (igrinder, ibfurnace, etc) for everything (which I think most people would, given have a chance; the yields are always better and often as good as a fortune III pick with the best outcome). Those are the toughest to automate.

 

[iiRag3Kniif3]

What the heck does the bolded part mean? IC2 can net the fastest machines by far. Between Advanced Machines and huge investments into IC2 upgrades, nothing else even comes close.

And it depends which pack you're using and what mods are available. The new king of efficiency in ore processing lines is dedicated Applied Energistics networks, but only people playing Ultimate can do that (and you really are rewarded for doing hand mining with this). More details, please.



AFAIK in the packs we use, the very very most compact builds use Gregtech Automated machines and factorization routers to do their jobs, with occasional pipes thrown in just for route-arounds. The second most compact system use similar principles with Thermal Expansion machines, but these require a lot more external power lines (GT automated machines can carry power forward and have substantial internal buffers suitable for use with LV pipelines). All of them can be rendered more efficient by using Applied Energistics (although AE requires substantially cleverer builds; buildcraft makes it positively easy by comparison).

Of course, all that assumes you aren't using Gregtech advanced machines (igrinder, ibfurnace, etc) for everything (which I think most people would, given have a chance; the yields are always better and often as good as a fortune III pick with the best outcome). Those are the toughest to automate.

Maybe I'm wrong with the build craft pipes but I don't like my items popping out if my machines are full just no good, but I found/made a system that seems to work with 8 over clocked 3 energy and 2 transformer upgrades. I have both gregtech machines and IC machines.

 

[KirinDave]

Maybe I'm wrong with the build craft pipes but I don't like my items popping out if my machines are full just no good,

In general the solution to this is to use a pair of iron gates and pipe wire connected by gold pipe, the one on the sending side needs to be an Autarchic AND gate. You use a condition like "inventory empty" on the receiving side to light up a pipe wire, then send that line back over to your sender. The sender should either energy pulse (or emit a redstone signal for a redstone engine if ender pearls are tough to get) when it detects the pipe wire AND there is stuff to send.

The secret to using buildcraft pipe this way is to use gold pipes for long runs because this minimizes transit time; therefore minimizing the latency in your control gates which minimizes the chance that things will arrive after the machine is full.

 

[varkarrus]

You can also use hoppers

 

[whythisname]

You might also want to look at the TE Induction Smelter, it might not have the best yields (I think similar to the TE Pulverizer if you use the Rich Slag mechanic) but it does pulverizing and smelting in 1 step at quite a high speed in a single block.

The only issue is that it won't process things like Silk Touched Redstone/Lapis/Diamond/etc. So you might need a process line for those still (which is of course a big drawback), but for anything coming out of automated miners they're fine (because afaik there are no automated miners with Silk Touch).

In terms of yield I don't think anything can match GregTech's Industrial Grinder.

 

[Guswut]

I know it's not IC2 but...
Input chest > Wooden pipe with redstone engine or gate > stone pipes > Hopper > Pulverizer - TE > Furnace - TE > stone pipes > Output chest
Cool thing about this is it's compact and if you want more speed just add another line of pulverizer to furnace to your existing pipe network.

For a single pulverizer/furnace setup, you don't need the pipes, which is really good to know as a single hopper on each works wonders with TE's auto output system.

 

[Vaygrim]

I find the Thermal Expansion machines to be the most effective at putting up a simple and streamlined "auto-processing line", specifically because of their features allowing them to auto-forward processed products to the next machine out of specified ports. Combining these with some well placed hoppers and it really works out well. Stick an Ender Chest on the end that everything dumps into , and you can have that same Ender Chest as your sorting system "Dump Chest". (This is precisely what I do.)

Yes.. Thermal Expansion machines are not as fast as IC2 machines, but they sure are a lot easier to setup. You also do not have to use Buildcraft Pipes so things like lost and dropped items or 'pipe lag' are not as much of a factor.

 

[KirinDave]

I find the Thermal Expansion machines to be the most effective at putting up a simple and streamlined "auto-processing line", specifically because of their features allowing them to auto-forward processed products to the next machine out of specified ports. Combining these with some well placed hoppers and it really works out well. Stick an Ender Chest on the end that everything dumps into , and you can have that same Ender Chest as your sorting system "Dump Chest". (This is precisely what I do.)

Just to note: this is not unique to Thermal Expansion. TE just gives you access to it very early. Gregtech now includes automated machines that are accessible extremely early (no blast furnace for advanced metals like steel or aluminium required) that have the same properties and allow you to not run separate power lines. They're pretty good, although they're exactly as slow as the TE variety. GT also adds the most sophisticated automation tools for factories at the high level; you can actually automate complex nuclear reactor setups with its machines.

It's possible to fit a basic ore doubling and rubber extraction setup that empties into a chest into a 4x4x2 including a batbox and one power generation box. The bottom layer is processing and an output chest, the top layer is a hopper, a batbox, generator and one piece of wire. To have a hopper on the automated extractor you'd need to add another block, but early on that's okay.

There is sort of an interesting tension in automation right now. It used to be that automation was simple and high-tier. Now some basic tricks like inventory forwarding and configurable output sidedness are becoming the Norm because at the end of the day Buildcraft makes that stuff crazy cheap at the cost of potentially borking your server with spilled entities. Rather than risk that, everyone says, "Fine, let's just build RP2-like functionality in without the awful pseudo-entity-lag that RP2 introduces."

 

[Hitmaniac]

Instead of a redstone engine, invest in Autarcthic gates. They seem a little bit complicated at first but they save so much space and are better than regular redstone engines. Just put the gate on the wooden pipe and put: "Redstone single off = Energy Pulser". This means that if there is no redstone single it will pull out items. As long as you don't add a redstone single it will pull out all the time.

 

[Vaygrim]

Unfortunately I know very little about GregTech, so I can only pitch in useful comments on Thermal Expansion or IC / RP.

 

[varkarrus]

I think regular IC and Buildcraft machines should have the same input output configuration tab as thermal expansion. That'd be awesome.

 

[Vaygrim]

I think Thermal Expansion should add a new machine: The Ice Cream Extruder.
Then all will be right with the world.