Pipe Problems ~ Any suggestions?

[ksbd]

So, I've just gotten into bee breeding, and gone a bit over-the-top with production. I've made a Thermal Expansion and Buildcraft automated processing area where engines charge up 9 cells when energy is needed, but not when they're full, the cells power all my extra bees stuff, bees are auto-analysed, then put into genepools, liquid DNA gets pumped into tesseracts, blahblahblah.

The issue I'm having is I have 9 bee analyzer blocks all with hoppers on the top being fed by tesseracts and golden pipes. When the bee's are analysed, they're pulled out by wooden pipes with iron autarchic OR gates which are set to 'if red pipe signal is on', 'energy pulser'. The wooden pipes go into either cobble or stone pipes with iron autarchic OR gates set to 'if inventory empty', 'red pipe signal is on'. These pipes go into gene pools. The problem is, when I get a lot of bees coming in at once, they all get analysed, then the gates pull them, but they pull too many at once, causing the bees to pop out of the pipes, as the gates don't recognize the inventory isn't empty quickly enough.

I see a few fixes for this:

1) If there were some way to specify on the iron autarchic OR gates that when items in inventory: red pipe signal is off, I reckon this would be the best solution. However, there doesn't seem to be the option to turn the signal off, only on.

2) Use redpower sorting machines, or buffers+filters. However, I am trying to keep this to just a buildcraft and TE build. If I use redpower, I have to incorporate the somewhat ugly (in my opinion) power gen, and blocks OR use filters which would eventually serve as a bottleneck in the future, as only about 1/10th of my actual 'bee plant' is active so far as I haven't discovered all the bees I want to yet, and it would barely keep up with the rate the plant is running at now.

3) Remove the analyzing aspect of the build and just pump bees directly from tesseracts into genepools. God know's I have enough bees coming in to satisfy my Liquid DNA needs. But that'd just feel like I failed, and my ego doesn't allow for this...

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can solve this issue?[DOUBLEPOST=1362592342][/DOUBLEPOST]Actually, as soon as I posted this, I facepalmed. I could use golden gates and set it to if items in inventory, blue pipe signal is on, and then change the gates on the wooden pipes to golden and gates and specify if red pipe wire = on, and if blue pipe wire = off, energy pulser. I'll give this a test to see if it stops the overflow.

 

[ksbd]

And once again, I've made a mistake. If it 's still waiting to read whether there's a bee in the inventory or not, there's not much point adding something else that tests the exact same parameter, as it'll not effect anything.

 

[whythisname]

Another way to deal with overflow (especially if it's only temporary or in small amounts) is to create a small loop of pipes and just have the items stuck in that loop until they can move on. It takes a small amount of space (4 blocks) and it might not look so great, but it's better to have an ugly but functional setup, right?

Other than that I think GT or Redpower item transport networks are the only way, but I know the "I want to do this with BC" feeling

Screen shots can also help us help you.

 

[ksbd]

Okay, so I changed it to and gates next to the genepool for 'if inventory empty' then 'red pipe signal' and the wooden pipes are set to 'if red pipe signal = on and if no items traversing' then 'energy pulser'. That way, if it will never pull more than 2-3 at a time, wait until they're processed, then repeat. If I start getting a bottleneck with larger amounts of bees, I'll just move the and gate next to the genepools and set it to if inv = empty and no items traversing, red signal, therefore, it will draw out more at once, but stop. Maybe 6 at a time, but no more.

 

[Dafuq?]

iron anarchic OR gates

I want this!

 

[ksbd]

Another way to deal with overflow (especially if it's only temporary or in small amounts) is to create a small loop of pipes and just have the items stuck in that loop until they can move on. It takes a small amount of space (4 blocks) and it might not look so great, but it's better to have an ugly but functional setup, right?

Other than that I think GT or Redpower item transport networks are the only way, but I know the "I want to do this with BC" feeling

Screen shots can also help us help you.

Yeah, but loops feel too unreliable at times, and I'd have to add an iron pipe and extend all my machines out by one, which is far too much effort. I think I have it sorted now, but I'll put a screenshot for anyone who may read this looking for similar answers.

 

[ksbd]

I want this!

Haha, yeahhh. I should really re-read my stuff before posting :')