Questions on gates and inventories

[AlwaysGoofingOff]

Ultimate pack, 1.4.7

I'm new to gates and don't fully understand their behavior. I don't understand how they trigger on the different states.

Scenario #1:

I have a barrel of wood and a sawmill 4 blocks away (feeding a boiler). In between is transport pipe with a gate on each end and red pipe wire between. I set the barrel gate to "if red wire on, then pulse". It works fine. My confusion is on the sawmill gate. I have it set to emit a red pipe wire signal if the inventory is not full. Well this seems to only be true when the inventory is empty, not "not full". The end result is that the sawmill empties out, then the gate triggers and emits a signal. The other gate gets the signal and starts extracting wood. As soon as any wood hits the sawmill, the signal turns off. So the sawmill gets about 20 wood to process, chews through it, and then emits the signal again. Repeat.

So this mostly accomplishes what I want - to keep the sawmill busy. But there's inefficiencies in the down time between when the sawmill goes empty and it gets the first wood block. Not a big deal, but I'm mostly just confused on why the gate doesn't seem to operate the way it says. Why does an inventory of 1 block, when it can hold 64, register as "full"?


Scenario #2:

I have a compressor connected to a barrel of plantballs. They are about 5 blocks apart. Trying to do the same thing as scenario #1. But because they are further apart, the signals have a delay in the sense that by the time the first item hits the compressor and the gate registers as "not empty", there's already another 20+ items in the pipe flowing towards it. If the pipe was longer, I'd have a ton of items already "in route" and once they hit the full machine they'd pop out on the ground. Is the answer to loop it back to the original chest? But then only 50% of the items would randomly go into the machine. I guess I could let it run forever but wouldn't that cause lag?


Ultimately I'm trying to use gates to pull items as needed from inventories. But I am running into issues where it pulls too many and spills over, or the gate doesn't seem to be checking the machine's "inventory" properly. Is there a guide or tutorial on how this is used? The concepts seem straightforward but in practice it seems clunky. Most advanced FTB videos I see simply skip BC pipes and just use AE. I'll do that eventually, but I don't like not understanding how to make this work

Thanks!

 

[BlackFire]

Scenario 1: if you set it to "has space in inventory" it might work a bit better. Or you can use a diamond gate and trigger "red pipe wire" even on a specific amount.

Senario 2: is the problem with using gates. There really isn't a way around this, just finding the correct condition that best suits your needs.

 

[AlwaysGoofingOff]

Scenario 1: if you set it to "has space in inventory" it might work a bit better.

I tried that and it registered as False after the amount exceeded 21 items...?

Maybe I'll just skip pipe wire and stick with pipe loops and dumb gates, and then jump to AE.

 

[BlackFire]

I tried that and it registered as False after the amount exceeded 21 items...?

Huh. Weird. That should work, at least the diamond gate solution. But I guess part if the fun is getting creative right?

 

[casilleroatr]

Scenario #2:

I have a compressor connected to a barrel of plantballs. They are about 5 blocks apart. Trying to do the same thing as scenario #1. But because they are further apart, the signals have a delay in the sense that by the time the first item hits the compressor and the gate registers as "not empty", there's already another 20+ items in the pipe flowing towards it. If the pipe was longer, I'd have a ton of items already "in route" and once they hit the full machine they'd pop out on the ground. Is the answer to loop it back to the original chest? But then only 50% of the items would randomly go into the machine. I guess I could let it run forever but wouldn't that cause lag?

I know they are quite expensive but Diamond pipes might be able to help you here. Diamond pipes have the same functionality as insertion pipes. If you place a diamond pipe on the compressor input and have plant balls directed in the right colour then the pipe will attempt to place every plantball it gets into the compressor. However, if it fails because the compressor is full it won't spit them on the floor, instead it will reroute them through any other path other than the one it came from (it might also be that if the other paths are defined by putting items in the colour slots they might not allow anything that isn't in the definition but that shouldn't be a problem in your case I don't think). That path could lead to any overflow you want including more compressors with diamond pipes on them, a chest at the end, or you could loop back into the input chest and the diamond pipes will ensure that you get the distribution you want instead of random.

 

[namiasdf]

You best solution when doing precise timing systems is AE. I know that's an expensive and out of the way solution, but my switch to AE has drastically increased my capabilities in terms of building systems. Combined with BC pipes, etc. the possibilities are endless, in terms of automation.

As for your issue, try other options like "inventory has room". Not empty and has room are technically the same thing, but I feel like has room is more reliable. No particular reason, but that's the option I've been using when designing similar systems to the one you are mentioning.

 

[Zelfana]

Strong or fast clay golems would keep inventories supplied like you want better than the pipe and gate fuss. But if you insist on using pipes the RP2 tubes have better overflow control.

 

[egor66]

The diamond pipe solution should work as it will work as an insertion pipes as mentioned above, but then if there is any chance at all of an overflow you need a loops or at least an overflow chest, for me the best solution is an AE network, start of with one cheap 1k storage & then go 4k for the next 5 after that its not a problem go 64k if ya need, just a pity the insertion pipe is not accessible to you that work fix the problem.

PS its good form when working with gates/pipes to have the shorts distance of pipe work you can & if possible make gold pipes, the items travel faster so less items to render in pipes over time, & with single wooden & a gold pipe system the pipe wire signals & items transfer are as near instant as you can get with pipes.

In the latest versions of BC gates & pipes some of this has been addressed, in other works in newer version pipes & gates work far better & closer to how you want, & with less (item in pipe local render lag).