Retrieve a limited amout of items from ME Network

[Skeggiold]

Hi,

I have recently set up an ME Network in my base, and the storage is working fine. However, I wanted to expand this with an ender chest in which I want a stack of apples and torches at all times. 1 stack of each, no more, no less. Whenever that stack is depleted, it should be refilled.
So far, whatever I do it keeps pumping in items, and it isn't stopping at 1 stack. Is there any way to achieve this?

 

[Loufmier]

try tinkering with storage bus, if doesnt work LP is the way.

 

[kheeler]

One way to make this work is to use a sub-network with a storage bus applied to your ender chest. Then use level emitters from the sub-network to control exporters from your main network pointing to an Interface belonging to your sub-network.

 

[Loufmier]

One way to make this work is to use a sub-network with a storage bus applied to your ender chest. Then use level emitters from the sub-network to control exporters from your main network pointing to an Interface belonging to your sub-network.

which is a complete mess, and that`s why LP is a better solution.

 

[AlanEsh]

Or fill all but two slots of the chest with dirt. Then pull out apples and torches half a stack at a time

 

[Runo]

One way to make this work is to use a sub-network with a storage bus applied to your ender chest. Then use level emitters from the sub-network to control exporters from your main network pointing to an Interface belonging to your sub-network.

I think you can just use redstone signals detecting item count in the chest, rather than being forced to use a sub-net. Export buses can be controlled by redstone period, it doesn't have to be the ME level emitter. Youd need two buses though and two redstone signals to do this.

Granted I don't know how you'd detect the item count in the chest without a complicated counter setup, but I'm a redstone noob. Maybe someone else here knows a good, cheap, compact way to detect inventory counts in a chest and emit a redstone signal.

 

[Omicron]

Railcraft item unloaders can keep an exact amount of items in an adjacent inventory. Downside: they can only unload from a chest cart, so if you use this system it's going to be a bit unwieldly. But you could just hide it in some hole and never worry about it again.

AE system -> precision export bus -> item loader over a -> chest cart on a circular track passing over an -> item unloader adjacent to your -> ender chest.

You'll want to insert dirt into 7 of the 9 stacks of the item loader's buffer, so there is only room for one stack of apples and one stack of torches. Configure it to load less than a full stack of each apples and torches into the cart; that way it won't remove the entire stack from the loader's buffer and cause the AE network to fill up the buffer slots with only one of the two items. Since the cart is continually cycling, it'll simply use multiple trips to refill the ender chest. The dirt you're using to fill the buffer slots should never be loaded into the cart since you already configured the loader to load only a specific amount of only apples and torches.

Set the export bus to stack transfer mode.

Set the item unloader's filter to one stack of each apples and torches. Set it to "stock" mode.

One advantage of this setup is that you can do not only two, but up to 8 individual items (loader and unloader could handle 9, but the export bus can do only 8). So if you ever want to keep additional items in the ender chest, you just need to add them to the loader/unloader filters, free up a buffer slot in the loader for them, and add them to the export bus.

I am using such a system to keep a group of 5 nuclear reactors stocked, each of which requires a different combination of specific cells. The cart collects dual uranium, quad uranium, dual plutonium, quad thorium, single thorium and depleted isotope cells produced on demand in my AE system, and distributes exacly one cycle refill worth to each reactor, with each unloader specifiying exactly which type of cell is needed. It's a bit silly to see a minecart drive eternal circles in the middle of a group of nukes, but it works extremely well.

 

[Skeggiold]

As an update to this thread. In the end I decided to go for the subnetwork, it's not the ideal solution (since I have to build more stuff to the network, if I choose to extend the number of different items in my ender chest), but it works and I didn't have to install another mod for it (LogiPipes).

However, LogiPipes is definitely the mod that does exactly what I want, and in a clean and easy way. Should I ever create a new multiplayer world, I'll definitely include this mod (or get an ftb pack that includes it).

Finally, although the railcart solution might work, it does seem a bit silly

Thank you all for your solutions. If anyone runs in the same problem, the solution I used is similar to that explained here (http://ae-mod.info/Subnetworks/Supplier/)

 

[Siro]

You seem to have found your solution, however, routers from factorization and item card'd force pipes from dartcraft can (I think) also do this. With routers the downside is you'll want one router for each slot you're specifying (a router can insert to a specific slot), the upside is you can also use this to extract from a specific slot in order to use an ender chest bidirectionally for item stocking, removal of excess, or automatic crafting or recharging of items. I haven't delved deeply into using item cards in dart craft yet, but they seem as versatile or at least almost as versatile as logistics pipes in their utility (which I have also not delved deeply into yet).