RF energy network question

[3nd3r w1gg1n]

I'm trying to figure out how to do regulate my energy usage but I am struggling. I don't like personally just overproducing energy for it to dissipate uselessly, so what I am looking for ideally is a "dense" mode for redstone energy conduits.

Basically if I am producing 1280 rf/t and spending some of that on the consistent expenses (tree farms and ore processing for example) I want to send the excess to an mfr laser. I know that the laser would be underperforming but I'm not really worried about that because the goal is to just not waste energy.

So I want to keep all my energy cells full and all my machines running at full speed first, and only then send it to the laser.

There might be an easy way to do this? What is it?

 

[Omicron]

You can use an energy cell as a throughput throttle via the internal settings. You'll need to figure out how much you'll allow through to the laser depending on your setup, but after that it's only a matter of setting that number in the GUI.

Of course, it might work even without that. Conduits split evenly, so you could have 50% going to the laser and 50% to your energy cells. Or if you hooked up 3 energy cells, then each of them would receive 25% and the laser would receive 25%. If the cells fill up and can't accept any more, then the energy will go to the laser because it's the only path for it to go.

Don't overthink the RF system too much. It basically has no mechanics whatsoever, beyond the fact that energy is split evenly until destinations start filling up. You simply plop the conduits down and it works, no need to invest any engineering work.

 

[3nd3r w1gg1n]

Yeah throttling was what I landed on myself. The thing I didn't like about that was that whenever I added pieces to my system I would have to manually recalibrate. Plus all the pieces that are only used once in a while would screw it up unless I build in a little overproduction anyway..

I got as far as saying I could set up multiple throttled energy cells to each laser charger. If I monitor some of the key cells in the system using computercraft, then I could in theory start turning off the laser chargers cells in sequence when they start draining. (I'd have to do a bit of research but I'm pretty sure you can wrap energy cells and accomplish this?) But at that point I decided I had gone to far just for some delusions of efficiency when I could just produce moar powa.

So I figured I'd drop it in here to the people that are more clever then me. (Plus a part of said hey maybe kinglemming would see it and say brilliant idea, we`re adding vacuum/dense functionality upgrading to fluiducts and conduits)

 

[MigukNamja]

You may want to look at Ender IO. The capacitor bank has configurable high and low water marks. You could, for instance, set the lower-water mark to 25% and the high water mark to 75%. When it reaches 75%, it will emit a redstone signal which will turn your MFR laser on or otherwise turn on a TE3 Energy Cell (which will turn on the MFR laser). When it drops to 25%, it shuts the MFR laser off (or its TE3 Energy cell off).

You would need to put the Ender IO capacitor bank between your power production and your power consumers. In other words, you could put the Ender IO capacitor bank(s) directly on your engines (power producers).

You can connect as many Ender IO capacitor banks as you would like. Also note the latest versions of Ender IO fully support MJ and RF. You can also run Ender IO energy-carrying conduits and Ender IO redstone signal conduits in the same block/bundle.

Another idea : slap a TE3 energy cell directly on (attached to) the Ender IO capacitor bank(s) and set its control to redstone *high* enabled (the right-most of the 3 options). It will then only output power when the Ender IO capacitor bank(s) reach their high-water mark.

 

[3nd3r w1gg1n]

So after seeing a post by Jaded on another thread I put this together and figured I would post it in case someone else has a similar question.

http://imgur.com/QFv448X

The resonant cell receives power from my RF network, and sends it to all the hardened energy cells. The comparator reads the power level in the first cell and sends out an analog redstone signal.

All the hardened cells are configured to output 300 RF/t when signal is high. I only use the 7 in the front in the throttle system, so the back 2 cells and the 4th Precharger is always on.

I dont produce enough power to fully power the Laser Drill, so depending on how much power im using elsewhere at any given time, the system will self regulate the Drill so that it doesnt hog the power.