RP Pipes, Forestry and Auto-Crafting

[Vincalota]

It is entirely possible that I'm just doing something wrong as I've just started learning RP today, but I have a question and a suggestion.

I'm trying to set up an automated farm (bog & arboretum) to fuel some peat engines. I have the peat engines hooked up to some auto crafting tables to make compost and then humus, and then another table set up to make bog earth. My problem is this: I have both the bog and the tree farm hooked up to the same pipes as I thought initially that the dirt from the bog would be split evenly between the 2 crafting machines that use them; but what's happening is that all of it is getting sucked into the bog earth autocrafter.

Further, instead of the dirt that goes into the [bog earth] machine being split evenly between the 4 slots that need dirt, it's all going into the top dirt slot... same is happening with the sand from the tree farm and the ash from the peat engines in the other crafting tables (and it doesn't happen with BC).

I was initially using BC pipes, but couldn't find a way to divy up the dirt that was coming out of the bog to both machines evenly... it seems like it just randomizes which way it goes should it come to a split (also tried putting a diamond pipe in there with dirt on 2 exists, still not completely even).

So my question... is there any way to have like a percentage pipe? Like, 30% of item A will go through one slot, while the remaining 70% goes through another? Am I just doing it wrong? And is there any way to fix what's going on with the auto crafters with items being put into one slot instead of distributed?

Also, I apologize if this is in the wrong section... not sure which subforum to put this on.


Edit: Also just noticed that the pipes are putting the bog earth into the dirt section instead of where it should be going.

 

[trunksbomb]

First off, Redpower uses tubes- not pipes.

Redpower doesn't play well with auto crafting tables. There's even a mod out there solely for making this happen for this very reason.

The reason there's no randomness in the tubes (all going to one location)- tubes are smart. They go to the closest valid destination. So your first table is closer than the second- everything goes there.

Redpower does, however, work with the Factorization mod's Packet crafting. It will cost you paper, but that won't be a problem since you have a peat bog.. just route one of your engines to a cane farm (or do it the old fashioned vanilla way). It'll require a few extra steps, but you could use tubes only instead of introducing BC pipes into the system, which like to pop your items out if a invalid destination is reached.

Off the top of my head, there's probably a few ways to do it.. you should be able to put a regulator inline to control stack size as the dirt travels through the tubes. I don't know off the top of my head how much dirt is required for humus and how much for bog earth, but let's say it's 4 and 8. You'll want to set the regulator to only output stacks of 12 dirt. Once the 12 dirt accumulates in the regulator, it spits it out into the tube network. After the regulator, you'll want two filters. One set to only accept 4 dirt, the other to accept 8. The stack of 12 dirt will stop at the first filter, 4 will go through and the other 8 will bounce back and look for another valid destination- the next filter, which is set to accept 8 dirt.

You could do it with a sorting machine, I believe. Same general concept.. 4 dirt in one column, 8 in the other. give each one a separate color so they go to the proper place.

Or managers, but that's overkill. One manager for each crafting thing. Have one manager set to keep 4 dirt (and sand, and fertilizer, etc) stocked.. basically enough for one recipe. Once it's stocked, items will move on to the next manager to be filled. Again, managers are overkill.. and a pain to build in survival.

I'm really tired so sorry if this didn't make much sense.

 

[ratchet freak]

for the packetmakers, paper (&partial packets) goes in the bottom resources go in the top and result goes out the side (this will auto-pulse a transposer attached to pull it out)

when you set the shape the resource should take it will remember it even when you are not looking in it, this allows you to make a line where the first maker has the corners highlighted the next one has the sides highlighted and the last one has the center highlighted with different colors on the input pipes for a sorting machine to output to (don't forget the paper to the first one)

the stamper takes the packet in the bottom and result out the side, this will also auto pulse but if you use a recipe that leaves part of it's recipe in the grid (like an empty bucket for bog earth) that will also need to be pumped out I suggest a pulsing filter or wooden pipe with engine

 

[Golrith]

Don't feed materials directly into the autocrafting table. Place a chest next to it, and feed the chest. The ACT will pull the materials it needs from the chest. Then wooden pipe it out into a relay so it goes back into the RP tubes.
One chest can then have multiple ACTs against them.

 

[Vincalota]

Don't feed materials directly into the autocrafting table. Place a chest next to it, and feed the chest. The ACT will pull the materials it needs from the chest. Then wooden pipe it out into a relay so it goes back into the RP tubes.
One chest can then have multiple ACTs against them.

Ahhh, that's a really good idea! Would really reduce piping clutter as well.

 

[Abdiel]

Don't feed materials directly into the autocrafting table. Place a chest next to it, and feed the chest. The ACT will pull the materials it needs from the chest. Then wooden pipe it out into a relay so it goes back into the RP tubes.
One chest can then have multiple ACTs against them.

And just for completeness's sake, one ACT can pull items from multiple chests simultaneously.

Whoever suggested sorting machines/managers for splitting items evenly: BOO. If the distance in tubes from wherever you're pumping items from to two (or more) destinations is equal, the tubes will split passing items evenly in a round-robin fashion. No machines needed.