Sorting Machine Needs Help!

[Beccy Davies]

First off, allow me to explain i don't specifically mean the RedPower sorting machine, i mean my own concoction of Diamond filters sorting machine, And i need some help making it do what i want through the power of the amazing mods contained in the FTB package ^^. (I'm currently using the Yogscraft/cast mod pack, so i have access to all the mods within.)

The Situation
I have a sorting system consisting of diamond pipe(Buildcraft) filters at the moment, all filtering various things into iron chests, which is fine, it all works lovely. However, i've setup an off-site magic (Thaumcraft) site, and i don't fancy the treck back to my main facilities just to collect research materials every 2-3 minutes, so, i changed my system to filter into Ender Chests, and had respective ender chests at the magic site, which worked well until i hit the snag of the limited size of Ender chests.

The Ideal Solution
What i'd really like, is some sort of machine, or mechanic that will allow me to pull out say for example 10, of an item from the Iron chests, into the Ender chests each time the ender chest runs out of that item, so for example if i have Dirt and Cobblestone filtered into an Iron Chest for storage, I'd like something connected to my Ender Chest that can tell if the chest is empty, or has cobble/dirt to pull x amount of that item into the ender chest at the sorting site.

Previous attempts
My first attempt was to filter a 1:1 ratio through the diamond pipes into the Ender + Iron chests, but that still wasn't working, it still meant if i used my only two spider eyes for research, i had to run 1000km back home to get the other two . I have also tried the Build Craft Emerald Pipe, however that thing works like an AND mechanic, so it only pulls items if X and Y are present, which isn't practical, Its not a long list of things i've tried, but i'm still in the process! , I'm currently looking at a RedPower setup to see if theres some machine there that can accomodate me,

Hopefully someone infinatley smarter than me can help me sort this issue, or offer some advice, it would me much appreciated, i am eagerly awaiting starting my magical studies!

(Also many appologies if this thread was created in the wrong place, this is my first post here, sad that its a cry for help too!)
B.D.

 

[giesergast]

i have an idea how to fix it so you need a redpower sorting machine and a gate and power and some red alloy wire and maybve something else
so what you do is you set an sorting machine between the iron chest and the enderchest on the only work on redstone mode put 10 of the item you want in there then you make a cobblesone structure pipe (or normal one) and make it say :if inventory empty redstone signal on just then do a red alloy wire and connect it to the sorting machine and your done

i hope this helps

 

[Trunks9809]

Few suggestions, some I'm not totally sure of, due to it being a while\being at work and unable to test:

1. I *think* you can use a Retriever to grab items from attached inventory on a redstone pulse. You'd need to provide some blutricity to the retrievers, and the redstone pulse could be achieved using a sandstone pipe on the enderchest with a gate, either autarchic set to Inventory Empty -> Energy Pulser or a normal gate connected to a timer or the like set to Inventory Empty -> Redstone Off

2. You can do the same as above with a Filter instead of a Retriever. You might even be able to set it to pull a certain number of each item. Again, sandstone pipe with a gate, as above.

3. Clay (I think) Golems. You can set them to keep a certain number of iems in the inventory they're attached to, and they'll take from an indicated marked inventory.

 

[Beccy Davies]

I'll give your suggestion a try, and i'm personally looking into managers at the moment, thinking a manager on the iron chest connected to a manager on the ender chest would work, with the one the ender side asking to keep say 10x whatever item in the ender chest

 

[Trunks9809]

Managers scare me, so good luck! I've always loved my ikkle golem dudes, lol.

Its a shame that the yogs pack doesn't have tubestuff - a retrievulator hooked up to a retrieve does exactly what you're asking for.

 

[giesergast]

clay golems obviously golems are the best solution for everything and you tell it to me 2 times in one day i always forget them

 

[casilleroatr]

I think if you have your iron chest and ender chest with two blocks between them you can use buildcraft gates to control the flow. If you have your iron chest with a wooden pipe on it connected to an the ender chest via either stone, cobble or gold pipe. You can slap buildcraft gates and pipe wire on the pipes which with a bit of configuration might be able to do what you want. Having said that you might still get the problem if it pulling saplings if all you need are spider eyes unless if there is some awesome mechanic with the emerald pipe.

One of the golems definately has the ability to keep an inventory stocked of items.

There might also be a computercraft solution but I am not sure about that. I have been thinking of one that would work if there was someway for a turtle to detect what was in a particular slot in another inventory. I am hoping there is a nice solution within miscperipherals.
Sorry if your pack doesn't have computercraft and i just waffled