TE & AE Problem?

[Yeraze]

I'm playing in the DW20 pack, and decided to skip straight to Applied energistics for my sorting/storage system. I've got a few hardened energy cells, filled by 3 steam dynamos & 5 magmatic (classic nether+ender tank setup).

However, once I wired it to my little AE system (only a few units, 13 units of power according to the controller), I noticed my magmatic dynamos draining. Using the TE multimeter I see an average of 0 units per tick leaving my main energy cell, but a steady 80 (or whatever I set the input side to) entering the cell. It slowly drains my magmatic's power reserves down to 0, one by one (shouldn't this be evenly distributed?) until about half of them are at 0 then things settle out. The TE Multimeter also claims all my redstone conduits are at 100% saturation (all hardened energy conduits, the 400RF/tick kind).

I'm confused... It looks like the AE system is just sucking up massive amounts of power, but none of the TE tools will show me that (the 0 units average traversing).

Is this a bug? Are you just not supposed to use RF with AE devices? Or am I just grossly misunderstanding what I'm seeing here?

 

[Moasseman]

ME system will eat as much energy as you give to it.

 

[dothrom]

Your conduits feeding the cells will be at full saturation (as you noticed), as you're generating 640RF/t using 8 dynamos, on conduits that only transmit 400rf/t. And no, it won't pull from the cells evenly. I usually only have one cell powering and ME network, and connect any other cells to that one cell.

 

[Yeraze]

But why would the output side of my main cell show 0 energy output but 100% saturation?

I tried putting a smaller energy cell right next to my ME network (hoping it would act as a buffer). It didn't seem to change much of anything. I fear I have some bug in my network consuming all my power. Is there a loss in the Energy conduit itself that might be getting in my way?

 

[Yeraze]

So right now my meager ME network consumes 2.7mJ/t (which at the 10:1 exchange rate is 27 RF/tick, right?).

So when I set the leadstone energy cell right behind my ME controller to input/output 30RF/t, everything is fine.. the Multimeter reports 30/tick coming from my engines to my main hardened cell, keeping it full, but my multimeter reports 0 leaving the hardened cell.. but checking a the back of the leadstone shows 30/tick coming in. I've disconnected everything else...

I'm just getting more confused.

 

[dothrom]

To find the rate of power use, use your meter at the point where the conduit connects to the ME network, not at the output from the cell. At the moment I do not recall if there is still loss in energy conduits, and I can't look that up right now. And yes, the ratio of RF:MJ is 10:1.

As for monitoring output, I don't believe the 'meter scans output from sources. It only monitors distribution from the conduit. But, if you set the output from the cell to 30rf/t, then it will cap out at 30rf/t.
And just to make sure we're on the same page, ME networks are always consuming power. (and note that when you do things with the ME it consumes more than when it was idling).

 

[Yeraze]

Yeah, I know it's always consuming power.. I'm just trying to figure out why an idling ME system is draining 5 magmatic engines one at a time.

I'm starting to think i'm going to have to build an IC2 geothermal and wire that up instead.

 

[dothrom]

I've not done testing at that low of power in a long time, so never noticed. I'll toss it in a testworld this evening and see if I can reproduce the problem. Btw what version of the pack are you using?

 

[Racemol]

Isn't this just the conduits buffer being filled? I would just leave it for an hour or so and check if the energy consumption has stopped / normalized. 2,7MJ is indeed 27RF/t and working fine with TE's dynamo's, no need to go the IC2 route. I think your conduits are just buffering for now, soaking up RF until they are full.

BTW. The multimeter does not measure the output faces of the conduit correctly (or I never understood how it works). Measure the input conduit on your AE controller to see how much it uses (though you can safely assume the 2,7MJ is indeed 27RF/t).

 

[Yeraze]

I've not done testing at that low of power in a long time, so never noticed. I'll toss it in a testworld this evening and see if I can reproduce the problem. Btw what version of the pack are you using?

I'm using the 1.0.25 DW20 pack.

 

[dothrom]

That's a good point, Racemol. I just noticed that Yeraze had stated that the dynamos' storage stops draining at a point.

There's also a buffer in the controller itself.

 

[Yeraze]

Isn't this just the conduits buffer being filled? I would just leave it for an hour or so and check if the energy consumption has stopped / normalized. 2,7MJ is indeed 27RF/t and working fine with TE's dynamo's, no need to go the IC2 route. I think your conduits are just buffering for now, soaking up RF until they are full.

An hour, really? I only have about 64 conduits total in my base right now.. I've got 2 hardened energy cells and a leadstone, all full.. I would think the conduits filled up in seconds.[DOUBLEPOST=1405004433][/DOUBLEPOST]After a bit more experimentation, I have a theory... The hardened energy cell is outputting the required 30RF/tick to drive the ME system, but the cell is configured for input of 400 (I had 5 magmatics, 4*80 = 400, right?). It looks like every time 30RF is taken out, it's sucking 400 from the input side to refill it.. I guess the other 370 is just being lost?

If that's the case, maybe I just need to make a "smarter" setup with some redstone circuitry and buildcraft gates to toggle the inputs on and off (start charging when <50%, stop when full).

 

[Racemol]

I don't think so, that's why TE's conduits have buffers. It (should) takes 30RF from the buffer until there is 400 RF free in the buffer. Then it eats 400RF to fill the buffer again.

A silly question, are all your energy cells connected to the network full? If that is not the case, it will draw max power from anywhere it can until the cell is full. Just for the record

nvm, I now see your post about the cells already bein full.

I'd love to see some screenshots of your setup. Are you able to make some?

 

[Yeraze]

So, some screenshots.. I dug back to expose some of the conduit, and removed all the conduits connecting up the rest of my stuff so that only the power gen & ME system are connected..

- Here's my powergen and the Hardened Energy Cell, configured for 400RFin, 230RF out.

- Here's my ME system, with the LEadstone energy cell configured for 30RF in and out.

- Here's the top magmatic in that picture, holding steady at 26141 RF (the rest are full).

However, if I reconfigure that Leadstone energy cell for 80RF in and out, my Magmatic engines start draining one by one, like it can't keep up with the power requirements.

 

[rhn]

So, some screenshots.. I dug back to expose some of the conduit, and removed all the conduits connecting up the rest of my stuff so that only the power gen & ME system are connected..

View attachment 11865 - Here's my powergen and the Hardened Energy Cell, configured for 400RFin, 230RF out.

View attachment 11866 - Here's my ME system, with the LEadstone energy cell configured for 30RF in and out.

View attachment 11867 - Here's the top magmatic in that picture, holding steady at 26141 RF (the rest are full).

However, if I reconfigure that Leadstone energy cell for 80RF in and out, my Magmatic engines start draining one by one, like it can't keep up with the power requirements.

Dont know if it should matter, but have you tried connecting the Leadstone energy cell to the Controller with a conduit instead of directly interfacing them? Best guess would be something going wrong in the conversion of RF->EA units.

 

[Yeraze]

Dont know if it should matter, but have you tried connecting the Leadstone energy cell to the Controller with a conduit instead of directly interfacing them? Best guess would be something going wrong in the conversion of RF->EA units.

Tried it... No change.. here you can see the full redstone cell consuming 72RF/t and emitting 21RF/t, and my magmatic is steadily draining.

 

[rhn]

View attachment 11868

Tried it... No change.. here you can see the full redstone cell consuming 72RF/t and emitting 21RF/t, and my magmatic is steadily draining.

Ehm are you measuring that 72 RF/t drain on the conduit below the Leadstone cell? Because then you are also measuring the constant standby drain of the nearby Assembly table Lasers I think.

 

[Yeraze]

Ehm are you measuring that 72 RF/t drain on the conduit below the Leadstone cell? Because then you are also measuring the constant standby drain of the nearby Assembly table Lasers I think.

Yes, I am measuring it there (on the conduit connected to the bottom of the Energy Cell), however I've disconnected all the Lasers (I removed the conduit connecting that part of the system).

 

[rhn]

Yes, I am measuring it there (on the conduit connected to the bottom of the Energy Cell), however I've disconnected all the Lasers (I removed the conduit connecting that part of the system).

Hmm ok. You sure you don't have something doing an infinite loop in the ME network? Like exporting something directly back into the network? Each transfer will cost energy, but I don't think it shows up as a constant energy cost.

You could possible test it out by breaking the network connection to anything you are in doubt of and look at the power consumption.

For example if you break the cables so it is just the Controller, drive and access terminal. Does it still consume that much power?

 

[DREVL]

ME system will eat as much energy as you give to it.

Nope. It tells you how much its eating.