Transfer Nodes

[TheAwesomater]

Hey people,
I have a couple of questions about extra utilities transfer nodes since they don't seem to get used much:

Will a max speed node keep up with a fertilised treefarm or will I need a buffer?
How does routing work ie - do the nodes target the closest inventory first or do they just randomly choose?
How does the one way functionality work for these pipes with the black lines, and also the colours for sorting?
Finally, is there a limit for the amount of energy/liquid that can go through/enter a pipe?

Thank you if you have read this post and put up with my disjointed thoughts for long enough to reply

Edit: Buffer is useful but not entirely necessary
Nodes target closest inventory but choose randomly at forks
Black lines = one way, colour is non connect mode
No limits but time delay while inventories are found

 

[Tristam Izumi]

It should be able to keep up, but it's still a good idea to have the MFR harvester output to a chest (which is what I assume you're referring to), and have the transfer node pull from there, just because it produces multiple types of items.

It routes to the nearest inventory; you can use filters to change routes.

There's some good Spotlights out there on Extra Utils, and DireWolf20 uses them almost exclusively in his LPs, so they're worth a watch to see how he sets up automation and sorting using them.

Not sure on the upper limit, but with upgrades, they can move liquids amazingly quickly.

 

[Juanitierno]

It routes to the nearest inventory; you can use filters to change routes.

Thats not entirely correct. They will drop the item in the closest inventory along the path that has space, but if there are forks in the pipes it will choose randomly.

It basically examines a path from transfer node to end, choosing randomly at forks, and dropping the items in the first place it encounters, if it finds no available spot it will backtrack to the closest fork and choose another route, and so on until it has found an inv.

 

[TheAwesomater]

Ok thanks for the advice.
Just to check, do transfer nodes carry energy and if so which forms?
It seems interesting how they find inventories, they seem the perfect replacement for red power tubes and they don't lag .

 

[MigukNamja]

Ok thanks for the advice.
Just to check, do transfer nodes carry energy and if so which forms?
It seems interesting how they find inventories, they seem the perfect replacement for red power tubes and they don't lag .

AFAIK, no. Just liquids and items. And, yes, they are very good for liquids and items.

Update : I was happily wrong. They apparently *can* support power. Please see casilleroatr's post below.

 

[casilleroatr]

They can also carry mj (may have changed to redstone flux in1.6). There is a special power node which acts like a tiny redstone energy cell that can push its charge through pipes.You can power them directly using redstone energy conduits and probably other MJ pipes in 1.5. Behaviour is probably very similar in 1.6 although I haven't tested it myself yet. They also accept upgrades.

 

[MigukNamja]

They can also carry mj (may have changed to redstone flux in1.6). There is a special power node which acts like a tiny redstone energy cell that can push its charge through pipes.You can power them directly using redstone energy conduits and probably other MJ pipes in 1.5. Behaviour is probably very similar in 1.6 although I haven't tested it myself yet. They also accept upgrades.

Wow ! Now this, I did not know. I will update/correct my post above.

 

[casilleroatr]

Wow ! Now this, I did not know. I will update/correct my post above.

In Dire's original spotlight of the show he used the cyclic assembler from TE to make a recipe that required water as well and he demonstrated how everything that the machine needed could be supplied from just one side. In my current 1.5 world I am using them to supply a bank of carpenters that I am using to make crates and crate up a couple of things from my farm. I was using logipipes for the items but the extra utilities pipes worked perfectly for everything else.

 

[TheAwesomater]

So could I output directly from an energy cell?

I did in face find a page on the energy transfer nodes, http://ftbwiki.org/Transfer_Node_(Energy).

It said there was a delay when transferring power. Does that mean that to power an MFR farm constantly I need a buffer at the farm end or not?

Anyway, thank you very much for all the replies on the thread, they have been very useful to me!

 

[casilleroatr]

So could I output directly from an energy cell?

I did in face find a page on the energy transfer nodes, http://ftbwiki.org/Transfer_Node_(Energy).

It said there was a delay when transferring power. Does that mean that to power an MFR farm constantly I need a buffer at the farm end or not?

Anyway, thank you very much for all the replies on the thread, they have been very useful to me!

In 1.5 you could output into an energy transfer node direct from a REC. I didn't think you could but I have just tested right now whether you could use RECs to output directly into these nodes in 1.6 and it turns out that you can do this. It drains one Redstone flux unit every couple of ticks though (I never tested if it had continuous drain in 1.5 I'm afraid).

The buffers on the nodes are reasonably large (4000mj in 1.6 but I think it was 8000 in 1.5). Therefore you probably don't need a REC buffer adjacent to each one. Better, imho, to have a single REC act as a buffer between your generators and as many transfer nodes as you like and make the connections with conduits. It will probably turn out cheaper and so long as you don't put a huge strain on the system(I don't know how many MFR farms would start to outdemand this system, lets say 4). MFR machines also contain a buffer so your machines should rarely, if ever, run out of juice. I propose this as a general rule of thumb. If a single REC could power x machines using just conduits to power them, then you will also be able to power x machines using 1 REC and x transfer nodes. The problem you may encounter, which you touched upon in your question is the rate of transfer.

Energy transfer nodes follow the same logic as the other types of transfer node. They have a buffer that is constantly attempting to fill itself. Meanwhile they are searching the network. Lets say it takes 100 ticks to find a valid energy acceptor. In that 100 ticks it filled its buffer to 5000MJ. Upon finding the valid acceptor it will attempt to transfer energy based on a few rules*. If there is any remainder it will hold on to it (and the node will still keep trying to top it off) and it will look for the next valid acceptor until the whole network has been searched and then it starts again. You don't get a continuous trickle of energy, but providing the supply meets demand and the network isn't enourmous without sufficient speed upgrades (leading to longer search times) a machines internal buffer is unlikely to be emptied I reckon.

*I made a mistake in my original post that was corrected by Steel below. I said that the node will attempt to transfer as much energy as it can. This is not always true. If the node still has a portion of the network to search after this particular acceptor it will transfer at most half of its internal buffer. As a result you can be assured that a machine at the end of the line will get at least some energy. Thanks Steel for the correction.

 

[Steel]

In 1.5 you could output into an energy transfer node direct from a REC. I didn't think you could but I have just tested right now whether you could use RECs to output directly into these nodes in 1.6 and it turns out that you can do this. It drains one Redstone flux unit every couple of ticks though (I never tested if it had continuous drain in 1.5 I'm afraid).

The buffers on the nodes are reasonably large (4000mj in 1.6 but I think it was 8000 in 1.5). Therefore you probably don't need a REC buffer adjacent to each one. Better, imho, to have a single REC act as a buffer between your generators and as many transfer nodes as you like and make the connections with conduits. It will probably turn out cheaper and so long as you don't put a huge strain on the system(I don't know how many MFR farms would start to outdemand this system, lets say 4). MFR machines also contain a buffer so your machines should rarely, if ever, run out of juice. I propose this as a general rule of thumb. If a single REC could power x machines using just conduits to power them, then you will also be able to power x machines using 1 REC and x transfer nodes. The problem you may encounter, which you touched upon in your question is the rate of transfer.

Energy transfer nodes follow the same logic as the other types of transfer node. They have a buffer that is constantly attempting to fill itself. Meanwhile they are searching the network. Lets say it takes 100 ticks to find a valid energy acceptor. In that 100 ticks it filled its buffer to 5000MJ. Upon finding the valid acceptor it will attempt to transfer as much MJ that will fit into it. If there is any remainder it will hold on to it (and the node will still keep trying to top it off) and it will look for the next valid acceptor until the whole network has been searched and then it starts again. You don't get a continuous trickle of energy, but providing the supply meets demand and the network isn't enourmous without sufficient speed upgrades (leading to longer search times) a machines internal buffer is unlikely to be emptied I reckon.

Small correction for the way energy/liquid transfer works. When a valid inventory is found, if there is additional search path remaining, only half of the current inventory is dumped. So this means that if you have a chain of devices hooked up in series, they will each receive power on every pass, but the ones at the end will receive substantially less at the start. Once buffers fill though, the energy node should be able to just top off destinations, and keep everything filled.

DW20 uses this with liquid nodes when he sets up his combustion engines, so that they all get a bit of initial fuel at the beginning of the process.

 

[casilleroatr]

Small correction for the way energy/liquid transfer works. When a valid inventory is found, if there is additional search path remaining, only half of the current inventory is dumped. So this means that if you have a chain of devices hooked up in series, they will each receive power on every pass, but the ones at the end will receive substantially less at the start. Once buffers fill though, the energy node should be able to just top off destinations, and keep everything filled.

DW20 uses this with liquid nodes when he sets up his combustion engines, so that they all get a bit of initial fuel at the beginning of the process.

Cheers, you are right. I will correct my post.

 

[TheAwesomater]

Ok thank you everyone for the advice, now to get to work building my farm and working out how to screenshot minecraft to show you guys the 'thing' in practice

 

[casilleroatr]

Ok thank you everyone for the advice, now to get to work building my farm and working out how to screenshot minecraft to show you guys the 'thing' in practice

Press F2 and the pictures appear in a screenshots folder in your instance folder. The same folder is used on every world made in that instance even if the world is deleted. If you press F1 you can toggle your HUD so that your screenshots are less cluttered.

 

[TheAwesomater]

OK, will hopefully have some testing pictures by the end of this weekend

 

[TheAwesomater]

Ok people, test world picture up at http://imgur.com/a/K0QDZ. I apologise in advance for bad screenshoting/uploading/imguring etc.

 

[Darkone84]

Man I really need to learn more about these Transfer Nodes. I only used them a little bit take out of my railcraft tank into the tesserack.

I liked the fact I could do this all whithin one block unlike the liquiducts which need 2 blocks (1.5.2).

I have seen so many people using the liquid transfer nodes on water without the need of a pump.

 

[TheAwesomater]

Yeah these are really good for one block connections and for basic piping, however when you create complex systems with them you need to be careful with routing.