Trying to integrate TC Smeltery into AE Autocrafting

[PoisonWolf]

Hi folks,

So I've been integrating everything into my AE setup and the smeltery is one last piece that I would like to integrate. Right now, because of how the plates for the metals are set up, it seems like I will need a smeltery for EACH plate I'd like to automate as there does not seem to be a way to extract the plate from the casting slot once it is placed down. I can't have multiple outputs for a single smeltery either, because piping the metal to the correct casting slot would be extremely difficult. Getting the items to the controller is simple enough.

In terms of getting the output, it seems that the only way to do it would be via a Redstone clock. Does anyone know if many redstone clocks would lag the server?

So far, if there is a better way of doing this, I'd definitely would like to hear it, as the thought of needing a tower of 15+ sets of independent smelteries is somewhat crazy. Lol. I hope that there is an easier way to do this before I start on it!

 

[PhilHibbs]

You don't need a smeltery per plate, surely you can have a faucet above a plate and apply a redstone signal to the faucet to output the metal to the plate, and have as many casting tables per smeltery as you can physically fit? And you don't have to have the casting tables on a smeltery, you can pour from tanks onto them. Direwolf20 built a computer controlled casting table with selectable metals in his FC1 series. You could do something similar with BC gates to detect liquids.

Oh, I see the problem, you want to order a part from AE and have it smelted and cast automatically - applying a redstone signal to the correct faucet isn't an option. Hm, tricky.

I wonder if you could use a dummy item as a signal - tell it that one cobalt and one dirt makes a sword blade, and pass the signal item through a set of diamond pipes and a bank of "item in pipe" gates to signal the right faucet to turn on. In fact the ingot could be used as a signal to pipe the metal out of one of a number of tanks, so you wouldn't even need the smeltery to be operational. Ingot signals which tank to provide the metal, other signal block defines the destination casting table.

 

[netmc]

Using a dummy item to indicate which table to activate could get complicated with the long delay between inputting the ingot to smelt and the metal melting. It should be far easier to set up a 1 high smeltery for each part needed, and just pulse the redstone signal to all the smelteries at once. (using a MFR clock). It is a lot of smelteries, but the logic is much simpler.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

It's easier than that, actually. Just use a Level Emitter set to be active if there is anything in the smeltery. Then it'll turn the redstone on, so that when the item being smelted is liquid, it'll pour.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Using a dummy item to indicate which table to activate could get complicated with the long delay between inputting the ingot to smelt and the metal melting. It should be far easier to set up a 1 high smeltery for each part needed, and just pulse the redstone signal to all the smelteries at once. (using a MFR clock). It is a lot of smelteries, but the logic is much simpler.

So don't smelt on demand. Pump it out of a tank on demand into an endertank, and from the endertank (a line of identical ones, all above casting tables), drain into the casting table desired. Then drain any remaining liquid back via an MFR Liquid Router into the tanks. One thing you do lose is the ability for the AE system to know if there is enough metal to make something. But, if you've got to this level of automation, I'm betting that all your ingots are measured in the thousands and that's a lot of scythe blades.

I'm not entirely sure why you'd want to automate making TiCo parts though, other than just for the hell of it (which is as good a reason as any). Unless this is for a server community hub project?

 

[BanzaiBlitz]

Use level emitters to track buckets of a given liquid metal in your AE system. On demand, buckets go to a liquid transposer to tank that gets a redstone clock over a casting table and cast of need. Would need one casting table/cast for each part you want access to, but it could be worked out this way. Spend some time considering the MFR liquid router as well on what it allows. Don't be afraid to experiment and make something explode! It's in the name of science!

 

[PhilHibbs]

Use level emitters to track buckets of a given liquid metal in your AE system. On demand, buckets go to a liquid transposer to tank that gets a redstone clock over a casting table and cast of need. Would need one casting table/cast for each part you want access to, but it could be worked out this way. Spend some time considering the MFR liquid router as well on what it allows. Don't be afraid to experiment and make something explode! It's in the name of science!

How many ingots are there in a bucket? What do you do with the remaining liquid if only part of a bucket is used? I guess you pump it via an MFR Liquid Router into tanks, and batch it up into buckets as and when you have enough to fill one. I like the idea, though, that the most high-tech manufacturing method involves passing around molten metal in buckets.

 

[PoisonWolf]

I'm not entirely sure why you'd want to automate making TiCo parts though, other than just for the hell of it (which is as good a reason as any). Unless this is for a server community hub project?

You nailed it.
Because I can.

Lol, but in all seriousness, I've automated redstone energy cell crafting, tesseract crafting, alveary crafting, etc. I want to automate as many things as possible just for the heck of it. It's fun trying to see how many things I can get going.

The bucket idea is a good one....though I may opt to stick with the simpler in logic multiple one-high smelteries. The multiple smeltery approach will require a redstone clock as it needs a redstone pulse (and not a signal) in order for the liquid to pour out. I'm not sure if AE emitters can do redstone pulses.

But yeah, it would be exciting to be able to craft a manyullyn head on demand.

 

[netmc]

The only thing you would have to be careful about is ordering TiC parts where the metals could mix and make alloys. I'd be interested in seeing a screen shot of it when you get it built.

 

[BanzaiBlitz]

The only thing you would have to be careful about is ordering TiC parts where the metals could mix and make alloys. I'd be interested in seeing a screen shot of it when you get it built.

Easy fix for that is setup your AE system to a different smeltery for each TiC metal, alloy or not. AE will separately create the liquid via export to smeltery, then the liquids transfer off to be packaged.

Hmm...could also use BC tanks and piping to keep those requests moving. Liquid routers could do some real fun science-y things. I should play with this.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Easy fix for that is setup your AE system to a different smeltery for each TiC metal, alloy or not.

So one smeltery per metal and one smeltery per pattern, even if you only have 10 patterns and 5 metals that's 50 smelteries.

 

[BanzaiBlitz]

There is not that many tool-viable liquid metals. Nor would you use most. Could also work it via ingots/nuggets.

Of course, another option is tapping smelteries to hold a given liquid metal, pulling on call.

Yay sleep.

 

[PoisonWolf]

So one smeltery per metal and one smeltery per pattern, even if you only have 10 patterns and 5 metals that's 50 smelteries.

I'm only working mainly with Cobalt, Ardite, and Mannyulyn. And to clarify, my setup won't need too many smelteries as I have free-flow of all three metals (i.e., don't need to mix cobalt and ardite to get the third) through bees. I think more than anything, I just want to automate block production of these metals as I want to use them for decorative building as part of my 20-30 story giant bee hive tower. Lol.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I'm only working mainly with Cobalt, Ardite, and Mannyulyn. And to clarify, my setup won't need too many smelteries as I have free-flow of all three metals (i.e., don't need to mix cobalt and ardite to get the third) through bees. I think more than anything, I just want to automate block production of these metals as I want to use them for decorative building as part of my 20-30 story giant bee hive tower. Lol.

Oh, that's much easier then.

Set up your Casting Basins under Faucets, you'll want one per Y-level height of your smeltery. Use a redstone clock of choice to automate said faucets. Have vanilla Hoppers underneath said basins that feed into chest. Then you just have three such setups, one for each metal type, then have a Hopper feeding the smeltery itself, perhaps with a Diamond Chest sitting on top of it, being fed by the products of your bees.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Ah. If you really wanted to automate parts, what I'd do would be build a multi-tank system filled by liquiducts with level emitters cycling faucets. Hoppers will pull out into interfaces. Then when you pull one out of the system, the level emitter will pulse and run the faucet to generate another one.

Since you want blocks, the advice I've been given is as follows: Forget the slow faucets, plug in liquiducts. Lever on the smeltery, and connect them to the basins. Constant supply. That said, faucets are pretty cool. Hmmm... I wonder if they can fill cauldrons?

 

[PoisonWolf]

Ah. If you really wanted to automate parts, what I'd do would be build a multi-tank system filled by liquiducts with level emitters cycling faucets. Hoppers will pull out into interfaces. Then when you pull one out of the system, the level emitter will pulse and run the faucet to generate another one.

Since you want blocks, the advice I've been given is as follows: Forget the slow faucets, plug in liquiducts. Lever on the smeltery, and connect them to the basins. Constant supply. That said, faucets are pretty cool. Hmmm... I wonder if they can fill cauldrons?

Well, I want to start with blocks and make it on-demand first to see if I can get it to work reliably. I prefer to not use any form of liquid tanks, etc, as I prefer to keep items in their physical form. It makes storing them in DSUs much easier.

Once I have a working concept, I'll expand it to crafting parts on demand. I'm basically trying to amass a lot of different blocks to build fun things. And I like the colors of cobalt, ardite, and manyullyn!

 

[KingTriaxx]

The only reason I suggest the liquid tanks is to ease the task of crafting specific parts. I don't know if there's any block which can actively place a pattern into the casting table, so you want to have one of each available. Since there are so many, using the tanks, Nothing more than TE's Portable tanks or BC's basic glass ones.

 

[PoisonWolf]

The only thing you would have to be careful about is ordering TiC parts where the metals could mix and make alloys. I'd be interested in seeing a screen shot of it when you get it built.

Here's what I got so far. It's a wireless setup that's physically separate from the AE network that is located underground. Works like a charm for making aluminum, cobalt, and ardite blocks! Can't wait to add alumite, and manyullyn blocks.