Using AE crafting with LP

[namiasdf]

But it can request an AE system, something that it knows how to craft, can it not?

 

[ratchet freak]

But it can request an AE system, something that it knows how to craft, can it not?

no it cannot initiate a AE craft

 

[namiasdf]

Ahh, kk. That makes sense.

 

[Ieldra]

I've got around this by telling the AE system to keep certain items stocked. It is complicated, expensive and energy-intensive (every item in the network adds to the energy requirement), but for items you often need while explorings it's worth the expense:

I'll explain with the example of torches. You look at this from the side, the cable up connects to any part of the ME network. EX is a precision export bus pointing at the chest, set to export torches if it receives a redstone signal. The "stack mode" switch must be set to "always craft". "LE" is a level emitter pointing at the export bus, set to emit a redstone signal if the level of torches in the network sinks below, say, 32. "IM" is a precision import bus set to import whole stacks of anything in the chest into the network unconditionally.
So what happens is if there are less than 32 torches in the network, the redstone signal gets activated and the export bus will begin exporting torches, always crafting new ones instead of exporting those already in the network. The import bus imports them back into the network, and when there are 32 torches or more in the network, the redstone signal shuts off and no more torches are crafted.

And now you always have 32 torches you can extract with your remote requests, circumventing the problem of being unable to access craftable items in the ME network remotely.

 

[ratchet freak]

I've got around this by telling the AE system to keep certain items stocked. It is complicated, expensive and energy-intensive (every item in the network adds to the energy requirement), but for items you often need while explorings it's worth the expense:

I'll explain with the example of torches. You look at this from the side, the cable up connects to any part of the ME network. EX is a precision export bus pointing at the chest, set to export torches if it receives a redstone signal. The "stack mode" switch must be set to "always craft". "LE" is a level emitter pointing at the export bus, set to emit a redstone signal if the level of torches in the network sinks below, say, 32. "IM" is a precision import bus set to import whole stacks of anything in the chest into the network unconditionally.
So what happens is if there are less than 32 torches in the network, the redstone signal gets activated and the export bus will begin exporting torches, always crafting new ones instead of exporting those already in the network. The import bus imports them back into the network, and when there are 32 torches or more in the network, the redstone signal shuts off and no more torches are crafted.

And now you always have 32 torches you can extract with your remote requests, circumventing the problem of being unable to access craftable items in the ME network remotely.

replace chest and importbus with an interface and cable, that way you can set 4 items in a 3x3 and stack them

 

[Strikingwolf]

-snip-

I have already done this more simply...

 

[Ieldra]

@ratchetfreak:
4 items? You must specify one item in the level emitter, right? So what's the benefit?

@Strikingwolf:
How did you do it?

 

[ratchet freak]

@ratchetfreak:
4 items? You must specify one item in the level emitter, right? So what's the benefit?

you can add more items to keep in stock that way like so

L E L
E I E
L E L

point the level emitters in a clockwise (or counter) fashion to the export buses set to craft the item

this is honestly just a space saver technique

 

[Strikingwolf]

@ratchetfreak:
4 items? You must specify one item in the level emitter, right? So what's the benefit?

@Strikingwolf:
How did you do it?

Using the interface method

 

[Ieldra]

Well, I'm finding that it may be less of a hassle to continue to use LP autocrafting for items you regularly need while exploring. The problem is that you need an export bus and a level emitter per item you want to keep your network supplied with, and an interface per six items (since you can point six export buses at an interface). In contrast, if you use LP for those items you need a crafting pipe and a crafting table per item, plus one supply chest and a supplier pipe which you can connect to your ME network with a storage bus. Space requirements may be similar, but the latter uses a lot less energy for a feature which really should be built into the system.

Has anyone tried connecting more than one interface to the system's exporting provider pipe? The easiest way to make things accessible to LP remote ordering is to place the required number of items in an interace, but doing that with your main LP interface makes everything else inaccessible, and using an additional provider pipe on the interface makes the system get caught in a providing loop even if you use the option "always craft on the export bus". Oddly enough, trying to exclude the items in question from being provided through the main exporting pipe doesn't work either.

Drat, this is really annoying. I almost regret switching to AE.

 

[Ieldra]

I fiddled around with OpenPeripherals and it can actually be made to do what I want. Here is a little proof-of-concept code which checks for the number of IC2 electronic circuits and if it finds less than 16, requests crafting from the MAC. Requirements: all the encoded patterns for the (sub-)components of the electronic circuit must be registered for autocrafting, with the MAC or the ME interfaces controlling the required machines. Then place a computer in front of the crafting terminal and run this program:

MECTerminal = peripheral.wrap("back")
aItemList = MECTerminal.getAvailableItems()
for i= 1,#aItemList do
  aStack = aItemList[i]
  if aStack["name"] == "Electronic Circuit" then
     print("Found Electronic Circuit")
     n = aStack["qty"]
     print("In Store: "..tostring(n))
     nToRequest = 0
     if n < 16 then
        nToRequest = 16 - n
        for j = 1,nToRequest do
           MECTerminal.requestCrafting(aStack)
           sleep(1)
        end
     end
     print(tostring(nToRequest).."  items requested")
  end
end

Obviously, in a "production environment" you would do things a little differently. This is strictly proof-of-concept. I made the program pause for a second after each request since sometimes the ME network appears to have a problem with too many requests coming in at once. Also, the crafting monitor doesn't always show what's happening, that may depend on the block the computer wraps - you can use various different AE blocks. Anyway, the crafing request works and correctly requests subcomponents that need to be crafted, both from external machines and the MAC itself.

This is a nice way around the limitation that the Logistics Pipes system can't make crafting requests from the ME network, as well as a way to keep your store stocked.

I believe this solution is rather more in the spirit of something like the ME network than clumsy setups that feel like making logic gates with vanilla redstone. Much less expensive, too.