Timing systems

    Hello folks, I'm having trouble setting up a timer to turn my breeder off after enough ticks have elapsed to re-enrich a near-depleted cell. I've set up a modification of the vanilla breeder in the official designs thread. This lets me upgrade as copper comes in becoming more and more efficient. I'm using the heating cells to moderate the temperature as the planner makes it look like the reactor loses heat without them. I'm using IC2, Nuclear Control, Buildcraft, the IC2 BC Crossover mod and Forestry.


    My plan was to set up four simple repeater/redstone torch clocks set to different primes to count any interval. Thus, when enough time for the cells to have enriched passes, the reactor turns off automatically, regardless of where I am in upgrading it.


    The clocks are all filtered by pulse restrictors set to one tick pulse length, then pass through a set of AND gates. In theory this gives a clock which fires one pulse of one tick length after a length of time equal to the clock lengths multiplied together. In the case of the example, 4*5*7*9=1260, which is just a little longer than the tick length of the re-enrichment process. (I have since realised that redstone ticks are twice as long as game ticks, I just haven't bothered adjusting my maths)


    My problem is that my clocks are triggering the AND gates when the pulses aren't fully synchronised. If one input fires immediately after the other, the output triggers as though both had fired at once. Confounding! Thus instead of a finely tuned redstone clock able to count however long I care for it to I've created what appears to be a bafflingly complex random pulse generator.


    My best guess at what is causing this is my computer lagging, but the excess ticks seem far too consistent. Could it have something to do with the orientation of the redstone torches? Many hang off the north face of blocks and whilst I know there is such a thing as the north south quirk my google-fu has been to weak to find out what this actually is.


    How do other people control their breeders to maximise efficiency? I'm trying to steer away from RedPower, hence the complex redstoning in the first place.


    Much love,
    Weagle

    you are not using redpower 2 right?


    if not then use nuclear control to detect when the heat of the reactor fall below 25k heat
    as uranium alone will not produce enough heat for the cooling system.
    hook the reactor heat controller thingie (forgot the actual name :P)
    to a memory cell that shuts of the reactor when powered.


    now as soon as there is under 25k heat

    Change the scheme, alter the mood. Electrify the boys and girls if you'd be so kind.


    [b][i][u][url=' [url='http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=7745']HAYO CORP: Nuclear Power (FREE: Reactor Blueprints)

    Do you have Buildcraft available?


    The easiest way possible to automate a reactor is to use a gate with the "no space in inventory -> redstone signal" conditional set to turn on the reactor. That way, whenever fuel cells expire, or a component melts off, or a griefer steals a heat vent to blow up your base, the reactor instantly shuts itself down because the condition is no longer true.


    You can use this also to control a breeder, if you have the means to remove re-enriched isotopes from the reactor automatically. An emerald pipe can do it just as well as the redpower filter. Attach the pipe, tell it to filter for re-enriched isotopes, and slap an iron autarchic OR gate on it. Set the conditional I described above, as well as a conditional like "items in inventory -> energy pulse". Thus, twice per second the gate will attempt to pull out any re-enriched isotope it can find. As soon as any isotope finishes charging, it gets pulled out before the next reactor tick happens, and the reactor is no longer full, resulting in the redstone signal going dark and the reactor shutting itself down until you replace the missing isotope (or four, as they will all get pulled out one by one if they finish simultaneously).


    Of course, that approach limits you to making your upgrades in larger steps (adding a new reactor chamber and filling it up), but it is guaranteed to work and takes only one minute to configure as opposed to several hours of fiddling with an unreliable redstone clock.


    You can also pipe in new cells through the same pipe by using diamond pipes.

    Quote

    It has become a little stubbly. Implement facial hair growth in IC²? Vision continuously grows more furry until you shave. (approx once every 2 minecraft days ;P)


    Steve shaves with his chainsaw.
    Check out Factorio- A game where you build a factory from scratch.

    Skavier, that is beautifully simple and suits my purposes exactly, thanks! edit: was about to say how that wouldn't work but thought I'd best double check what you said. I hadn't realised that enriched cells don't give off heat anymore, hence the elaborate clock scheme; I'd considered something similar before but didn't think it would work that way. Doi.


    I'm still pretty new to the logic aspects of everything so I'll try the buildcraft stuff when I've filled the reactor. I've already checked for endpoint, the design I put in the op is optimised with a full stack of heating cells and all the currently empty space filled with heat capacity plating.


    I still enjoyed learning about redstone circuits and timers (this is the first time I've messed about with redstone despite getting Minecraft from one of the earliest betas.) Wish I knew why my system doesn't work or if it's a glitch due to my old rig.


    Cheers gang.