Just a question for the current version- If you have 5 MFSU's all hooked up to the bench, separately, will it charge 5 times as fast?
Off the top of my head, it'll probably cap out at processing 2048EU/t. That's the most its internal storage can hold at a time.
Display MoreHowdy,
I love the charging bench idea and have one in my workshop. I'd like to suggest a few tweaks from having used it for a few weeks now. I haven't tried the 1.64 update yet as my world is still 1.0 so if my issues have been addressed, then I'll shut up
1. Shift-click sends your items to the crystal slot rather than the charging area
2. Internal charge buffer seems tiny. The red "zap" symbol flashes erratically when I put in a depleted item which gives the impression that it is constantly seeking new EU packets from the attached MFSU
3. I'd like to see a higher charge rate.
4. Can items charge concurrently? At the moment they charge sequentially.
Perhaps there's room for an advanced charging bench that's built with several lapotrons that holds several million EU and will quick-charge several items concurrently?
Again, I love your work and very much appreciate the effort you put into this mod!
Xeno
#1 annoys the crap out of me too, didn't get fixed with the 1.64 update, but I definitely intend to. Addressing the other three actually is all sort of interlinked. Previously (in the version you're using now), items *could* charge concurrently if the bench had more energy stored than one item could accept - for example, a stack of batteries on a tier 3 bench - although the bench would always try to push in as much per tick as each item's transfer limit would allow. In the current version, the transfer limit has been removed, but my plan is to put it back but integrate with the new upgrade system. They'd work about like one would expect:
- Overclocker upgrades will allow it to attempt multiple transfers to each item per tick. (I'll probably simplify it to one extra transfer per overclocker, instead of the approximately 50% boost that other machines receive.)
- Energy storage upgrades will let it gather a huge buffer. In combination with enough overclockers, this'll allow burst charging of items.
- Transformer upgrades will, as usual, increase the acceptable input voltage - but they won't increase the tier of item that can be charged. Not very practical for upgrading between tiers, but could be handy if you want to feed EV directly into your Mk3.
Between the three, in high enough quantities, it should be possible to create an extremely powerful burst charging bench.
Like the charging pad idea, of course, these are all just hand waving until I can sit down and code. But if I do, now you know what I'll be coding. 
any sneak peeks at the new ideas?
Sure. The first one is earl's induction charger idea above (I'm thinking of naming it the 'Charging Pad' or some such) - I had much the same thought, unequipping and moving an entire array of tools, weapons, and armor is terribly inconvenient. It'd be nice to just have a block you can step onto for a full charge-up. And it should (optionally) emit a toaster-like 'ding' sound when it finishes, for no other reason than that I think it would be a funny way to tell the player they can step off the pad.
The second is a matter refabricating bench. Like a charging bench, but for items that are marked repairable in Forge, like standard vanilla tools and such. At its simplest, it would have a base cost per damage point that would balance repairing a diamond tool / armor piece evenly against using UUM to create a new one. I'm sure that would make repairing cheaper items completely impractical, so I'd probably also include a list of items and their relative repair costs, and a way to configure it for other mods' items. Ideally, it would either be able to be boosted with scrap like the mass fab, or simply run on already-created UUM and a relatively low EU input.
Standard disclaimer applies, of course. They're just ideas so far, and I can't I'll have time to add them. 
Oh, and mostly unrelated, I just realized I forgot to include a change in the version history - when I updated to 1.64, I also took off the transfer limits to items on the bench. The charging benches will still blow up if you feed them more than their respective max voltages (LV, MV, HV), but now they use the same flag used by the batpack/lappack to charge items as fast as they receive power. Ever so slightly unbalanced, since they can now charge a single item faster than their respective energy storage blocks, but damn it's convenient. Plus, it cuts down on the annoying flickering the charge meter always did. 
Updated for 1.64, enjoy! I gave it a brief trial by fire, and everything looks to still be working after I updated to the new API. I've got a few ideas for actual features I'd like to add (rather than just keeping it up to date), if I can carve out some more time to work here. Crossing my fingers on that one.
In case you weren't aware, the in-game electric wrench now has a lossless mode that uses more power. I don't remember what key it is to switch modes, though.
Yeah, I guess I can retire this little tweak now. 
!
Are you updating to 1.64 or did I miss it hidden in the comments.
Update incoming tonight.
Seems to work, cpw. Cheers.
Just need to get permission to put it on MC Port Central now
If you mean mine, absolutely, go for it. 
And I'm pretty sure it doesn't conflict with IC2's licensing since base IC2 is cleared for porting.
Bump for updated to 1.42, leaving the old version up for now in case anyone stuck back in 1.8.1 for any reason needs to get a copy.
Bump for updated to 1.42, leaving the old version up for now in case anyone stuck back in 1.8.1 for any reason needs to get a copy.
I still have 1.23 IC2. Could someone upload a mirror?
Sorry, I don't have the zips of that version any more. 
Hope you've gotten to update since.
Bump for updated to 1.42, leaving the old version up for now in case anyone stuck back in 1.8.1 for any reason needs to get a copy.
MJEvans is correct, only the server version needs to be installed for SMP play. That would be a good thing for me to include that in the instructions next time I update the post.
Patiently awaiting 1.0 port
Incoming this week, barring unforeseen catastrophe. Holiday season's got me running everywhere, you all know how it is. But I'll make sure we have charging benches for Christmas!
After just breaking a macerator with my wrench, I feel that the update of this add-on is an urgent priority.
Haha, I feel you there. I should have time to make updates by the end of the week! Busy season and all that.
Bukkit port done, attached here. May I share on mcportcentral?
Nice, go ahead and share.
So is there a server mod? Or does the zip work for server and doesnt need to be installed client side?
The zip includes both the server and client class files, since they're both small. And you'll only need the client mod for single player, because of the type of mechanic change it is, installing it on the server will make it work for all players on the server.
That is promising - it means someone has figured out what was causing 1.23 add-ons to crash when attempting to recharge their items.
Hopefully the developers of Thermometers and More TreeTaps follow suit soon.
Oh, yeah, if anyone is wondering. The reason 1.23 stuff crashes is because the method signature for IChargeableItem.giveEnergyTo changed. It now takes an additional parameter at the end, a boolean, that indicates the chargeable item should ignore its normal transfer limits and accept as much of the entire packet as it can hold.
Bump, updated to 1.337b.
Bump, updated to 1.337b. The old one was pretty safe to use, but there was one code change since it was released that this new version includes.
Bump, updated to 1.337b.
Oh shit, you're right! How the hell can such a small addon cause such problems?!
Don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's because I had the wrong path to the texture in the preloadTexture Forge call, so it wasn't being pre-loaded. Just noticed that looking back through it for something unrelated. New version coming up momentarily.
