Posts by bigtwisty

Wouldn't it be better to just design the output system so that you will never backstuff the extraction filters?

I'm sure someone has already come up with this, but I recently found a way to pull items from furnaces and such without using timers. This method is very similar to the one posted in this tutorial, but it decreases lag by allowing for maximum sized stacks, and they are pulled out as soon as they are ready. It may not function as well with advanced machines, but normal ones can always have upgrades.

Key:
= machine
= tube (non-redstone)
= standard EU power cable
= EU-Detector cable
= RP Filter
= Relay
= Not gate

From the side:

<input to system through filter, just like the previous example

<output from system, just like the previous example
<new method for activating the extraction filter
<power supply

What happens is the not gate will, under normal conditions, be outputting TRUE to the extraction filter, rendering it inoperable. When the machine begins to process material, the EU-Detector cable outputs TRUE, inverted by the not gate, sending FALSE to the extraction filter. When the machine either runs out of material or fills up with processed material, it stops drawing EU, turning the EU-Detector cable to FALSE, inverted by the not gate, sends a rising edge to the extraction filter, pulling the largest stack size possible from the machine immediately. No timers, largest stack size, efficient and lag free.

One thing I noticed when building several of these in a row was that, while there is no way to separate the EU-Detector cables (they don't take paint), even though they all touch, only the one under the currently active machine will become active. Does anyone know if IC2 packets calculate the best path to destination? This would explain it as EU-Detector cables have fairly high resistance.