Suggestion: Redstone control on auto-chisel

[TheRealWebGremlin]

Hi,

I'd like to keep certain chiseled blocks in auto-stock. Two common ways to do this would be to either backlog the machine, or to apply a redstone signal from a block that monitors stock (e.g. AE2/RS level emitter). Both the input- and output slots of the auto-chisel are quite large, so backlogging the machines is a big sink on resources (~1500 blocks). Unfortunately the auto-chisel doesn't seem to interact with redstone signals so the only other alternative I can think of is to fill the input- and outputs slots with blocks it won't use (e.g. fill all but one of the slots with cobblestone when it's set to chisel marble). Perhaps automation could be made a little more elegant if the auto-chisel could be turned on/off with a redstone signal?

Thank you for considering.

[tterrag1098]

Hm, why not just control how much gets put in? For example with AE2, if you make a recipe that just converts 1 stack, it should wait for that stack to finish crafting before it puts more in. It won't just fill the input inventory all the way for one craft. I'll consider this change, but I'm not sure it's really something in scope (especially on 1.12) for chisel.

[TheRealWebGremlin]

That's definitely an option, though as far as I know one can't automate the "example block" that tells the auto-chisel what to chisel the input into. So in my case, I wanted to keep all Astral Sorcery marbles in stock (7 types in total). That means I need to dedicate 7 auto-chisels; one for each type of marble. That's perfectly fine, but then automating it like you suggested (via patterns) would mean I'd have to dedicate 7 channels for all the individual ME interfaces, each containing one pattern for a single type of marble. Since they're pattern interfaces, they can't be put on a sub network. Sure, I could use p2p, but still, using a separate channel/interface for each type of marble didn't feel very elegant to me.

What I ended up doing was making a sub network and connect each of the 7 auto-chisels to a storage bus. The 8th channel on the subnet was used for an ME interface, which connected to a storage bus on my main network. I have an external source pumping non-AS marble into the subnet's interface, which distributes it to the auto-chisels. The output is then left in the inventory of the auto-chisel and accessible through my main network via the subnet's storage buses. The downside is that if I extract too much, the excess I put back in the ME system ends up elsewhere since it can't put something back in the output slot of course. The upside is that it only takes one channel and that it's kept in stock at all times rather than requesting, and waiting on, a crafting operation.

I realise my solution ultimately might not be super relevant, but I hope it illustrates the reason for my request. It's just a small QoL thing that would be nice at some point in the future.

Again, thank you for considering, and for your time too.