obsolete Guide for Sync Pipes (formerly Jpipes)

[Elixil3]

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This Mod is no longer running on RustEZ servers and has been superseded with the Industrial Update
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Before I go into detail on what this plugin can do I'd like to say a big thank you to  @Joe 90 for allowing me to grab his guide and posting it here for the RustEZ Community, all material here is from his mod page. Also a big thank you to TheGreatJ who made the amazing jPipes plugin, which this is based on.

Sync Pipes has been re-written to make the pipes work synchronously with all pipes connected to the same container. This allows for advanced sorting and filtering of items into your containers, shops, furnaces, quarries, pumpjacks etc.
 

What can it do?

syncPipes allows you to connect multiple containers together to automatically:

• Move items between container
• Filter items to allow you to sort what goes where
• Splitting stacks evenly between multiple containers
• Send raw materials into a furnaces or refineries for processing
• Supplying fuel to Mining Quarries and Pump Jacks and collecting the output
• Auto-filling your shops with the correct items and collecting the payments

 

Getting Started

# How does it work?

You can connect containers together to move items from one container to the other. Once created you can then change the settings of the pipe to do all sorts of things:

• Turn the pipe off to stop the transfer of items
• Set whether the items will fill the destination container or only take up 1 stack
• Add items to the filter to limit what the pipe can transfer
• Automatically start a Furnace, BBQ, Pump Jack, Quarry, Oil refinery or Recycler when the correct items are moved to it.
• Split the items evenly into multiple stacks in an oven using the Furnace Splitter mod.
• Reverse the pipe to send items back the other way

 

# How do I create a pipe?

Creating a pipe is very simple all you need to do is type /p into chat. You then need to use a wooden hammer to hit two containers and this will create the pipe. The first container you hit will start to transfer items to the second container.

 

 

# How can I speed it up?

The pipe only has a certain capacity to move items along it. The better the material the more items it can move at a time. To take advantage of this you can upgrade your pipes as you would any other wall by using the wooden hammer.

Each upgrade will also give more slots to filter items with, but we'll cover that in more detail later.

 

 

# How can I change the pipe's settings?

Each pipe has a menu that you can open by hitting it with a wooden hammer. (hit the top of the pipe)

For a pipe that just goes between normal containers (eg. furnaces, oil refineries etc.) you will get the following menu:



The top bar (in green) shows the source and destination containers with items moving from left to right. The number of '>' between them shows the rate of items moving through the pipe.

• Status: This shows you if your pipe is running or not.
  • You can start or stop the pipe by clicking the corresponding button to the right
• Stack Mode: This shows whether the pipe will fill the destination container or just make a single stack of items in it
  • You can set the stacking mode of this pipe by clicking the corresponding button to the right
• Pipe Priority: This shows the priority that the items will use this pipe. (We'll cover this in more detail later)
  • You can increase the priority by clicking the '>' button
  • You can decrease the priority by clicking the '<' button
• Swap Direction: If you click this it will reverse the direction of the pipe and start moving items the other way.
• Open Filter: If you click this it will open a filter container that allows you to set what the pipe can transport. (We'll cover this in more detail later)
  • In order for the filter to appear you must have upgraded the pipe at least to wood.

At the top right of the screen is an info panel that give you an overview of the pipe and its filters.

If the second container is a recycler, mining quarry or pump jack you would get the following menu with more options

This now gives you additional options. This will only apply if it is the destination of the pipe.

• Auto Start: This shows if the pipe will attempt to start the destination when an item is moved to it
  • You can turn it on or off by clicking the corresponding button to the right

The final menu you will only see if the second container is a furnace or refinery.

This gives you the final options

• Auto Splitter: This shows if the items should be split into even stacks in the furnace
  • You can turn this on and off using the corresponding button to the right.
• Stack Count: This shows how many stacks the items will be split into in the furnace
  • You can increase the number of stacks by clicking the '+' button
  • You can decrease the number of stacks by clicking the '-' button

If you need more hints in game click the '?' button and it will give you a description of each item.

 

 

# How can I filter items?

If you click 'Open Filter' from the pipe menu it will open the filter as a loot container in your inventory. You can then simply drag items into it to set this as something the pipe can allow through. Dragging an item means the pipe will no longer allow it through.

The filter items are not added or removed from your inventory they are simply shown as an indicator of what is being filtered.

If the pipe's filter is completely empty then the pipe will let everything through.

 

 

# Can I send things to multiple containers?

All pipes that are attached to a container will operate at the same time to move items from the container. If they are the same priority then the items will be split evenly amongst the pipes.

 

# What commands are there?

The /p command for creating pipes you already know, but there are a few extra commands that might come in handy

/p r Remove pipes by hitting then with a wooden hammer

/p c Copy the settings and filters from one pipe by hitting it with a wooden hammer and then hit other pipes to apply these settings to it.

/p n Set a name to a container or pipe. This is useful if you have pipes running between two identical containers and you want to tell them apart. Or when you have long pipes want to know what they are for.

/p s Get information on how many pipes you have and how many are running

/p h Bringing up the in game help

 

Advanced Sorting

# Priority

Each pipe has a priority. The first item in the container will be selected and grouped with all other stacks of the same item. This is then split evenly and sent along the highest priority pipes first (limited by the pipes flow rate). It will repeat this for the high priority pipes then the medium, the low and the lowest. The pipes will only move one type of item at a time for each priority level.

 

# Combining the filter with the priority

By combining the filter with the priority we can set up some advance sorting to allow items to be processed and sent to their correct destination with multiple routes and splits along the way.

In This example you have a single container, on the left hand side, that you put everything into. The items then travel along the line of splitter boxes. If there is an appropriate container the item will be moved into it. Otherwise it will go into the container on the right hand side. This allows you to see what you might have missed from your sorting or could be connected to another set of filter pipes.

Lets go through this in a little more detail.

You'll notice that from the first splitter box there are two pipes going up into the "Stone" and "Metal" storage containers. there is also a pipe going to the next splitter box. The pipe going to the next splitter box has no filters on it which will allow precious stone and metal to not make it into their respective containers. To prevent this we just need to make sure that the priority of the pipes going to the "Stone" and "Metal" containers is higher than the pipe going to the next splitter box and hey presto all stone and metal will be filtered out.

At the next splitter box you will see we have two "Wood" storage boxes and we want them to fill up at the same rate. Simply set them to the same priority and syncPipes will do the rest. Again make sure that the pipe leading to the next splitter box is set to a lower priority to prevent any wood escaping.

At the next splitter we again have two containers that we want to store the "Components" in. However in this case we want the left container to fill up first. To do this just set the left container to a higher priority than the right and it will fill this one up first. Ensuring that the pipe to the next splitter box is the lowest priority to stop it taking any components.

You can make this as simple or as complicated as you like. It's up to you...

 

Again I would like to thank @Joe 90 for this wonderful guide and bringing Sync Pipes to the Survival Community.

Below in the future I will add starter setups to help players wanting to learn more.

[Darktweets]

Since someone asked how to connect a PJ to infinite mode, and then connect a PJ to a Mining Quarry, and then an output, I figured I'd add this.

Yes. totally can. /skin will allow you to use any skins on the server. Boxes listed below can be found there if you don't have them in your inventory.

Upgrade all pipes to minimum of Wood for use of filters.

a level 1 PJ will power itself, plus 2 level 1 Quarries, OR a level 2 Quarry. [1 LGF in, 1 Crude Out. Refineries change Crude to 3 LGF]

Best link up is PJ output to 1-3 refineries[1 refinery for 1-3 PJ, 2 refineries for 4-6, 3 refineries for 7+], output of refineries[filter: LGF] to TC #1. TC #1 to input for PJ [filter:LGF, priority High]. [creates infinite loop]. TC to Mining Quarry [filter: LGF, priority MED], output from TC #1 - [filter, LGF, output, Low] to a Fuel Box. [excess LGF stored here.] which means the LGF goes to the PJ first, the Quarry 2nd., and the Fuel Box 3rd.

You need a minimum of a level 5 Quarry to obtain Stone, Metal, Sulfur, and HQM Ore regardless of placement. Each upgrade for a Quarry [have a quarry in your active inventory, click on the blue fuel tanks, click the upgrade button] will show you the stats of what the output is without issue. 

Output from the Quarry to a TC #2, output from the TC #2 to an ORE Box [filter: Stone, Metal Ore, Sulfur Ore, HQM Ore]. ORE Box to Stone Box [no furnace needed - Filter: Stone] ORE Box to Furnaces [1 for Metal Ore [filter: Metal Ore], 1 for Sulfur Ore [filter: Sulfur Ore], one for HQM Ore [Filter: HQM Ore]]. output from furnace #1 [Metal Ore] to Metal Frag Box [Filter: Metal Frags] Output from Furnace #2 [Sulfur Ore] to Sulfur Box [Filter: Cooked Sulfur], Output from Furnace #3 [HQM Ore] to Box of Your Choice [Filter: HQM]. I'd recommend a minimum of 2 Stone Boxes for every 1 level of a Quarry connected by pipes.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Darktweets