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==Tips - Tech==

===Intro===
This chapter treats technic, pipeworks, mesecons and digilines
as one big mod.

The only important difference is that some machines require power. 
: Power comes in 3 tiers: LV, MV, HV - low-, medium-, high-voltage.

Others only need signals (as in, ON&OFF-information), and <br />
digilines can transmit/process more general data.

Digtrons can use electric power, but mostly use fuel (as in, coal or oil).

...

===Simple machines===
Simple, as in "don't require power".
* Chests (as well as other nodes with an inventory - eg. a furnace)
: technic provides iron- copper- silver- gold- and mithril-chests
* Autocrafter - automatically produce items according to a recipe
: this makes many often-needed recipes much less tedious
* Nodebreaker - dig the node in front
: useful eg. for automated harvesting of trees
* Deployer / Dispenser - put/shoot an item
: eg. for replanting saplings
* Detectors - node-detector, player-detector, button, pressure plate
: eg. pressure plate can open&close nearby doors
: or node-detector triggering a nodebreaker when a sapling has grown into a tree 
* Injectors - get item/s from a chest/machine and put it into a tube or another chest or machine
: eg. for moving stuff between autocrafters and chests
* Tubes - can transport items. They come in many variants, the most useful are
** vacuuming tube - collect loose stuff, eg. wood&leaves or harvested fruits&seeds
** sorting tube   - route incoming stuff in different directions, depending on type
** teleporting tube - expensive, moves stuff directly to another teleport-tube
* Pipes - like tubes, but for fluids
: also:  pumps, valves, spigots
* Mesecons - logic gates, and Lua-controller
* lightstones - in several colors, can be switched on&off
* piston & sticky piston + push & pull an item
* noteblock - makes a sound
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===Electric machines===
The tiers:
* LV - cheap, support no automation, no upgrades
* MV - less cheap, support upgrades and automation via pipeworks and mesecons
* HV - as MV, but more expensive, faster, more powerful

Eg. an LV-cable is made from 3 copper + 6 paper, <br>
an MV-cable is made from 3 LV-cables + 6 rubber, <br>
an HV-cable is made from 3 MV-cables + 6 plastic.

There are several categories of machines:
* generators (water-powered, solar, geothermal, nuclear)
* switches & storage - eg. battery-boxes
* consumers - machines doing some 'useful' work
* mobile & battery-powered - can be recharged at any battery-box of LV, MV or HV.

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===Digtron===

Digtrons are modular, configurable machines for digging and building.

All digtron-parts use a digtron-core in their recipe.
: Eg. a digtron-inventory-module consists of a chest and a digtron-core.
:: needs 4 iron, 1 mese-shard

The main uses for a digtron are 
* mining: making tunnels & shafts while digging for ores
* farming: digging&placing plants, aka harvesting&seeding - crops as well as trees
* leveling/bulldozing terrain
* building roads, bridges, houses etc.

Examples:
====Digtron-Chest&Crate====
Quite useful is a digtron-crate plus one or more digtron-inventory-modules, <br>
'''providing movable chests''' (much like a MC-skulker-box).
: Place a digtron-crate next to some other digtron-parts (eg. a digtron-chest), and activate it.
: The crate will pack in all the digtron-modules it has contact to, and then can be picked up like a chest.
Also carry a stackwise-injector and some vacuuming-tubes with this, for quick loading/unloading.

====Small, simple tunnel-digger====
* 2 digger-heads (on top of each other, face their 'rotating' sides to the front) - to dig a tunnel of size 2x1
:: needs 1 digtron-core, 4 diamonds (per head)
* 1 combined storage - for fuel and the gathered stone, ore etc.
:: needs 1 digtron-core, 1 chest, 1 furnace
* 1 control-module   - to make it move
: needs to be facing in the direction the digtron should move
:: needs 1 digtron-core, 4 or 8 mese (normal/automatic controller)
Optional, but very much advised:
* 1 builder-head  - for automatically placing torches or glowglass every few spaces
: the side with the cross must be pointing to a free spot in the direction where the item is to be placed
:: needs 1 digtron-core, 4 mese-shards
* 1 rotation-axle - for changing the direction of the digtron
:: needs 1 digtron-core, 8 coal
* 1 digtron-crate - to pack the digtron in, and carry it around.
:: needs 1 digtron-core, 1 chest, 1 mese, 1 iron

For operation, it needs some fuel in the storage-module, eg. coal or oil-extract. <br>
The material/s for the builder-head/s (eg. torches) also need to be in there.

A screwdriver is also useful, to rotate digger- and builder-heads while building the digtron.
: needs a 1 stick, 1 iron

This 'simple' model lacks 2 features:
* protection against sand or cobble from above
* same for the floor, eg. when digging into a cave
: this would require at least 2 more digger- and builder-heads.

====Harvester====
For cutting wood or plants, soft-diggerheads can be used.
They are cheaper - needing 1 digtron-core, 4 steel (instead of diamonds).

A digtron moving on top of farming soil will randomly damage some soil,
so it is better to have it hanging above the field. <br>
So, it is common to build a roof of (glow-)glass over the field, from which the digtron hangs.

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===Tasks===
For starters:

* getting wood
: lowtech: axe
: tech: chainsaw & power-supply, chests & vac.tubes

* finding and digging ore
: lowtech: pickaxe
: tech: drill, mining-laser, digtron, quarry & power-supply

* making ingots from ore
: lowtech: furnace & fuel
: tech: grinder, then electric furnace & power-supply
:: The grinder makes dust from ore, and doubles the yield
:: It can also make more flour from grain then mortar&pestle.

* crafting
: lowtech: in the crafting-grid, by hand
: tech: autocraftes, tubes, injectors, mesecons-logic

* storing stuff
: lowtech: chests, backpacks
: tech: sorting-tubes & technic-chests

* repairing worn tools
: notech:  craft new tools
: lowtech: anvil & hammer
: tech: MV-toolworkshop & power-supply

As can be seen, most of the 'better' solutions to these tasks require some power-supply.

We have to start with LV, then build up to MV, then HV <br>
because each MV-part consists of some LV-part plus extras.

====Basics====
Before we get to the technic parts, we need some basics, see previous tips.

To recap:
* sticks and wood, stones - for tools, chests, furnace
* coal - to make torches, fuel for the furnace. See also leaves&oil-extract.
* iron - for locked chests, iron tools, bucket
* a place for building a home/base/lab - protect that area !
* food, water - mods hunger and diet are active

Also useful (but not essential):
* backpacks - more inventory-space to carry around
* canteen (waterbottle - mod thirsty is active !)
* circular saw - for cutting wood, stone into different shapes
* glass - for windows etc.

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====Hydro-power====
Technic has a water-powered grinder, that can be used on grain and ore. <br>
This would be useful to get started from scratch.

* Water-turbine - this one only generates mechanical power, no electricity.
: needs 4 sticks, 1 iron
* Water on 4 sides (N,E,S,W) of the turbine
: needs a bucket for placing
:: needs 3 iron
* The water-powered grinder
: needs 5 granite, 2 iron, 2 brick-blocks
:: need 4 clay-bricks each
::: needs clay - can often be found in shallow water off the coast

'''Total:'''
* wood: 1
* iron: 1+3+2 = 6
* granite: 5
* clay:    8

This grinder gets you double yield from ore, and 4x yield from grain (compared to mortar&pestle).
: This grinder also works on all types of grain.

====LV====
We need at least:
* LV-cables (to connect all those parts, eg. 6+)
: needs copper and paper
:: needs papyrus, or cotton, or bamboo, or hemp
* Hydro-generator (4 of them would be nice)
: needs 1 wood, 1 diamond, 4 marble, 1 LV-cable, 1 machine-casing
:: needs 8 cast-iron, 1 brass
:: needs copper, zinc
::: need alloy-furnace - made from 8 brick-blocks
:::: need 4 clay-bricks each
:::: needs clay

* Switching-station
: needs 2 copper, 3 LV-cable, 1 machine-casing, 1 LV-transformer
:: needs 5 iron,
:: 2 fiber,
:: needs glue, made from saplings
:: 2 copper-coil
:: needs 4 iron, 4 fine-copper-wire, made from copper
* LV-Battery-Box (or more)
: needs 3 wood, 1 LV-cable, 1 machine-casing, 4 RE-batteries
:: needs 6 wood, 2 copper, 1 tin, per battery
* LV-Grinder
: needs 4 desert-stone, 2 granite, 1 LV-cable, 1 machine-casing
* LV-Furnace
: needs 7 stone, 1 LV-cable, 1 machine-casing
* also: bucket for placing water 
: needs iron

'''Total:'''
* wood
* iron
* copper
* tin
* diamond
* clay
* stone
* desert-stone
* granite
* papyrus (or bamboo, cotton, hemp)

Other machines, less urgent:
* LV-Alloy-furnace (we can make do with the lowtech alloy-furnace
* LV-sawmill     - makes 8 planks from each wood (as compared to 4 when done by hand)
* LV-Extractor   - extract dye from flowers, grass, cactus, bones
* LV-CNC-machine - can cut materials into different forms (similar to circular-saw) - mainly for deco
* LV-Compressor  - make sandstone from sand ... 
: can also make diamonds from coal (in a multi-step process)

We will need many more of some of these parts, so some autocrafters would be useful.
: needs 5 iron, 2 mese, 2 plastic
:: to make plastic: leaves --> oil-extract --> paraffin --> plastic

Oil-extract is also a good fuel ( so, save the coal for making torches and diamonds :)

====MV====
The most important MV-machine is the MV-toolworkshop, for repairing tools. <br>
One way to get just this working is to use a supply-converter,
that converts LV to MV (can also convert between MV and HV). <br>
Otherwise, we would also need some MV-generator(s).
: needs ...

We need:
* some MV-cables, 
: needs LV-cables, and 6 rubber per cable
:: needs raw-latex, from a rubbertree
:: needs a tap
::: needs 1 wood, 3 sticks, 1 pneumatic-tube - made from plastic
* a supply-converter,
: needs 1 LV-cable, 1 MV-cable,
:  1 LV-transformator, 1 MV-transformator,
:  2 rubber, 1 machine-casing, 1 fine-gold-wire, 1 doped-silicon-wafer,
:: needs silicn-wafer, gold
:: needs sand, coal-dust
* another switching-station
: same part as for LV
* a MV-Battery-Box 
: needs 1 MV-cable, 1 MV-transformator, 5 LV-Battery-Boxes
* and the MV-toolworkshop.
: needs 1 MV-cable, 2 obsidian,  2 wood, 1 diamond, 1 machine-casing, 1 carbon-cloth, 
:: needs graphite, made from compressed coal-dust
: 1 sticky piston
:: needs 3 wood, 4 stone, 1 iron, 1 mesecon, glue - made from saplings

Other MV-machines:
* MV-grinder, MV-furnace etc. work just like the LV-models, but faster
* Thresher - for processing harvested plants, eg. grain, melons, pumpkin etc.
* Freezer  - make ice from water, obsidian from lava
* Centrifuge - for processing uranium into uranium-fuel.

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====HV====
The most impressive (and dangerous) machine is the nuclear reactor. <br>
It produces a lot of power.

Other HV-machines:
* HV-Quarry
* Forcefield-generator

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===Examples===
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