Advanced Peripherals

Overview

Advanced Peripherals adds seven peripheral blocks and four turtle/pocket upgrades to CC:Tweaked (ComputerCraft). These peripherals let your computers communicate with players via chat, detect nearby players and environmental conditions, monitor energy flow, force-load chunks with turtles, and most importantly, fully control Applied Energistics 2 and Refined Storage networks through Lua scripts. If you've ever wanted to build a chat-controlled base, an automated crafting system triggered by Lua code, or a smart energy monitoring dashboard on a ComputerCraft monitor, this is the mod that makes it possible.

You can browse all items and recipes this mod adds using the tabs at the top of this page. This guide focuses on understanding what each peripheral does, how to set them up, and practical scripting examples to get you started.

Prerequisites

Advanced Peripherals is an addon for CC:Tweaked (the modern continuation of ComputerCraft). You need CC:Tweaked installed and should be familiar with placing Computers, opening the Lua prompt, and running basic programs. You do not need Applied Energistics 2 or Refined Storage to use the standalone peripherals (Chat Box, Player Detector, Environment Detector, Energy Detector), but the ME Bridge requires a working AE2 network and the RS Bridge requires a Refined Storage network.

All peripheral blocks are crafted using a Peripheral Casing as the central ingredient, so that is always your first crafting step.

Standalone Peripherals

These peripherals work independently and don't require any storage mod. They are the core of Advanced Peripherals and cover chat communication, player tracking, environmental data, and energy monitoring.

Chat Box

The Chat Box (peripheral type: "chatBox") is a two-way communication bridge between your CC:Tweaked Computer and the Minecraft chat. It exposes two Lua functions: sendMessage(message) broadcasts a text message to every online player, while sendMessageToPlayer(message, playerName) targets a specific player by their username.

The Chat Box also listens to all incoming chat. Any message a player sends fires a "chat" event on connected computers with the username and message text. Messages prefixed with "$" are special: they get intercepted before reaching other players, making them invisible in public chat. This lets you create private command systems where typing "$lights on" in chat triggers your computer without anyone else seeing it.

There is a configurable cooldown between sent messages (default: 10 ticks, which is 0.5 seconds). Attempting to send messages faster than the cooldown throws a Lua error. The Chat Box also works as a Turtle upgrade and a Pocket Computer upgrade, so you can carry chat functionality with you.

Player Detector

The Player Detector (peripheral type: "playerDetector") lets your computer know who is nearby. It provides four Lua functions: getPlayersInRange(range) returns a list of player names within the specified block range. isPlayersInRange(range) returns true if any player is within range. isPlayerInRange(range, username) checks for a specific player. getPlayerPos(username) returns a table with the player's x, y, z coordinates.

The maximum detection range is configurable (default: 2,147,483,646 blocks, effectively unlimited). If a script requests a range higher than the configured maximum, the detector silently caps it. The Player Detector is available as both a Turtle upgrade and a Pocket Computer upgrade, which is particularly useful for building tracking systems or proximity-based automation.

Environment Detector

The Environment Detector (peripheral type: "environmentDetector") provides comprehensive information about the world around it. It exposes a rich set of Lua functions covering light levels, weather, time, dimensions, moon phases, and biome detection.

Light functions include getSkyLightLevel(), getBlockLightLevel(), and getDayLightLevel() which returns the effective daylight accounting for sun angle and weather. getBiome() returns the biome name at the detector's position. Weather functions isRaining(), isThunder(), and isSunny() report current weather conditions.

Dimension functions include getDimensionName(), getDimensionProvider(), isDimension(name), and listDimensions() which returns all loaded dimensions. Moon tracking comes via getMoonId() (0-7) and getMoonName() (e.g. "Full moon", "Waxing crescent"). The isSlimeChunk() function is especially handy for finding Slime spawning chunks without external tools. getTime() returns the world time in ticks.

Energy Detector

The Energy Detector (peripheral type: "energyDetector") measures Forge Energy (FE/RF) flowing through it. Place it between an energy source and a consumer, and it acts as both a passthrough and a monitoring device. The block is directional: energy enters from the front face and exits from the back face.

It exposes three Lua functions: getTransferRate() returns the current FE/t flowing through the detector. getTransferRateLimit() returns the maximum transfer rate limit currently set. setTransferRateLimit(rate) caps the energy throughput to a specified FE/t value (up to Integer.MAX_VALUE). This means you can use it not just to monitor energy flow, but also to throttle it programmatically from Lua.

The internal buffer capacity matches the transfer rate limit, so changing the limit also adjusts how much energy the detector can buffer at once. The Energy Detector persists its rate limit and stored energy across chunk loads via NBT data.

Storage System Bridges

The ME Bridge and RS Bridge are the flagship peripherals of Advanced Peripherals. They give your CC:Tweaked Computers full programmatic access to your Applied Energistics 2 or Refined Storage networks, enabling scripted inventory management, automated crafting requests, and energy monitoring, all from Lua.

ME Bridge (Applied Energistics 2)

The ME Bridge (peripheral type: "meBridge") connects to an AE2 network and requires a channel to operate (it has the REQUIRE_CHANNEL grid flag). It consumes 500 AE/t of idle power, so make sure your network has sufficient energy generation. The block connects to AE2 cables on all six sides.

The ME Bridge provides a comprehensive set of Lua functions for inventory and crafting management. listItems() returns every item stored in the network with name, amount, and tags. listCraftableItems() lists only items that have crafting patterns registered. listFluid() and listCraftableFluid() do the same for fluids.

For item movement, exportItem(item, direction) pushes items from the ME network into an adjacent inventory on the specified side (e.g. "north", "south"). importItem(item, direction) pulls items from an adjacent inventory into the network. There are also exportItemToChest(item, peripheralName) and importItemFromChest(item, peripheralName) variants that work with networked CC:Tweaked peripherals (like wrapped chests on a wired modem network).

For crafting, craftItem(item) submits an autocrafting request and returns when the job completes via a "crafting" event. isItemCrafting(item) checks if a particular item is currently being crafted. getCraftingCPUs() lists all crafting CPUs in the network. Energy monitoring is available through getEnergyUsage(), getEnergyStorage(), and getMaxEnergyStorage().

RS Bridge (Refined Storage)

The RS Bridge (peripheral type: "rsBridge") provides nearly identical functionality to the ME Bridge but for Refined Storage networks. It integrates as a proper RS network node with redstone mode support.

It offers listItems(), listCraftableItems(), listFluids(), and listCraftableFluids() for querying stored and craftable resources. Item transfer functions exportItem(), importItem(), exportItemToChest(), and importItemFromChest() work the same way as the ME Bridge equivalents. Crafting is handled through craftItem(item) and craftFluid(fluid, count), with isItemCrafting(item) to check active tasks.

Network energy monitoring is available via getEnergyUsage(), getEnergyStorage(), and getMaxEnergyStorage(). One advantage the RS Bridge has over the ME Bridge is craftFluid() for fluid autocrafting, which the ME Bridge does not expose directly.

Turtle & Pocket Upgrades

Chunky Turtle

The Chunky Turtle upgrade (crafted with a Chunk Controller item) turns any CC:Tweaked Turtle into a chunk loader. When equipped, the turtle forces its current chunk to remain loaded even when no players are nearby. This uses Forge's built-in chunk loading system, so loaded chunks persist across server restarts and are properly validated when the world loads.

This is essential for any long-running turtle programs like mining operations, farming scripts, or patrol routines. Without chunk loading, the turtle would freeze the moment you walk away. The Chunk Controller item requires a Respawn Anchor as its centerpiece, making it a mid-game craft that requires Crying Obsidian from the Nether.

Other Turtle & Pocket Upgrades

The Chat Box, Environment Detector, and Player Detector are all available as both Turtle upgrades and Pocket Computer upgrades. This means you can equip a turtle with a Chat Box to create a mobile chat relay, or carry a Pocket Computer with a Player Detector to always know who is nearby. Turtle upgrades are installed by placing the peripheral item in a Crafting Table with a Turtle, following standard CC:Tweaked upgrade conventions.

Peripheral Casing

The Peripheral Casing is a crafting component, not a peripheral itself. It has no tile entity and no Lua functions. Every Advanced Peripherals block requires one Peripheral Casing in its recipe. All blocks in the mod use Iron-tier materials (mineable with a Pickaxe, harvest level 0) with a hardness of 1.0 and a blast resistance of 5.0, making them reasonably sturdy but not explosion-proof.

Configuration

Advanced Peripherals has a straightforward config file that lets server operators toggle individual peripherals and adjust key parameters. All settings are in the common config section.

Each peripheral can be independently enabled or disabled: enableChatBox, enableMeBridge, enableRsBridge, enablePlayerDetector, enableEnvironmentDetector, enableChunkyTurtle, and enableEnergyDetector are all true by default. When a peripheral is disabled, attempting to use it will print a debug message instead of registering as a peripheral.

The chatBoxCooldown setting (default: 10, range: 1-100,000) controls how many ticks must pass between Chat Box messages. Lowering it allows faster messaging; raising it prevents chat spam on busy servers. The playerDetMaxRange setting (default: 2,147,483,646) caps the maximum detection range for the Player Detector. On large servers, you may want to lower this to prevent players from tracking others across the entire world.