Best uses of circuit network

[valenti_scott]

Hello-
I've played around a bit with the circuit network features. In one game I played a few months back, I had circuits all over the place. Then I played a few games in which I didn't use any circuits at all.

This game I'm playing now, I noticed a few must-have areas for circuit networks: monitoring the fluid levels in various tanks, and also, monitoring the status of my nuclear power, and whether or not a rocket is ready for launch.

Fluid levels: I've been using combinators and speakers to alert me if fluids fall out of certain ranges. Later I may also automate the switch on and off of certain machines.

Nuclear power: Alerts when the steel chest in my uranium processing is almost full, and also when my nuclear fuel for the power plant gets below a certain level.

Rocket: Alerts when the rocket is ready for launch. I realize I could set it for auto-launch, but I enjoy pushing that button!

I'd be curious to see what other areas you guys feel are "must-haves" for the circuit network. Thanks,
-Scott

[Horoai]

Not that I managed to finish all of these yet but:

- Smart train station which accepts anything without jamming.

- Waiting yard for trains which transport resources said smart train station wouldn't accept at this point anyway, so they don't run in circles needlessly or block the station.

- Train dispatch system which sends only one train at a time to any mining site station, in a network that uses generic station names (all stations have the same name).

- Nuclear fuel feeder. Prevents inserters from putting all 5 fuel cells into the reactor and instead use the amount required to fill my steam tanks.

- 40 u235 Kovarex setup.

- Smart unload station for trains visiting mines which takes required defense supplies (ammo, repair kits, replacements) out of the supply wagon.

- Ammo belt balancers. Ensures there is only a set amount of ammo on the belt cycling through all gun turrets on the perimeter (reduces buffer size). Also ensures the available ammo is always spaced abou equally.

- Circuit controlled fluid conversion. It doesn't alarm me if light oil is overflowing, it just starts converting it to petroleum.

- Circuit based balancers and artificial backpressure setups.

- Programmed assemblers.

I've only just begun exploring the circuit network, really.

[Killcreek2]

Hmm, "must have" circuits:

Well, there are many I use at different stages of the game, from simple inserter-chest limit fine control / min stock, or belt-inserter to bleed off excess product only.
Both are great in early game to reduce micromanagement / manual feeding / manual crafting .

Next big one is automatic refinery circuit ~ at simple [early] level, you can wire pump & storage tank directly & hard-code limits. Later on, add a few combis to make it dynamic based on load / easily adjustable / infinitely expandable.

Then smart train wagon loaders ~ a bit of circuitry takes a lot less space than a complex belt splitter arrangement, for the same even-loading results. Same applies for "priority belt" setups ~ via circuit uses less space.

Silent alerts are something I use a lot ~ getting an icon to pop up: when mine X is low, or product run Y is complete, or oil ref has gone wrong, rocket is ready / being launched, outpost power supply line cut, etc etc.

Automating nuclear power for better fuel efficiency is pretty easy: there are a number of methods that work. Ditto kovarex.

Last big one I often use is for logi-to-logi network bridges, to supply items between air-gapped networks automagically ~ very useful for walls to prevent con bot clumping, but also between the main factory areas.
Also use a variation of this for my resupply & rearm & repair trains servicing the walls.

Other than these, I occasionally use a couple of small circuits such as an egg timer to toggle something on/off for a set time, or hysteresis loop to avoid rapid power flickering [esp for beacons].

Everything else is kinda luxury, or "just to see if I could" ~ display panels, smart stations / train routing, smart smelters, central factory control board.

Circuits let you automate "all the things" you want, if you can figure out how. ;D

[BitterSwede]

Alerts when mines are depleted is one of my biggest must-haves.
Another one is fine control of inserters into chests, instead of just using the slot restrictions. This ensures future-proofing when upgrading chests as well.

The biggest thing I use it for though must be the refineries. I use one set of normal cracking and one set of advanced cracking and have a circuit automatically switching set depending on need. I then do the same for heavy->light and light->petrolium.

I've also played around with a set of tanks, pumps and circuits to automatically dump heavy, light or petro into a solid fuel factory if needed, instead of building more tanks or upping production. More tanks is too much micro and upping production makes no sense if you have a good ratio already. Solid fuel is always good to have anyway, and takes way less space than the fluids.

[valenti_scott]

Thanks for all the replies guys. A lot to think about!

Basically, if I find myself running around to check on things, and micro-managing them, there is probably an opportunity for a circuit network automation there?

Also, if there are high-value items sitting idle on a belt, I possibly could use some circuit logic to make things more efficient? Either that or logicstic bots?

And also trains, trains and trains. A lot of ways to make them run more efficiently with circuit logic.

Thanks again,
-Scott

[Killcreek2]

Originally posted by valenti_scott:

Thanks for all the replies guys. A lot to think about!

Basically, if I find myself running around to check on things, and micro-managing them, there is probably an opportunity for a circuit network automation there?

Absolutely!
Though, keep the 90% / 10% ratio in mind: 90% of a "perfect" solution takes 10% of the time, but the last 10% takes 90% more, so try to move on once it reaches "good enough". A little manual intervention now & then is ok. ;P

Also, if there are high-value items sitting idle on a belt, I possibly could use some circuit logic to make things more efficient? Either that or logicstic bots?

Kinda depends on the belt length, as the belt is also acting as a buffer. Simplest way is to use only 1 belt lane for high value items & keep the belt short as possible.
You could wire the producer output inserter to the consumer input inserter[s], on pulse mode with a simple count up/down combinator. So when 1 item is taken from the belt, another is added to replace it.

Have a play, try some ideas out, see what works best for you.

[Hedning]

Nothing is "must have" but things I always use are controls for oil products, wall refilling stations (separate bot network) and a requester-provider chest combo for most items to clean the storage chests.

Other things is a priority for kovarex over ore processing, single belt for science, and multi furnaces which are smelting what is currently in lowest supply (early and mid game only, because you never want to be close to a bottleneck on base products later).

[Lingluo]

I guess it's pacman.

[Stryke(r)]

i dunno if it has been mentioned yet, but even with the new map view with which you can manually remote deliver stuff via trains, you can't change requester chests or switches from afar.

What i did / am going to do in my base right now is setting up a station, that will recieve input via wire and the auto fill a train. In conjuntion with the mapview you basically can have everything delivered to you, even without setting up a chest with specific item in beforehand.

Additionally i use the red wires to allow remote contol of my power grid (basically just sending variables from anywhere via a cons. output device, so i could turn of different parts of my factory
remotely - just in case my nuclear does hickup at some point - 12,1GW plant with water barreling (which can lead to problems with huge spikes...)). You will have to set it up tho (best would be to just include the wires in the blueprints of the railways and have a standard BP for the connection to the power grid and just change the variable names).

Edit: Must have is definatly covarex and oil processing with mixed outputs (esp. if you try to balance heavy oil with lube production only...)

[Grumpy Old Gamer]

Balancing petroleum cracking, so solid fuel is made from light oil but excess light oil gets cracked into gas. Only takes a single wire from the light oil tank to a pump that feeds the light oil to gas cracking plant. I personally control the water input, because its in a remote location and I ship water but controlling the oil input is just as feasible.

[Qlimax]

Productivity monitor

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1177851802