How to limit amount of items taken by machine?

[Parusoid]

Lets say a machine uses 1 item to produce something. Machine is able however to hold more items in input slot than it is required to produce something. What can I do with circuit network and inserters to make inserter place only 1 item, not maximum amount a machine can hold?(changing 'override stack size' in inserter does not help)

[nicholas.sommer]

You could count the outputs and limit the input inserter to only swing when output adds up. But I think that’s a bit too complicated to set up for that little problem. Btw machines take just twice the amounts of what they need for their recipe. I don’t see many reasons why you want to limit that further

[stlyau]

They only take twice as much, but if being loaded by stack inserter or if you've researched Stack Bonus, then there might be more than twice the recipe in the assembler at any time. If you're using stack inserter or had researched the bonus, then you'll want to click on the inserter and check the box to ignore stack size and reset it to 1.

[Steelwind]

Erm, the inserter doesn't put the maximum amount a machine can hold. It puts enough to keep it running. Usually like 2x the ingredients required or something. In chests you can limit the chest size in the GUI.

[Parusoid]

Originally posted by stlyau:

Then you'll want to click on the inserter and check the box to ignore stack size and reset it to 1.

I already did that. Inserter just puts the item multiple times instead of putting it and waiting for the prduction procces to be done

[THE kilroy]

The inserter doesnt wait untill the type of item is empty, to ensure that as soon as machine has produced 1 cycle it can begin the next.

[Steelwind]

How many of what item does it put in before it stops? What is it making? I can't think of anything that is so hard to streamline that a couple extra would kill me. A full stack sure but even a stack inserter doesn't do that.

[Parusoid]

Originally posted by Steelwind:

How many of what item does it put in before it stops? What is it making? I can't think of anything that is so hard to streamline that a couple extra would kill me. A full stack sure but even a stack inserter doesn't do that.

Nuclear reactor can hold 5 uranium fuel cells. The thing is reactor still uses the cells even if energy is not needed. Now i solved this by storing the hot steam that is produced by using the fuel cells. But i would want the reactor to take only one cell at a time

[stlyau]

Guess when it comes to Nuclear, I'm just to the point I don't care about the reactors running unchecked. I just don't care as much as others about producing JUST enough power to make base run, as I'd rather it just run and not needing to think about power every few hours after building or upgrading the next section of the base (mainly when dropping 100s of miners in a 30 minute period).

Once you've got a setup that keeps plenty of Fuel Cells made and reclaimated, it becomes a non-issue IMO. I got Uranium ore just sitting on trains waiting to unload to process, due to having more than enough Fuel Cells and U-235 stockpiled. Not to mention, the untapped Uranium patches currently inside the base walls. I don't even have all the reactors I could in my current setup, it could still potentially have another 22 reactors in it to go with the 28 that are currently running. LOL

[stlyau]

Circuit wiring the inserter feeding the reactor to only enable if "Fuel Cell < (less than) 1" with ignore stack size checked on the inserter. This should make the inserter only input 1 cell, and only when there is none in the reactor. I may have the symbol wrong, I always get the direction confused, but you could go with "Fuel Cell = 0" I'm guessing as well.

[Killcreek2]

Originally posted by Parusoid:

Nuclear reactor can hold 5 uranium fuel cells. The thing is reactor still uses the cells even if energy is not needed. Now i solved this by storing the hot steam that is produced by using the fuel cells.

But i would want the reactor to take only one cell at a time

Wire the output inserter to the input inserter. Basic inserters work best.

Set Output inserter to "read hand contents, hold".
Set Input inserter to "activate when [empty fuel cell] > 0". Limit stack size to 1.

You will have to manually load the very first fuel cell into each new core, but afterwards it will automatically add a single cell as an empty one is spat out, never holding more than 1.

Easy peasy. :)


Edit: If you want to throttle the reactors based on stored steam levels:
Add a *differently coloured* wire to each Output inserter [not inputs], keep the "read hand contents" as above, but add "activate when signal [A] > 0" condition.

Connect that wire to the output of a decider combi, & connect its input side to the steam storage tanks.
Set it to "if [steam] < [min stock level, eg; 5000], output: 1x [A] signal".

This will result in the reactors only eating 1 fuel cell at a time, only turning on when steam storage gets low, and not wasting fuel cells if steam storage is full.
Adjust the min stock level trigger threshold in the combinator as needed, to suit the scale of your design.

[Steelwind]

Originally posted by stlyau:

I got Uranium ore just sitting on trains waiting to unload to process, due to having more than enough Fuel Cells and U-235 stockpiled.

Nukes and ammo, duh. :p


As to the OP. This is more a power management issue than an inserter issue though and can be solved with logistics as mentioned. There are ways to monitor your power levels and activate it when needed too. We've always just kept ours running in tiers so if we ran low on fuel the lower ones would shut down.

[Parusoid]

Originally posted by Killcreek2:

Originally posted by Parusoid:

Nuclear reactor can hold 5 uranium fuel cells. The thing is reactor still uses the cells even if energy is not needed. Now i solved this by storing the hot steam that is produced by using the fuel cells.

But i would want the reactor to take only one cell at a time

Wire the output inserter to the input inserter. Basic inserters work best.

Set Output inserter to "read hand contents, hold".
Set Input inserter to "activate when [empty fuel cell] > 0". Limit stack size to 1.

You will have to manually load the very first fuel cell into each new core, but afterwards it will automatically add a single cell as an empty one is spat out, never holding more than 1.

Easy peasy. :)


Edit: If you want to throttle the reactors based on stored steam levels:
Add a *differently coloured* wire to each Output inserter [not inputs], keep the "read hand contents" as above, but add "activate when signal [A] > 0" condition.

Connect that wire to the output of a decider combi, & connect its input side to the steam storage tanks.
Set it to "if [steam] < [min stock level, eg; 5000], output: 1x [A] signal".

This will result in the reactors only eating 1 fuel cell at a time, only turning on when steam storage gets low, and not wasting fuel cells if steam storage is full.
Adjust the min stock level trigger threshold in the combinator as needed, to suit the scale of your design.

THis works great, thanks.

Originally posted by stlyau:

Circuit wiring the inserter feeding the reactor to only enable if "Fuel Cell < (less than) 1" with ignore stack size checked on the inserter. This should make the inserter only input 1 cell, and only when there is none in the reactor. I may have the symbol wrong, I always get the direction confused, but you could go with "Fuel Cell = 0" I'm guessing as well.

Game does not allow connecting wires to reactor

[stlyau]

Originally posted by Steelwind:

Originally posted by stlyau:

I got Uranium ore just sitting on trains waiting to unload to process, due to having more than enough Fuel Cells and U-235 stockpiled.

Nukes and ammo, duh. :p

No need anymore with Artillery strategically placed around the base walls to destroy any new nests that appear within range. LOL

[Killcreek2]

Originally posted by Parusoid:

This works great, thanks.

NP, welcome to Reactor Control circuitry. ;3

[stlyau]

Originally posted by Parusoid:

Originally posted by Killcreek2:

Wire the output inserter to the input inserter. Basic inserters work best.

Set Output inserter to "read hand contents, hold".
Set Input inserter to "activate when [empty fuel cell] > 0". Limit stack size to 1.

You will have to manually load the very first fuel cell into each new core, but afterwards it will automatically add a single cell as an empty one is spat out, never holding more than 1.

Easy peasy. :)


Edit: If you want to throttle the reactors based on stored steam levels:
Add a *differently coloured* wire to each Output inserter [not inputs], keep the "read hand contents" as above, but add "activate when signal [A] > 0" condition.

Connect that wire to the output of a decider combi, & connect its input side to the steam storage tanks.
Set it to "if [steam] < [min stock level, eg; 5000], output: 1x [A] signal".

This will result in the reactors only eating 1 fuel cell at a time, only turning on when steam storage gets low, and not wasting fuel cells if steam storage is full.
Adjust the min stock level trigger threshold in the combinator as needed, to suit the scale of your design.

THis works great, thanks.

Originally posted by stlyau:

Circuit wiring the inserter feeding the reactor to only enable if "Fuel Cell < (less than) 1" with ignore stack size checked on the inserter. This should make the inserter only input 1 cell, and only when there is none in the reactor. I may have the symbol wrong, I always get the direction confused, but you could go with "Fuel Cell = 0" I'm guessing as well.

Game does not allow connecting wires to reactor

As I mentioned earlier, I don't worry about controlling the Fuel Cells, so hadn't played with circuits in this area. Let alone with in most areas in general. My base runs or it doesn't, there is not moderation, yet.