I would like some help with circuit networks

[GothDarkman]

Hello. I am not new to the game, i am confused on how to set up a circuit system using the decider combinator and the rest of the combinator.s. i have looked on youtube, watched many videos on them and still do not understand exactly how to set them up to do what i am wanting in the game . Here is what i am trying to get to happen...... i know inserters will add to a chest if the chest has room for sn item...... and stop wjen it is full all om its own. But i want to set up a system that will not activate the inserter unyil the chest completely empty and stay on until the chest is completeky full.
I have tried many different approaches to this over the yesrs. I am playing on 0.17x version so the latest updates i have. So i am thinkimg i am hooking up the combinators wrong. Like i set 1 decider combinator to coal < 3200 output Ahook that up to an inserter.. the chest starts emptying and the inserter stops after 1 or 2 is removed. So i also set up a decider to the same chest and inserter reading coal >0 output A. That eorks for emptying the chests but i do not know how to reverse the setup for the inserter yo wsit til the chest is fulll nefore it starts unloading the same chest. My ultimate goal is to kerp the belts clear and empty unless the machines need the contents. Can anyone help me undrrstand how to do this? Please. I have even tried the nee switch machine attaching it to multiple combinators with different if/then situations and the switch does not work properly. It wil either turn on at the wring times or not at all. I believe i am setting up the decider combinators wrong. Or missing a step.
Thank you all for your time.

[Warlord]

That sounds not too bad, so far. I haven't done any circuitry myself beyond the simple hooking up of wires from machine to machine. But what you described wanting sounds like an SR Latch. I don't know exactly what that entails, but if you want to search some more (particularly on how to use that in factorio) that would be a good place to start.

Most times I hear that being used here is for enabling of backup power generators (steam). They would monitor the power level of an accumulator (that represents the entire network's collective power level) and if it dipped below a certain percent, it would connect up steam engines to the network until power reached a certain percent. Since your deal is similar, except what you want is for the connection (inserter) to enable only if the power (chest contents) reaches zero, then disable it when it reaches an amount (the exact contents of a full chest).

Sounds like you already got the two conditions figured out, you just need to know how to use the factorio circuit deciders to make it into an SR Latch.

[Kreigan]

I'm definitly not a factorio Guru and I haven't played much with the logic system but watched a few video like you

Couldn't you use a constant combinator to set a variable and change the status regarding chest content ?

If the chest content =0 ->Set a variable to 0
If the chest content = 3200 ->Set the variable to 1

Activate the inserters to fill/empty the chest based on the variable value
Filling inserter -> Active if variable=0
Emptying inserter ->Active if variable=1

And the variable should switch from 0 to 1 to 0 only when the chest reach 0 or 3200

[Subak]

If I were trying to do what you want to do, I would look into using a couple of power switches. There's definitely other ways but this is a simple one (blueprint below).

You can sever 'auto-links' between power poles by shift-clicking them. You can remove other wires this way too. This is useful when working with power switches in tight setups in particular. You connect power switches (to poles) with *copper* wire.

System is fed by the bottom arm. Top arm unloads. Note the rightmost poles are NOT connected (shift-clicked to remove as above).

You can also limit the chest with this setup by blocking off units of the chest.using the limit inventory button in the chest.

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[GothDarkman]

Couldn't you use a constant combinator to set a variable and change the status regarding chest content ?

If the chest content =0 ->Set a variable to 0
If the chest content = 3200 ->Set the variable to 1

Activate the inserters to fill/empty the chest based on the variable value
Filling inserter -> Active if variable=0
Emptying inserter ->Active if variable=1

And the variable should switch from 0 to 1 to 0 only when the chest reach 0 or 3200


My question how do you set this up? It sounds like it would work for me and do what i want it to do but how do you connect everything? And ehat machines do i use? Do i hook up the constant combinators to decider combinators or just hook it up directly? Is power switches involved?




About SR Latches i will look that up too. I am not sure what a SR Latch is or how it works.


The blueprint is helpful thank you. All of this has been helpful. Thank you again for the time.

[Killcreek2]

Originally posted by GothDarkman:

Couldn't you use a constant combinator to set a variable and change the status regarding chest content ?
...
My question how do you set this up? ...

An RS latch would do it. 3 combinators: 2 to read the chest & set the high/low threshholds, and a 3rd to do the actual "latching".

There is a good example on the wiki page in the Circuit Network Cookbook[wiki.factorio.com] ~ this example is monitoring accumulartor charge levels, but you can easily adjust it to read chest contents instead.

[Kreigan]

Originally posted by GothDarkman:

My question how do you set this up? It sounds like it would work for me and do what i want it to do but how do you connect everything? And ehat machines do i use? Do i hook up the constant combinators to decider combinators or just hook it up directly? Is power switches involved?

As i said, I haven't played much with logic system but i would try :
Chest->Decider Combinator 1 : parameter (Coal=0) Output (Variable : 0)->Constant combinator
Chest->Decider Combinator 2 : parameter (Coal=3200) Output (Variable : 1)->Constant combinator

And now i'd need to check if you can read variable directly on inserter to toggle on/off or use a switch to power / unpower.

Not at home right now, but i'm interested in finding a solution. I will give it a try tonight :)

Edit : Just saw Killcreek2 answer.
It seems to answer the way to do it using a 3rrd decider combinator instead of Constant combinator

[AlexMBrennan]

Chest->Decider Combinator 1 : parameter (Coal=0) Output (Variable : 0)->Constant combinator

I think you completely failed to understand what constant combinators do because all they do is send a pre-configured value to the network (e.g. you can make a constant combinator output "15 million rocket silos" without having to build 15 million rocket silos and enough chests to store them).

You can't send any values to a constant combinator because constant combinators, by definition, are incapable of reacting to to inputs (they don't even need electricity).

[Kreigan]

Juste made one based on Killcreek2 post : Limited to 50 coal for testing :

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[Kreigan]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

Chest->Decider Combinator 1 : parameter (Coal=0) Output (Variable : 0)->Constant combinator

I think you completely failed to understand what constant combinators do because all they do is send a pre-configured value to the network (e.g. you can make a constant combinator output "15 million rocket silos" without having to build 15 million rocket silos and enough chests to store them).

You can't send any values to a constant combinator because constant combinators, by definition, are incapable of reacting to to inputs (they don't even need electricity).

Correct, just figured it while trying to make my blueprint :)

[Ancient]

As Killcreek2 said. A simple RS Latch will do what you want.

I'll paste a blueprint at the end of my post, but here I'll explain what is going on so you understand it and can modify this kind of setup.

Essentially you need two deciders to read the chest contents and output your S (set) and R(reset) signals based on contents. Your set signal is what you send when you want to turn on the latch (switch is latched on). The reset signal is what you send when you want to reset the latch (off switch). Once on, the latch is permanently "on" until it receives a reset signal. In this way you can have it turn on and stay on until a reset condition is met.

So for your chest, I set up the deciders both to = with the set decider watching the chest for iron plate = 0 and it's output to S = 1. Since you want this to run until the chest is full, and 48 stacks of 100 plates is 4800, the reset decider is set to watch the chest contents for iron plate = 4800 and to output R = 1 when that is true. You wire these to the chest and then to each of their inputs (I used green wire, but it doesn't matter). This way, these two deciders are "reading" the chest for it's contents.

Now you use a third decider that is going to be the actual RS latch. You wire the outputs of your previous two deciders to one input of the RS latch (I used red wire in the BP). Those wires are now sending either their S = 1 or R = 1 outputs to the latch. For an RS Latch itself, you also want to wire the input and output together on the other I/O bank (using the opposite color wire you use to it's input. This is the color wire you will connect to your inserter, pump, etc. that you want to control; I used green in the BP). Now your RS latch is going to watch for the condition S > R and when that is met, to output S = 1.

Finally, you can place your targeted device, in this case an inserter, but it could be a pump, a belt, whatever. And you wire it to the same I/O bank of your latch that you wired together with the same color wire (green in my example), and then set the device to be enabled only when it receives S > 0.

What that will do is watch your chest for the set condition of Iron Plate = 0. When that is met, the RS latch is enabled and will permanently output S = 1 (which triggers your inserter whose enable condition is S > 0) until the latch receives a reset signal (R=1) which will happen when the chest's Iron Plate = 4800. The latch is then closed (off) until the set condition is again received and will continue this cycle of staying on until the chest is full, and then off until the chest is empty again.

Blueprint:

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[Purpleganja]

Isn't the first example on the wiki tutorial very close to what you need?
https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Combinator_tutorial

[Subak]

The fill a chest, then empty it has an obvious use I saw which would be to do something like toggling power consumption between the production and consumption ends of a resource chain. You'd wire producers to the bottom of the blueprint I posted and consumers to the top. Then you could mine a bunch of iron, smelt it, when plates 'buffer', toggle off miners, and toggle on 'plate consumers'.

Particularly if you stuck an additional chest as a buffer in the middle, you could save power without reducing your throughput. Miners drink megawatts and excrete pollution. Although when the factory grows to certain point, I usually find something is always starved and I need more raw materials.

Once belts fill, stuff will stop putting things onto them. But miners are still sucking juice and all the arms and maybe electric smelters are too. So maybe all that really makes sense is to turn off power to things that cannot possibly operate at the moment because their output belt/chest is full, they don't have required inputs, or some arbitrary cutoff (like keeping 1k belts stocked for new construction) has been reached.

[Warlord]

Originally posted by Jo Daddy:

The fill a chest, then empty it has an obvious use I saw which would be to do something like toggling power consumption between the production and consumption ends of a resource chain. You'd wire producers to the bottom of the blueprint I posted and consumers to the top. Then you could mine a bunch of iron, smelt it, when plates 'buffer', toggle off miners, and toggle on 'plate consumers'.

Particularly if you stuck an additional chest as a buffer in the middle, you could save power without reducing your throughput. Miners drink megawatts and excrete pollution. Although when the factory grows to certain point, I usually find something is always starved and I need more raw materials.

Once belts fill, stuff will stop putting things onto them. But miners are still sucking juice and all the arms and maybe electric smelters are too. So maybe all that really makes sense is to turn off power to things that cannot possibly operate at the moment because their output belt/chest is full, they don't have required inputs, or some arbitrary cutoff (like keeping 1k belts stocked for new construction) has been reached.

Doesn't make much sense to me. Miners keep running when you aren't using their product, but they are also producing during that time. It jujst builds up a bit of a buffer. All shutting them off would do is prevent a backlog from accumulating. If you refrain from using chests, then the only backlog that builds up is what is on belts, which is a laughably small amount.

The only benefit to shutting them off is to prevent the minor power drain from a device that is in idle mode. But idle devices don't still generate pollution when idle, only drain a percent of their normal operating power amount.

[AlexMBrennan]

The only benefit to shutting them off is to prevent the minor power drain from a device that is in idle mode. But idle devices don't still generate pollution when idle, only drain a percent of their normal operating power amount.

That is only correct if you don't plan on using beacons.

[GothDarkman]

First off thanks to everyone who responded all of it has been a great help in helping me understsnd combimstors and their functions.

Ancient... thank you so much for tsking the time and walking me through the step by step process. That was a huge help. I will load my dandbox world where i have been trying to figure this out myself and take it step by step. I will try getting the blueprints as soon as i can. Right now i am using tge steam app on my phone for this post. Oh i forgot. In my scenerio im am trying to make the inserter right behind the chest wait. To do this action. I load a belt with product. Let a normal inserter losd the chest so i know the counts are correct. So the second inserter unloads the chest onto a belt to feed another chest for a furnace. I really want belts all free and clear. I think this will help increase production rates as long as all chests are kept full on time. So in the end all i need to really worry about is moving dtiller machines to new resource locations. In the end..... my theory anyway. My question is...now... is while reading your step by step instructions should i wire the first loaded chest or the destination chest and have the inseter activate when the destinayion chest is out? Or either way is good?


Kreigan thank you also for taking the time to actually build a blueprint and research this solution yourself. I like that, thank you.

Killcreek i will look at that link you sent in the cookbook.

Purpleganja yes i tried duplicsting it but was unsucessful. I also tried duplicating another video on youtube and got all confused on everything and that still not work. Anyway, i appreciate the response. I can always try it again once i get better understsnding. I have to do it not just read how person.

Jo Daddy i think turning off power to anything is ok, but doing that really show an accurate power useage? Yeah even if stopped they still drsin but not as much as running or mining.... but still that is being recorded by the graphs. So if everything stays running all the time it eould not matter much? Would it? You woukd syill ned more energy. Cause that power would just go elsewhere. I think. It os just my goal to use everything. Lol. And keep itball going round the clock. And work on max production as fast as the game allows. Or at lesst constant. With a fully functional working warehouse.. where everything gets losded onto a train. That is my idea.

MBennan 15 million rocket silos made me laugh but that sounds like a good side game goal lol. I might try that lol

Thank everyone ahain really. This has all helped a lot.