If these ten passive chests run low, enable station logistics help

[Blackstarr911]

Title says it all, i have resupply trains keeping my outposts running, Currently its looped because i cant figure out how to set up multiple chests to enable/disable a station

please help

[AlexMBrennan]

Connect decider combinator to the roboport, set it to output L=1 if resource < whatever you want, connect combinator output to train station, and finally enable the train limit for the train station. Optionally you could use more sophisticated logic.

[knighttemplar1960]

You can also use even less circuit logic if you haven't mastered combinators yet. Run a wire (red or green but stay consistent for that station) from a power pole to the train station and from that power pole to each logistic chest. Set the station to enable when material < X. Material being the item you use most of. When the sum of that item in those chests drop below the amount specified the train station will turn on and the first available supply train will go to that station, refill it, and turn the station back off. If you have other goods on the train it will also top off all of the other goods while its there. When the station turns off or when your train reaches another condition (such as idle time or cargo empty) it will then go to the next stop.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2492124234
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2492124319

A couple of caveats for this method. You can only have two stops in the train's consist or the train will just loop between the enabled stations and skip the disabled station until it enables again. If you have two stops the train will return to the loading station and stay there (because it has no other station that it can go to.) This method works for a small to medium sized base that has only a few supply stops all named the same (so a transition between a first launch base and a mega base). When you upgrade to a larger base with many more supply stops you'll want to switch to the method AlexMBrennan mentioned.

Its best if you start Alex's way but if you can't get your head around combinators yet, the method I gave will work in the interim.

[astrosha]

Are those PP's single-item chests, or aggregate? In other words, does one hold all of the Solar Panels at that outpost, or are the Solar Panels split among all of them in some random distribution?

This method works best if each PP is single-item only, such as only Solar Panels in this one, only Accumulators in that one, etc. Use the Red X to limit the size of each chest, so that when the train comes to drop off solar Panels, it does not drop off too many more Accumulators or Inserters or whatever.

Using one color wire, connect all the chests together to a Constant Combinator. If you want to ahve 100 Solar Panels, but call the train when there are fewer than 50, set the CC to -50 Solar Panels. Do the same for each item you are offloading.

Using the same color wire, connect the Constant Combinator to the train stop. Set the Train Limit to 1. Se tthe station to Enable when Anything < 0.

This works better than the above methods, because there is no signal with a value of 0. A value of zero means there is no signal at all, and the train stop will not consider it. so if you had 50 solar Panels, and all 50 are taken out at once, you have 0 Solar Panels, the train stop does not even get a Solar Panel signal anymore.

As mentioned above though, you can only have two stops on the train's schedule. HOWEVER - you can have multiple stops with the same name as the destination. If the train is carrying a lot of material, but several stations only need a few items from it, they can all enable (calling the train) and the train will run to one, top off, then go back for more supplies, then go to the next, and so on.

[AlexMBrennan]

You can also use even less circuit logic if you haven't mastered combinators yet.

Using the combinator is necessary to set train limits which works much more reliably than disabling the station which I strongly recommend to never use.

[Blackstarr911]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

Connect decider combinator to the roboport, set it to output L=1 if resource < whatever you want, connect combinator output to train station, and finally enable the train limit for the train station. Optionally you could use more sophisticated logic.

Hey thanks man this worked a treat