Looking for design; Solar Panel/Accumulator factory

[RosenVitae]

Hey folks.

My searching abilities has only gotten images of actual solar farms, not factories for producing these two components. Designing production lines is a huge headache for me, so I enjoy finding 'schematics' of proven effective designs and building them.

Optimal production with my world settings would be 5-10 of both panels and accumulators.

Huge kudos to anyone that can help me out.

[KatherineOfSky]

Both are pretty simle to set up if you are pulling off of a main bus. The trick is to use half belts to bring in the materials.

Solar Panels: (Note that batteries are not needed -- they are there for something further down that assembly line).

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=767446702


Accumulators:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=767447371


Each of these assemblies is easily expandable to quite a few machines, since the products take so long to create.

In this factory, the products are all on a conveyor belt, dropped into a passive provider; the amount stored is controlled by tapping into the logistics network and limiting the inserter.

However, you can also put chests between machines if you prefer.

[RosenVitae]

I appreciate the reply, but I was hoping to have a standalone "module factory"; something like this: http://sbroadbent.net/gaming/files/factorio/base2-modules.png

[KatherineOfSky]

The problem with modular designs is that they can contain MANY different components, are unable to move their overflow into other system, and suffer from the serious drawback of not being expandable.

For accumulators alone, you would need a refinery to process crude oil, chem plants to crack heavy and light oil, make sulfur, sulfuric acid, and batteries, possibly a steam engine to dispose of any excess products. Then you'd need an ore line feeding a furnace to make your iron and copper plates.

I would highly recommend going with a main bus design that has all these intermediate products already on the line. They are much more expansion-friendly.

[RosenVitae]

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

The problem with modular designs is that they can contain MANY different components, are unable to move their overflow into other system, and suffer from the serious drawback of not being expandable.

For accumulators alone, you would need a refinery to process crude oil, chem plants to crack heavy and light oil, make sulfur, sulfuric acid, and batteries, possibly a steam engine to dispose of any excess products. Then you'd need an ore line feeding a furnace to make your iron and copper plates.

I would highly recommend going with a main bus design that has all these intermediate products already on the line. They are much more expansion-friendly.

Huh, I didn't think of that (didn't know that main bus included storage of all produced items, but sounds useful).

Thank you.

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by RosenVitae:

Huh, I didn't think of that (didn't know that main bus included storage of all produced items, but sounds useful).

Thank you.

Please check out my guide -- it will (hopefully) give you a good idea of how to build a main bus structure in your factory:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=754378586

[RosenVitae]

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Originally posted by RosenVitae:

Huh, I didn't think of that (didn't know that main bus included storage of all produced items, but sounds useful).

Thank you.

Please check out my guide -- it will (hopefully) give you a good idea of how to build a main bus structure in your factory:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=754378586

Interesting concept. Never really knew what a main bus was until I saw this. I will say it looks simple and efficient, so I'll definitely be trying it out in another game.

It's a very good guide :) Good kitty.

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by RosenVitae:

Interesting concept. Never really knew what a main bus was until I saw this. I will say it looks simple and efficient, so I'll definitely be trying it out in another game.

It's a very good guide :) Good kitty.

LOL, thanks. Glad it has given you some inspiration!

Most of the Factorio community uses a main bus design specifically because it makes further assemblies very easy to line up, as well as adding more production to the bus itself.

[Josh Franco]

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Most of the Factorio community uses a main bus design specifically because it makes further assemblies very easy to line up, as well as adding more production to the bus itself.

If most use a main bus, what does the other players use? What other alternative do we have? I've always wondered, since I've only used a main bus design.

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by Sane:

If most use a main bus, what does the other players use? What other alternative do we have? I've always wondered, since I've only used a main bus design.

Newer players tend to play in a spaghetti-like fashion.

The upsides of spaghetti factories are that they look really cool! Also, the speedrunners use them since they can conserve resources by making exact ratios for things they are producing.

Man Bus designs tend to be more forgiving and allow overflow from lanes, etc.

Some people also modularize their production and use trains to cart it around.

Those are the main variations, I think.

[Lawlzer]

Spaghetti Factories. Oh god. Those are a mess..

[Dinodod]

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Originally posted by Sane:

If most use a main bus, what does the other players use? What other alternative do we have? I've always wondered, since I've only used a main bus design.

Newer players tend to play in a spaghetti-like fashion.

The upsides of spaghetti factories are that they look really cool! Also, the speedrunners use them since they can conserve resources by making exact ratios for things they are producing.

Man Bus designs tend to be more forgiving and allow overflow from lanes, etc.

Some people also modularize their production and use trains to cart it around.

Those are the main variations, I think.

I taken the main bus design and compacted it a bit. It's only a prototype and has a few flaws I need to deal with as I have come across a few issues but by using combinators and 1 belt system for everything but iron and copper plates, I have a nice linear system setup

Pros
1) It's very easy to setup and clone
2) It's limitless in expandability
3) It uses less 'buses' than a traditional main bus in that it uses 3 belts, 1 for iron plates, 1 for copper plates and 1 for everything else
4) It uses 'buffer chests' only to contol when items are needed. Production is turned off when items are not needed and you have xx amount in storage. For requesting chests, I stop requesting products when 50 items are in a chest and for producing chests, I keep mybe 2 slots worth of items so the asssembly can catch up with demands. This can be modified as you need.
5) It's designed to support up to 4 items needed for production so it's ready for late game products

Cons
1) Can get bottlenecked without a overflow system in place to keep the line moving (another buffer chest for temp overflow)
2) Gears and green circuits will quickly flood your system. This might need a seperate belt??
3) It uses buffer chests :) But these are only temporary, just like in real life, warehouses.
4) Have not designed a large mega base to test it with

https://i.imgsafe.org/459c8a4034.png

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by B.O.T.S.:

I taken the main bus design and compacted it a bit. It's only a prototype and has a few flaws I need to deal with as I have come across a few issues but by using combinators and 1 belt system for everything but iron and copper plates, I have a nice linear system setup

Pros
1) It's very easy to setup and clone
2) It's limitless in expandability
3) It uses less 'buses' than a traditional main bus in that it uses 3 belts, 1 for iron plates, 1 for copper plates and 1 for everything else
4) It uses 'buffer chests' only to contol when items are needed. Production is turned off when items are not needed and you have xx amount in storage. For requesting chests, I stop requesting products when 50 items are in a chest and for producing chests, I keep mybe 2 slots worth of items so the asssembly can catch up with demands. This can be modified as you need.
5) It's designed to support up to 4 items needed for production so it's ready for late game products

Cons
1) Can get bottlenecked without a overflow system in place to keep the line moving (another buffer chest for temp overflow)
2) Gears and green circuits will quickly flood your system. This might need a seperate belt??
3) It uses buffer chests :) But these are only temporary, just like in real life, warehouses.
4) Have not designed a large mega base to test it with

https://i.imgsafe.org/459c8a4034.png

Tell me how many rockets per minute you can launch with that setup! ;-)

[Dinodod]

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Originally posted by B.O.T.S.:

Tell me how many rockets per minute you can launch with that setup! ;-)

Yea... I'm not even producing modules yet. I'm only at blue circuits atm and I don't have any oil :) It took me almost day waiting for oil nd then having to scout out yet another patch far away. It's gonna take some doing and I'm gonna have to build a warehouse for oil barrels alone if I am going to have a chance at keeping reserves. That is one thing about this gam, OIL is the hardest to manage :)

[Lawlzer]

Originally posted by B.O.T.S.:

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Yea... I'm not even producing modules yet. I'm only at blue circuits atm and I don't have any oil :) It took me almost day waiting for oil nd then having to scout out yet another patch far away. It's gonna take some doing and I'm gonna have to build a warehouse for oil barrels alone if I am going to have a chance at keeping reserves. That is one thing about this gam, OIL is the hardest to manage :)

*is chilling, just got my first ever oil pump jacks placed*
Oh, yaaaay. It already looks complicated AF.