Sorting Trash

[Selvek]

So, I fill up my inventory with a ton of stuff, and decide to clean it out using trash slots. I'd like to figure out a good way to feed my trash back into appropriate places in the factory. Either I want to feed the extra items back into the buses so they can be used, or just keep them close to where the item is produced/stored so that things are organized.

The first thought is obviously to use requester chests, but most of these items already have provider chests, which creates an infinite loop in many cases. If, for example, I want a "trash" chest for steel plates that deposits them straight on to the main steel bus, I obviously don't want my steel provider chest filling up my trash chest.

My second thought was to use storage chests "seeded" with one of the item I want them filled with. That works ok, assuming you use a smart inserter (programmed to always leave one item in the chest) to unload it. But, invariably it eventually starts getting filled up with other junk - this may work ok once I have a seeded chest for literally every item.

I feel like a "passive requester" chest would be nice, but in the meantime, any other recommendations?

[Carefulrogue]

I wonder if you can do anything with combinators, but I'm not skilled enough to figure that out. PTW meanwhile, because this is something I'm curious about as well.

[AlexMBrennan]

The first thought is obviously to use requester chests, but most of these items already have provider chests, which creates an infinite loop in many cases. If, for example, I want a "trash" chest for steel plates that deposits them straight on to the main steel bus, I obviously don't want my steel provider chest filling up my trash chest.

The short answer is that you should use storage chests.

The long answer is that are over-using active provider chests. I would suggest carefuly evaluating if they are really needed, and replacing them with passive providers when you find out they are not needed.
Once you have fixed your logistics network, you just have to plop down a storage chest somewhere and trash items will automatically be inserted into your production lines at the appropriate place.

[Qlimax]

Roboport + logistics robots + 1 Storage chest (yellow) for each unique item you have then make an active provider chest put all your mixed items in that then the robots will sort them all into chests

[AlexMBrennan]

then make an active provider chest put all your mixed items in that

I think you might have missed the part where OP said that they want to use the character's logistic trash slots to dispose of trash.

[Mazian]

The correct way to handle this is to create a single storage chest, which then filters contents into sub-provider chests, and again, and again, until you can distribute them along a flat row that can be fed back into your main bus.

The problem with the 'correct way' is that you can only filter 5 items per smart inserter. You can only put 4 smart inserters around a single storage chest, and therefore you can only filter 20 items maximum.

Because of the vaguaries of storage chests and the logistics network, it is impossible to guarantee that your storage chest will only get the 20 items you want sorted out of that specific chest.


Conclusion:

What you want done is not really possible without preventing the usage of provider chests for the items you want sorted, which effectively breaks the logistic provider network. So unless you're willing to sacrifice that feature, it's not possible to do what you want (at present.)


However, there are mods that give you chests that are larger footprint (2x2 and larger chests), and these could have more inserters filtering contents out-- but I think those same mods also increase the number of items that can be filtered, and so ultimately they're not really a solution unless you turn on only the chests themselves (and even then, I think the number of entities in the game exceed 40-- which would be the result of a 2x2x2x5 mathematical calculation.)

[AlexMBrennan]

The correct way to handle this is to create a single storage chest, which then filters contents into sub-provider chests, and again, and again, until you can distribute them along a flat row that can be fed back into your main bus.

Why would you think that a provider chest is needed? Items in the storage chest are available for logistics robots, so the next time a requester needs items they will be taken from the storage chest. Putting the items in a active provider chest is non-sensical (by definition you want active providers be empty) and creates a loop, and putting them in a passive provider chest is a no-op.

For putting items on the main bus just use requester chests. No need to filter anything with smart inserters.

[KatherineOfSky]

OP, the short solution is: put down a few storage chests. Robots will prioritize taking from Storage chests BEFORE passive providers, so these materials should be used up first.

I definitely agree with the sentiment though. I wish items from trash slots or active provider chests would be reallocated to their Passive Providers (if existing), and THEN put into Storage if there is no other room.

I often like to grab stuff right from my local chests for building, (without configuring my character requester slots), so it would be handy if items went back to their proper chests.

Also, top-level items, like Tanks or Chemical plants will never be requested by other assemblers, and so should go back to the provider chest.

[Qlimax]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=698123457 This is how I do it, you might need the personal roboport in power armor to 'trash' outside zones but not sure about this..

[Carefulrogue]

Originally posted by Qlimax:

This is how I do it, you might need the personal roboport in power armor to 'trash' outside zones but not sure about this..

Unfortunately, personal roboports will not ferry materials for you, only construction robots. I believe it was Mangled Pork/Bentham that mentioned it, but I could be wrong there.

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by Carefulrogue:

Unfortunately, personal roboports will not ferry materials for you, only construction robots.

You need LOGISTICS robots to ferry trash.

[Mazian]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

The correct way to handle this is to create a single storage chest, which then filters contents into sub-provider chests, and again, and again, until you can distribute them along a flat row that can be fed back into your main bus.

... Putting the items in a active provider chest is non-sensical ...

Please note that you're the one that interpreted 'provider' to mean 'active provider'-- there are two types of providers. Passive and Active. Of course use of Active Provider would be non-sense, therefore it should seem more reasonable to interpret it as Passive.

Please don't put words in other people's mouths, it's unsanitary and unpleasant.


I accept your addition that logistics storage chests could be used in place of passive provider chests.

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Originally posted by Carefulrogue:

Unfortunately, personal roboports will not ferry materials for you, only construction robots.

You need LOGISTICS robots to ferry trash.

Carefulrogue was partially correct:

Construction Robots are required to ferry anything in a container that is being deconstructed; If you deconstruct a Logistics Storage Chest, and all of its contents need to be moved to another chest, it will be Construction Robots that perform the labor.

Logistics Robots are used for ferrying anything between containers and between containers and players. (Not construction related.)

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by Mazian:

Carefulrogue was partially correct:

Construction Robots are required to ferry anything in a container that is being deconstructed; If you deconstruct a Logistics Storage Chest, and all of its contents need to be moved to another chest, it will be Construction Robots that perform the labor.

Logistics Robots are used for ferrying anything between containers and between containers and players. (Not construction related.)

You are correct. I interpreted the other poster to mean "using Trash Slots", but after rereading the post it is ambiguous, and could mean "deconstructing".

[Mazian]

I think he meant what you think he meant-- and that he's remembering Mangled Pork/Bentham's comments incorrectly-- but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was trying to say that Construction Robots are used to ferry things (under certain circumstances).

And, if we give him the benefit of the doubt, he is at least partially correct.

[Carefulrogue]

To all: I grossly miswrote what I said above in response to Qlimax. What I meant to say was that personal roboports will not support logistic bots (only construction bots,) and therefor will not allow the ferrying of items, to and from your person, outside of regular logistics ranges. I wasn't particularlly refering to deconstructing, and it wasn't factored into my statement.

Is this clearer?

[Allusion]

Is there a mod for Automatic disposal of trash items?
Everytime i have a single small electric pole or ores it would automatically put them into trash slots. Would be awesome to have.