hI, GREEN AND RED WIRES

[bob the builder]

HI, im quite new to the game. i've got a logistic system with bots. what are the green and red wires for ? circuit network and power switches ? every thing seems to be running ok , do i need them? thanks

[Edwin]

I don't think you "need" them if you're just launching a rocket. But they give you an amount of control that can be very helpful if you want to do more complicated things. For instance, in my first big factory I had smelting outposts with multiple train stations and I used the circuit network to have it only open the unoccupied station with the most resources to improve throughput. It could have been solved in different ways, but it was fun to do and there is a lot you can do with it.

[GunRunner89X]

Green and red wires are used to control things that aren't really possible with the logisitcs network, or control number of produced items before logistics is available to you. You use wires in connection with tanks and pumps for instance to control the flow of liquids depending on the conditions you set; for example, you might have it set up so that you send heavy oil for cracking only when you have a certain amount of lubricant stored.

Another example would be connecting water pumps for your coal burning power stations to an accumulator so that the pumps only work once your accumulators get down to a certain level of charge.

[piper.spirit]

Red and green wires enable you to use the circuit network to further optimise your factory. It is not necessary to understand this to complete the game, however it can be useful for things like oil processing or niche features within a factory.

The reason why there are two colours of wire, it allows for two separate networks to be run without signals getting mixed up. For example, signals add up on the network, so if there are two inputs for say iron plate, iron plate is now 2. But perhaps you don't want these signals to add up and require an iron plate signal of 1- you use different colours to run each iron plate signal.

So really it doesn't matter what colour to use, both wires do the exact same thing.

[SiEgE]

Originally posted by bob the builder:

HI, im quite new to the game. i've got a logistic system with bots. what are the green and red wires for ? circuit network and power switches ? every thing seems to be running ok , do i need them? thanks

Just 2 separate channels for your info to be delivered from point A to point B. Just in case you want to transfer 2 different channels of data through the same spot, so you can avoid mixing it.

[knighttemplar1960]

Here are a few examples of how I use wires, combinators, and power switches. There are lots of ways that you can make more use of them.

The green wire reads the contents of all the chests holding U-235.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916453803
When the trains that move the U-235 are full (2 trains) and waiting to unload where I make my nuclear train fuel and the chests hold enough U-235 to completely refill those 2 trains the wires send a signal to this power switch to turn off my Kovarex enrichment centrifuges. What this does is keep U-235 from backing up which would jam up my U-238 production and run me out of materials to produce uranium rounds and nuclear fuel cells for nuclear power. (The power switch is open which turns off the kovarex set up).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916453841
but the power switch does not control the centrifuges that refine Uranium ore.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916453875

This is my setup to supply my perimeter defenses with ammunition, oil, replacement parts, repair packs, replacement walls and gates, and robots.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916453909

The red wires read the contents of the chests that supply artillery shells. When the total drops below a certain number the combinator sets the train station to allow one train to come to the station and restock artillery shells. The other train stop is set up similarly but supplies every thing else. The wires read the contents of all the disparate supplies in each chest and is connected to the decider combinator. The constant combinator determines how much of each type of item I want available and if the decider combintor sees that any one of those items has fallen below my minimum value the decider combinoter sets the train stop to allow 1 supply train to come to the train station. The train will then top off ALL of the defense supplies no matter which one was the one to fall below minimum level. The wire also connects to the roboport which lets me read how many of each type robots are active and if the bugs kill some the wire will allows the inserter to replace only the destroyed robots so that the entire network doesn't become flooded with idle robots.

[dynalon]

You don’t need them at all, but at same time ignoring them is also missing out on part of the game, part which is the most complex but also most flexible in what it can achieve.

In a few words circuit network allows you to transmit, combine and transform signals and machines which can be connected to circuit network can be enabled or disabled based on signal value. That is 90% of how circuit network is used - enabling or disabling something.
There are some special cases such as setting requester chest requests with signal, controlling trains and stations, setting filter on inserter, but most of the time end goal is to read signal(s), optionally transform them and then send them to something which gets enabled or disabled.

[GAMING_Alligator]

I think the only thing they're actually needed for is the Kovarex reaction. For other things they're optional and there for you to use if you want to mess around with adding logic to different parts f your factory.

[Edwin]

Originally posted by Bookworm:

I think the only thing they're actually needed for is the Kovarex reaction. For other things they're optional and there for you to use if you want to mess around with adding logic to different parts f your factory.

I never actually used the circuit network for Kovarex.

[GAMING_Alligator]

Originally posted by Edwin:

Originally posted by Bookworm:

I think the only thing they're actually needed for is the Kovarex reaction. For other things they're optional and there for you to use if you want to mess around with adding logic to different parts f your factory.

I never actually used the circuit network for Kovarex.

I'd really love to know how. The only way I've ever done it has been with a logic condition that checked how many U235 where output from the reaction and removed anything over 40 before feeding the rest back in.

[shadain597]

Originally posted by Bookworm:

Originally posted by Edwin:

I never actually used the circuit network for Kovarex.

I'd really love to know how. The only way I've ever done it has been with a logic condition that checked how many U235 where output from the reaction and removed anything over 40 before feeding the rest back in.

One easy, though admittedly inefficient, way is to simply use 2x as many inserters feeding the machine as are pulling uranium out. Make the inputs "downstream" from the output and the result is that the only U-235 that gets past will be excess that isn't needed to keep the recipe going.

And yes, the "inefficient" part is that you're not only using an extra inserter per centrifuge, but also each machine will try to hoard more than it really needs, which is mostly an issue when you first start up the enrichment process.

[Nonotorious]

You don't NEED wires for anything but it can help regulate certain processes like oil processing for example, if you put an outgoing pump on a tank of any kind of liquid and wire them together then you can control when the liquid is pumped, like when you have more than enough light oil and you want to crack it to petroleum.
As for the kovarex thing ppl are talking about, personally i wire the outserters to the chest so that when the chest is full it prevents the uranium from exiting the centrifuge, this way when the chest sends a signal to start up again there is always a full load being put onto the belt and since i have the belt on a loop there is enough to restart the process straight away.

[Roxor128]

While they're not needed, they can certainly be useful. For example, if you're cracking coal, you're going to want to keep some heavy oil in reserve for running the process. You can easily ensure that with the circuit network, by building a loop back from the heavy oil output to the refinery inputs via a storage tank and having a pump going to the overall outputs wired to the tank and set to only turn on when the tank is above some threshold. If the tank gets below that level, the pump turns off and the produced heavy oil goes to refilling the tank.

[shadain597]

Originally posted by Roxor128:

While they're not needed, they can certainly be useful. For example, if you're cracking coal, you're going to want to keep some heavy oil in reserve for running the process. You can easily ensure that with the circuit network, by building a loop back from the heavy oil output to the refinery inputs via a storage tank and having a pump going to the overall outputs wired to the tank and set to only turn on when the tank is above some threshold. If the tank gets below that level, the pump turns off and the produced heavy oil goes to refilling the tank.

I'm pretty sure that isolating the heavy oil input pipe with a pump directly on the output pipe would be sufficient, no wires necessary. Pumps are one-way, and if it's the only pump in that area it'll prioritize filling up the heavy oil input pipe.

[knighttemplar1960]

Originally posted by shadain597:

Originally posted by Roxor128:

While they're not needed, they can certainly be useful. For example, if you're cracking coal, you're going to want to keep some heavy oil in reserve for running the process. You can easily ensure that with the circuit network, by building a loop back from the heavy oil output to the refinery inputs via a storage tank and having a pump going to the overall outputs wired to the tank and set to only turn on when the tank is above some threshold. If the tank gets below that level, the pump turns off and the produced heavy oil goes to refilling the tank.

I'm pretty sure that isolating the heavy oil input pipe with a pump directly on the output pipe would be sufficient, no wires necessary. Pumps are one-way, and if it's the only pump in that area it'll prioritize filling up the heavy oil input pipe.

I've tested this. If there isn't enough heavy oil in the system the coal liquefaction process will stall.

[lethminite]

Originally posted by Bookworm:

Originally posted by Edwin:

I never actually used the circuit network for Kovarex.

I'd really love to know how. The only way I've ever done it has been with a logic condition that checked how many U235 where output from the reaction and removed anything over 40 before feeding the rest back in.

I just used two splitters, the first filtered out 238, and sent it back to were it comes in, the second will only have 235 go through it (since the 238 is already gone), and use output priority to first send everything back to the centrifuge input, and only any extra beyond the buffer that the belts can hold then goes off to be made into fuel.