Timed inserters

[Tanafen]

Hello. I need some help with combinators and timing inserters. So I have a furnace making iron, and inserting it into a furnace making steel. Now, the first inserter inserts 13 iron into the furnace what now starts making steel. The problem is, that the next inserter moves the moment 1 steel is produced. Is there a way to program the inserter to only move when there is 13 steel in the furnace?

I can get it to work with chests just fine, but I can't connect wires to the furnaces, so I can't get the inserter to read it.

So I was wondering if I can set a timer for the inserter, to only move once every 50 seconds (or whatever time it takes to produce 13 steel)?

Hope you can help.

[AlexMBrennan]

Please tells us what you are actually trying to do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem

Is there a way to program the inserter to only move when there is 13 steel in the furnace?

No. As you found out there is no way to read the contents of the furnace.

I was wondering if I can set a timer for the inserter, to only move once every 50 seconds

Yes, but the details of the implementation will depend on what you are trying to do - e.g. should the countdown continue if there is no iron in the furnace? Can we assume that input is always satisfied or do we need to guard against empty inputs, etc?

What are you trying to do?

Edit to add: This will remove one iron output at most every 50s

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[The Chaotic Coder]

Let me be sure I understand... you want to wait until there is 13 steel in the furnace before the inserter starts removing it, is that correct? If so, I assume it's because you want a stack inserter to only move 1 time with a full load.

What I'm thinking, is you could use the inserter feeding iron into the furnace to count inputs. An arithmetic combinator with its input connected to its own output and set to "Everything + 0" will serve as memory. The inserter putting the iron into the furnace is set to read hand contents, so each plate it puts in will be added on the combinator. Then the output inserter is also connected to the output and set to operate if the iron plate count is >= 65 (13 * 5 iron per steel). Then you would need another circuit to reset the count. A decider combinator could momentarily interrupt the arithmetic's feedback, on the condition that the output inserter is reading >0 steel plates.

Of course, if it's an electric furnace and you put productivity modules in, then that will screw up the ratio so you'll have to change the condition value.

[AlexMBrennan]

Then the output inserter is also connected to the output and set to operate if the iron plate count is >= 65 (13 * 5 iron per steel).

That's not gonna work - e.g. if the smelter is empty, and fed with a full belt then it will have picked up 65 iron plates well before the steel is ready. You can only run the countdown when the smelter is able to do work.

Personally, I would keep a countdown which is incremented by however long it takes ot make one steel for every five iron plates picked up, and then trigger the steel inserter if the count is 13 and the countdown is zero.

[The Chaotic Coder]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

Then the output inserter is also connected to the output and set to operate if the iron plate count is >= 65 (13 * 5 iron per steel).

That's not gonna work - e.g. if the smelter is empty, and fed with a full belt then it will have picked up 65 iron plates well before the steel is ready. You can only run the countdown when the smelter is able to do work.

The input inserter will only stack up 10 iron plates on the furnace's input que (2 batches worth). After that it will wait until a new batch starts before putting in 5 more. If it's benefitting from a stack bonus, it might put in more than 5 at a time in which case it will still wait until there are <10 plates before operating again.

If you set it up this way the *first* time the output inserter operates it will have less than a full load, but every time after that it should grab a full load.