Way to automatically refill coal (fuel) in roboarms?

[Murf]

New player here...

In devices that use coal as fuel, is there a way to automatically have the fuel refilled? I was wondering if drones might do it, but I haven't researched them yet and have other priorities if they won't do it.

Any other ways (or is it even possible?) so that I don't have to run around and top off everything periodically?

Thanks.

[Hecter94]

Burner inserters will automatically refuel themselves with any coal they pick up.
With other coal powered buildings, you can use inserters of any type to insert coal into them; just make sure that when placing the inserter, you place it so that the arrow is facing towards the building you want to fill.

[Skev]

Most players never make a single burner inserter, within 10-15 minutes of starting a new game you should probably be thinking about setting up steam engines for electricity and using regular inserters, after that the only things you'd normally manually put fuel into would be vehicles.

[Hecter94]

İlk olarak Skev tarafından gönderildi:

Most players never make a single burner inserter, within 10-15 minutes of starting a new game you should probably be thinking about setting up steam engines for electricity and using regular inserters, after that the only things you'd normally manually put fuel into would be vehicles.

I wouldn't make blanket statements like that.
Personally, I use burner inserters well into mid-game and even sometimes into the lategame if I still use steam engines for backup.

[cpt cannibal]

Just know that the arms only place 5 coal into furnaces, so don't assume that if the arm isn't keeping it filled that you are doing something wrong. You can manually put more in, but the robotic arms only put in coal when it drops below 5.

[Malloy]

İlk olarak Skev tarafından gönderildi:

Most players never make a single burner inserter, within 10-15 minutes of starting a new game you should probably be thinking about setting up steam engines for electricity and using regular inserters, after that the only things you'd normally manually put fuel into would be vehicles.

I always use burner inserters, right through the game. They are great for loading boilers because if you run out of fuel for your power system the burner inserters don't need power to start back up again.

[Nadlug]

İlk olarak cpt cannibal tarafından gönderildi:

Just know that the arms only place 5 coal into furnaces, so don't assume that if the arm isn't keeping it filled that you are doing something wrong. You can manually put more in, but the robotic arms only put in coal when it drops below 5.

Thats just inserters in general. They only put enough material into a machine so that it has resoruces for 2 or 3 of what its making.

[Mr. Casual]

for the furnance make a splited belt with ore on one side and coal on the other side. the burner will fueling itsellf and the furnance.

[Goofbal]

İlk olarak Malloy tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Skev tarafından gönderildi:

Most players never make a single burner inserter, within 10-15 minutes of starting a new game you should probably be thinking about setting up steam engines for electricity and using regular inserters, after that the only things you'd normally manually put fuel into would be vehicles.

I always use burner inserters, right through the game. They are great for loading boilers because if you run out of fuel for your power system the burner inserters don't need power to start back up again.

Don't the burner inserters produce more pollution though? I've been replacing mine when I can with regular inserters because it says they use 188kW vs 13kW for a regular inserter. Am I correct in my assumption that they produce more pollution in the end?

[Malecord]

I always use burner inserters to feed boilers.

[bobSheep]

When your out of power your electric inserters have no power to restore the power.
But no coal means burner inserters run dry as well..

I learned that yesterday :) took me some hour or so to restore my factory. Now it's running on 2.5k solar panels xD

[AlexMBrennan]

I always use burner inserters, right through the game. They are great for loading boilers because if you run out of fuel for your power system the burner inserters don't need power to start back up again.

But where does you coal come from? Electric inserters won't fail until you have exhausted the entire coal buffer (belts/chests) and once you have run out of coal you'd need electricy to mine more.

Sure, you could come up with a contrived factory (e.g. burner miners in late game) that might be saved by your use of burner inserters but I am not convinced that it's as useful as you are suggesting.

[Sangria Technotruck]

İlk olarak AlexMBrennan tarafından gönderildi:

But where does you coal come from? Electric inserters won't fail until you have exhausted the entire coal buffer (belts/chests) and once you have run out of coal you'd need electricy to mine more.

Sure, you could come up with a contrived factory (e.g. burner miners in late game) that might be saved by your use of burner inserters but I am not convinced that it's as useful as you are suggesting.

If you inadvertently go into low power generation, electric inserters will start to move slower. If you're using electric inserters for your boilers, it'll spiral down to zero power as the arms slow down, causing less electricity, which causes the arms to slow down more, causing less electricity, until your steam generators grind to a halt with a full line of coal sitting there.

You do have to drop pretty low before that happens, so if you're on top of things it's never going to happen, but it's something that's just avoided altogether with burner inserters.

[Angela™]

Burner inserters stay useful until way late game if you use them purely to shovel coal into burners. Not fantastic for anything else but that works great.

Also once solid fuel becomes a thing, you'll never have to worry about refueling those manually ever since the input/output is ridiculous.

[mid endian]

conveyors and inserters of your choice will move coal automatically. you just have to set it up.

regarding burner inserters, you don't even need a bunch, just a few next to your boilers as an insurance policy. they will pollute more than electric ones, but you don't need to place them next to every boiler. even when the rest of your factory slows down, burner inserters won't, and will keep your factory functional long enough for you to add a steam engine or two. when you expand well past the starting area, that pollution from 1 or 2 coal burners is minuscule

[AlexMBrennan]

If you inadvertently go into low power generation,

I am not saying that it's not possible, or that you can't keep using burner inserters - it's just that these scenarios seem rather far fetched.

I ended up having to hook up 70 radars to a single steam engine (i.e. overcommting by 4000%) to slow down the inserters enough for the boilers to run out of coal (200+ radars for solid fuel). I can't see that happening by accident.