changing lane on a belt

[BladeofSharpness]

Hi,
I have read somehow the factorio guide, but I still struggle to change items from a lane to the other, on a given belt. Can someone give me the simplest setup for that?

[Syfer]

There's not really a way to "switch" items on a conveyor belt without using inserters. Aside from pulling stuff off a belt and putting it back on, you can load it correctly the first time with something like this:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=635553185

Or, you can just put the inserter on the other side of course, but then I'd need another smart inserter to pull off only copper to move it over to the right, then another inserter to put it in place on the final belt, which requires one more inserter than what I did above.

When building systems you have to plan ahead of time to have the inserters put items on the belt from the opposite side, so if you want to have plates on the left side of the belt, you need to have furnaces on the right side of the belt, etc. Inserters will always put items on the far side.

Hope that helps

[Cougarific]

Originally posted by Chimera:

There's not really a way to "switch" items on a conveyor belt without using inserters.

Sure there is.

This tutorial shows one way to do it. A few seconds after the point I cued it to shows how to balance a belt but the concept is similar for switching sides. He has it set up with a splitter but you can do it with no splitter.

Basically you create a small "bump" in the belt that hooks around to re-insert the material from the other side.

He's using the splitter to even it out - basically ignore the splitter and the lower belt coming out of the splitter (by "lower" I mean toward the bottom of your screen). Just pretend there's no splitter and look at the top belt, see how it turns off to the left then loops around and re-inserts on the left side. This works on either side, no splitter or inserters needed.

In the video he calls it a "Loop and T-junction".

https://youtu.be/--yjVFtCnA4?t=7m34s
http://imgur.com/ngDewMV

[ssg]

The most easiest way is to use splitter like shown in the wiki.

https://wiki.factorio.com/index.php?title=Splitters

[Cougarific]

^That's necessary for evening out the two lanes, not switching. For switching you don't want a splitter at all.

[ОВЧАРКА]

If you're switching the lanes while both lanes are filled, then this might help.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=635571928
And if you're using only one side of the belt, then things get much easier :)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=635583498

[Nailfoot]

Originally posted by dw-nw:

If you're switching the lanes while both lanes are filled, then this might help.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=635571928
And if you're using only one side of the belt, then things get much easier :)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=635583498

Thanks foe the top screen shot. I didn't knwo that splitters could put ore into the SIDE of an underground belt entrance.

[BladeofSharpness]

I see the top screenshot. I can reproduce it in my game. But I don't understand why it is working :)

The second screenshot is very helpful though!

[ОВЧАРКА]

Originally posted by BladeofSharpness:

I see the top screenshot. I can reproduce it in my game. But I don't understand why it is working :)

The second screenshot is very helpful though!

You need to know two things to understand the first screenshot contraption:
1) The splitter doesn't change the lanes positioning of the incoming items. So if coal gets into the splitter from the left side of the belt, it will pop out from any splitter output, but will always be on the left side of the output belt.
2) When you place an underground belt sideways like that, it accepts only the items that are closer to its 'beginning'. On my screenshot the right underground belt accepts items from the left lane (and remember, the coal is on the left lane initially), and vice versa for the other underground belt.
Hope my English is understandable enough :D