Simple Coal Power Plant - LOAD Balancing Conveyor System

[SIDEKICK]

i made a simple no fuzz Coal Power Plant and i still think that LOAD BALANCING is better than MANIFOLD. all my Coal Power Plant is receiving the same amount of coal and they all start producing at the same time. i still dont get how MANIFOLD system still works, how on earth is it working when the coal delivered is divided 2-3 times on each splitter successions.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2828839812

[Suzaku]

Manifolds work by splitting the available resources in half (or thirds, if you're using all sides of the splitter) over and over as the resources travel down a single line. This will eventually fill the first machine in the row, which then leaves the remaining resources to fill the next machine, and the next, and so on. Once a machine has been filled, it can then reliably draw at its normal rate of consumption. This process repeats the entire way down the line until, assuming you did the math right, all machines are running at max efficiency.

As a simple example:
You're producing 120 iron ore/min from a miner.
A smelter smelts iron ore at a rate of 30 ore/min. This means you need 4 smelters.
You place a row of 4 smelters. In front of each one is a splitter.
As the ore hits the first splitter, the resources are split; 60 ore/min to the smelter, 60 ore/min to the rest of the line.
The second smelter gets 30 ore/min from its spltter. The 3rd gets 15/min. The 4th gets 15/min.
As time goes by, the first smelter, being supplied with too much ore, fills up, and can now only obtain ore as quickly as it goes through it, meaning the original 60 ore/min it was getting now drops back down to the 30 ore/min that it can handle.
This process repeats to the second smelter, and the third, and finally the fourth smelter receives what remains, which is the precise 30 ore/min that it needs to function at full efficiency.

This method allows you to quickly set up simple, compact, flexible, expandable resource distribution in almost any situation. This can then be used in a similar fashion with mergers, as you then merge all of those ingots back onto a single belt to be moved to the next step in the process.

[Man's Best Friend]

I tried to evenly split resources when I started playing. Then I tried to expand. Hoo boy was that a miserable experience. Balancing the input to feed all your machines perfectly is fine... Until you need to expand. Then you have to rebuild a whole lot of stuff.

Manifold on the other hand is slower to reach full operating capacity, but super easy to expand later. Just slap more machines onto the end of the line.

[Vectorspace]

I generally preloaded my manifold machines before activating them, to avoid the slow warmup

[Bobucles]

Manifolds are king. They're easy to understand and easy to set up, and work just as well as any load balancer in the end. Just run 1 line, split it into every machine, and call it a day. It'll work out after the buffers fill up.

[Veeshan]

Simple, things ARE divided like that... until the first division point backs up, it doesn't take one cause no room, that extra gets sent downstream, and viola the remaining get the leftovers.

[Mojo]

All my coal power runs off manifold, no issues.

[SIDEKICK]

Originally posted by Mojo:

All my coal power runs off manifold, no issues.

holy cow you are here as well. hows Space Engineers?

[Mojo]

Originally posted by DEADPO0P:

Originally posted by Mojo:

All my coal power runs off manifold, no issues.

holy cow you are here as well. hows Space Engineers?

Haven't played in a while. I fired it up to get an answer to someone on discussion thread, but didnt actually play. lol

[Arch]

Originally posted by Vectorspace:

I generally preloaded my manifold machines before activating them, to avoid the slow warmup

^ This.

[Lil Puppy]

Manifolds all the way every day. If you need all your power plants to fire up at the same time, preload them with resources and then turn it all on.
Manifolds allow for easy expansion and fixing if you messed it up somehow, load balancing can't be done that way and has to be rebuild every time, it also takes up a lot more space the larger the project is.

120 in with 15 used for coal generators:
60 for the 1st
30 for the 2nd
15 for the 3rd
7.5 for the 4th
3.75 for the 5th
1.8~ for the 6th
0.9~ for the 7th
0.45~ for the 8th

But, once the first one reaches it's fill you get
15 for the 1st
62.5 for the 2nd
31.25 for the 3rd
15.8~ for the 4th
7.6~ for the 5th
3.8~ for the 6th
1.9~ for the 7th
1~ for the 8th

And it keeps trickling down like that until the last one gets it's 15/min. and there aren't any more to fill.

[kLuns]

The funny thing is it costs 7 splitters on 8 coal generators both ways ;)
I do a load balancer sometimes when I make packs of 8 so I can split a higher tier belt over multiple packs.

[vwstickman]

Manifolds work because of how splitters work. Input is divided among "available" outputs, the second an output stops flowing, it gets divided among the remaining outputs. Its not hardcoded that each output only gets 1/3 of the input.

[SIDEKICK]

Originally posted by vwstickman:

Manifolds work because of how splitters work. Input is divided among "available" outputs, the second an output stops flowing, it gets divided among the remaining outputs. Its not hardcoded that each output only gets 1/3 of the input.

ahh ! i get it now thanks. this explains how its working. still though there is a significant wait time to get the last building running.

[cywizz]

Originally posted by DEADPO0P:

Originally posted by vwstickman:

Manifolds work because of how splitters work. Input is divided among "available" outputs, the second an output stops flowing, it gets divided among the remaining outputs. Its not hardcoded that each output only gets 1/3 of the input.

ahh ! i get it now thanks. this explains how its working. still though there is a significant wait time to get the last building running.

I usually prime the machines before I start them up. So take a bunch of coal and fill all the generators before starting them. Or just do the belts first and let the machines fill up with coal while you are busy with the water