Belt balancing

[Laza]

Hi

I envisioned a giant smeltery that processes a crackton of ore, which is delivered by trains from all over the map. The ingots then are delivered to all kinds of different factories.

Since every freightmodule is limited to roughly 1500 ore/min I use five freightmodules as input. Thats 10 input belts but the input (and demand) for each freightmodule isn't equal, since the output/demand for ingots isnt equal either.

I'm looking for a clever solution to balance those 10 lines without limiting the amount of ressources going through the system.

I never had any problems balancing belts in factorio but in satisfactory I somehow cant get my head around it.

[markuswolfe]

What's the issue here? You know how much ore/minute each freight car brings, so hook each one up to enough machines to process that much ore/minute. I don't see what's so complicated.

[Fenix]

Sounds like you need to look up videos on how to make balancer blueprints

[cswiger]

Trying to play Satisfactory as if it were Factorio will not lead to superior results. If you insist on trying your approach, you can create a circular or ring manifold layout which has multiple inputs distributed evenly around the ring. You will be limited to a max of 780 items/sec using the fastest belts regardless.

You should instead be trying to produce and consume all of the resources being generated since resources never run out. Feed any surplus into the AWESOME sink rather than trying to rebalance belts.

Process ore into ingots locally, not move it long distances. In some cases (ie Caterium), this reduces the resource transport needs significantly. High volume items like screws and wire should be made where they will be used. Transport things like modular frames, reinforced iron plates, and higher level products instead.

[Casurin]

You could always go the route of staged butterfly sorters (similar to FFT). They are suprisingly simple to set up: for N lanes you need "N*ld(N)/2" 2-2 balancers.
But better to just have each belt filled and feed as many smelters/whatever as it can carry, and if you want then collect the overflow for another hub - or the sink.

[Laza]

Originally posted by markuswolfe:

What's the issue here? You know how much ore/minute each freight car brings, so hook each one up to enough machines to process that much ore/minute. I don't see what's so complicated.

I did that. But both the input of ore and the output of ingots in each of the freightmodules in both trainstations is imbalanced.

Let's say line 1&2 (freightmodule A) are 90% saturated. So whatever factories are connected down the line use 90% of ingots that could be produced in the smelter. The remaining 10% remain unused, because it's not enough to hook up another factory on that line. There is however still some room left in Freightmodule C that could use those 10%. A system of balanced belts would autocorrect that.

This of course is only a problem until I get 7800 ore/min to that trainstation. Once every freightmodule is oversaturated with ore all the belts are automatically balanced. Thats quite a bit of ore though :)

[markuswolfe]

Originally posted by Laza:

I did that. But both the input of ore and the output of ingots in each of the freightmodules in both trainstations is imbalanced.

Then balance the inputs. If all the stations don't take the same amount of time to fill up then the whole thing is going to be a wash anyways.

[curtyuiop]

780 parts per minute I think is the max for mk. 5 belts. correct me if i'm wrong.

[Fenix]

Originally posted by curtyuiop:

780 parts per minute I think is the max for mk. 5 belts. correct me if i'm wrong.

Correct, but there are 2 inputs/outputs, thus the max throughput 1560 items per minute per station.

[curtyuiop]

Originally posted by Fenix:

Originally posted by curtyuiop:

780 parts per minute I think is the max for mk. 5 belts. correct me if i'm wrong.

Correct, but there are 2 inputs/outputs, thus the max throughput 1560 items per minute per station.

roger that corporal.

[kLuns]

if you make 2 splitters and 2 mergers, connect 2 outputs of both splitters to those mergers you get a balancer that divides 2 random belts into 50/50.

No matter how much throughput the vehicle delivers, it will always balances out to the belts bringing items in. So belt in = belt out.
Divide the incoming belt by 30 and you know how much smelters you need on that line

Assuming you load either 2 pure nodes, 2 normal nodes or 4 impure nodes in a frreight car you load either 1200 or 1560 items.
this is 2*20 or 2*26 smelters.

But when you are transporting the ores i would rather use modules of 12 refineries
(exactly 780 out) with an overflow system.