Need Advice on Dimensional Depot Array Design

[Wig Bang]

So I'm trying to setup a big storage array. The idea is for a given item, dimensional depot should get filled up, along with one industrial storage worth. Then the excess runs off to a sink.

After playing around with a lot of ideas and experimentation, I came to the realization i was doing things all wrong and tbh I'm not sure how to get this to work at all.

Currently I have a smart splitter split the desired item off the main line into an industrial storage. The output of the industrial storage was going into a smart splitter that sends overflow to the sink and "any" into a dimensional depot.

Yeah I realized I was an idiot. I had the dumb idea that what would happen is the dimensional depot would fill up for that item and then the industrial storage would fill up before the smart splitter started considering what was coming into it as "overflow" at which point stuff would go out the "overflow" port and into a sink.

I realize that's just nonsense thinking (I was tired) and of course overflow is going to be immediate (as the flow of items exceeds the dimensional depot's deposit rate anyway. But even if it didn't, the overflow would be flying off into the sink immediately, never allowing the industrial storage to fill at all.. lol. It was a pretty dumb moment. And kind of sad to see that all my storage that had items that are valuable to me atm in my low tech current state had all been sunk due to my foolishness.

Anyway, what is the actual logic here. How can I accomplish this?

I might wake up after some much needed sleep and this be a simple problem and then I'll really be embarrassed. But maybe it's difficult (impossible? I doubt it) and I could use some help figuring this one out. Thanks.

[Wig Bang]

It immediately occurred to me after posting this that one possible way (please tell me if this is still horrible)

is to have two smart splitters before the industrial storage.

First splitter: splits the desired item off the mainline

Second splitter: sends overflow into sink manifold, sends "any" forward into storage.

Storage just feeds straight into dimensional depot..

It feels a little odd to need to put two smart splitters in serial this way for one item but maybe this is the required way?

[Dirtyshadow]

No splitters for the uploader... just passthrough.

Build an Industrial Container as your storage, hook up the Output of the container to the Dimensional uploader with a Mk3 Belt. (It stacks on top)

Items pass through the Container into the Depot... if the depot is full, it fills the container.

Then you can stick your overflow sink anywhere on the line between your factory and the container.

[🌺💗Tazzamorous💗🌺]

Originally posted by Dirtyshadow:

No splitters.

Build an Industrial Container as your storage, hook up the Output of the container to the Dimensional uploader with a Mk3 Belt. (It stacks on top)

Items pass through the Container into the Depot... if the depot is full, it fills the container.

The you can stick your overflow sink anywhere on the line between your factory and the container.

Mark this as the answer.

[Dirtyshadow]

It would look something like this

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fmy-all-in-one-sink-buffer-dimensional-depot-setup-v0-pg9pp0skwmod1.png%3Fwidth%3D2049%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D84967c96bc85605f5b6f0fbf292059c271d1a3a6

[Wig Bang]

Sorry just to be clear, when you say no splitters.. are you saying my reply post is wrong for having splitters?

Or just that there should be no splitters *after* the storage box.

Currently I'm doing two splitters leading up to the storage box, but then the box does pass through into the depot.

[i81hirschibar]

Originally posted by 🌺💗Tazzamorous💗🌺:

Originally posted by Dirtyshadow:

No splitters.

Build an Industrial Container as your storage, hook up the Output of the container to the Dimensional uploader with a Mk3 Belt. (It stacks on top)

Items pass through the Container into the Depot... if the depot is full, it fills the container.

The you can stick your overflow sink anywhere on the line between your factory and the container.

Mark this as the answer.

My thoughts exactly. Splitter sends only 1 type of item into the storage, and straight through to the Depot sitting on top. Then send overflow to the sink. That way the depot fills first, then the storage immediately after that.

[Wig Bang]

Originally posted by i81hirschibar:

Originally posted by 🌺💗Tazzamorous💗🌺:

Mark this as the answer.

My thoughts exactly. Splitter sends only 1 type of item into the storage, and straight through to the Depot sitting on top. Then send overflow to the sink. That way the depot fills first, then the storage immediately after that.

But it'll require two splitters per item, right?

[i81hirschibar]

Originally posted by Wig Bang:

Originally posted by i81hirschibar:

My thoughts exactly. Splitter sends only 1 type of item into the storage, and straight through to the Depot sitting on top. Then send overflow to the sink. That way the depot fills first, then the storage immediately after that.

But it'll require two splitters per item, right?

Not that I know of. Just use a Smart Splitter.
Example: Use smart splitter to make the overflow exit to the right or left (towards Sink), then the product goes straight into the Input of the Storage Container, and Output of container to a Depot sitting on top of it. The depot will fill up eventually, then fill the storage container, then sink any excess. You will have a local storage, as well as the cloud storage being filled constantly as you use it. Take a look at DirtyShadows Reddit photo, it shows the layout. :)

[Wig Bang]

Originally posted by i81hirschibar:

Originally posted by Wig Bang:

But it'll require two splitters per item, right?

Not that I know of. Just use a Smart Splitter.
Example: Use smart splitter to make the overflow exit to the right or left (towards Sink), then the product goes straight into the Input of the Storage Container, and Output of container to a Depot sitting on top of it. The depot will fill up eventually, then fill the storage container, then sink any excess. You will have a local storage, as well as the cloud storage being filled constantly as you use it. Take a look at DirtyShadows Reddit photo, it shows the layout. :)

I think I understand. I did check out the photo, but it was hard to decipher at first but looking at it again I get it.

So I guess the idea to avoid needing two splitters per item is that if I just have one which tosses the desired item towards the storage, overflow will occur naturally anyway on the main line (without impeding the mainline's flow) anyway because the instant the storage is full and the conveyor between it and the splitter is full, then that item type hitting that splitter will immediately count as overflow. This won't stall anything because it'll jet off to the sink as overflow immediately.

Only reason I don't like that (for now, but I will later when my system is more complete) is that if I accidentally toss something into my storage system that doesn't have a target destination programmed yet, it'll hit a splitter, get counted as overflow, and get sunk, which I may not want.

Currently I want non-programmed stuff to lock everything up so I can quickly see that I need to setup a storage/depot module for it.

Thanks for everyone's help here. I'm basically doing things your way, with one extra splitter per item because my setup is still young and my tech is weak. (only maxed t5/t6 on this playthrough)

[PsYcHo_O]

It should look like this:

        Sink
         |
Box - Splitter - Box
Box - Splitter - Box
Box - Splitter - Box
          |
        input

Or this:

   Sink                    Sink
     |                     |
Splitter - Box     Box - Splitter
Splitter - Box     Box - Splitter
Splitter - Box     Box - Splitter
     |                     |
  input                   input

The middle line is always set to overflow for all splitters. The second option is useful if you plan on having a high throughput or if you are currently limited by belt speed.

edit: formatting is not perfect thanks to steam being incompetent but I guess you get the picture

[Wig Bang]

Originally posted by PsYcHo_O:

It should look like this:

        Sink
         |
Box - Splitter - Box
Box - Splitter - Box
Box - Splitter - Box
          |
        input

Or this:

   Sink                    Sink
     |                     |
Splitter - Box     Box - Splitter
Splitter - Box     Box - Splitter
Splitter - Box     Box - Splitter
     |                     |
  input                   input

The middle line is always set to overflow for all splitters. The second option is useful if you plan on having a high throughput or if you are currently limited by belt speed.

edit: formatting is not perfect thanks to steam being incompetent but I guess you get the picture

I like the original one they showed me here but I really like yours.. this hits the right note for me. This seems more elegant.

[Wig Bang]

I'm so dumb for having a big programmable splitter with custom stuff for everything for sinking stuff I don't want to store or depot.. when I could just do this simple array and all unaccounted for stuff gets sunk.

This is why I shouldn't be playing on 36 hours of no sleep (including 16 hours work)

[Wig Bang]

With your pattern I don't need my idiotic manifold design for feeding all the overflows into my sink.

And literally handle two items per splitters instead of two splitters for one item (or one item per splitter with original responses here)

[Dirtyshadow]

My explanation is at the simplest point, what to do with a Dimensional Uploader as a pass-through... doesn't need splitters, it also detangles any potential expansion problems.

If your thinking more advanced... the Industrial Container has two inputs.
One Input could be a direct factory line.
Second Input could be a smart spliter line.

I used a Smart Splitter line in my container system, but I added it much later, where a "Recycling" container pushes items down the line to the correct container and the end of that line is a Programmable Splitter that catches any stray items I definately don't want to Sink (or can't be sinked - for example Power Shards)... that goes into a Reject Storage bin I manually check.

[PsYcHo_O]

Originally posted by Wig Bang:

With your pattern I don't need my idiotic manifold design for feeding all the overflows into my sink.

And literally handle two items per splitters instead of two splitters for one item (or one item per splitter with original responses here)

Keep in mind that the two options above are very simplistic. It all depends on what you want to do with your storage in the long run.
If you want to create a central storage facility for all items you might need for personal use (e.g. building, research), it might be a good idea to use a two line approach to prevent being limited by your belt speed.
If you also want to use this facility as a distribution hub, you will need a different setup.

I use a two level facility for personal use and also for distribution.
The top level is for personal use and dimensional storage:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3356602086

I feed a second line of storage containers on the lower level with two different belts, to split high volume items and prevent backup.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3356602117

I also have a second line of splitters between the lower and the upper containers. I use those splitters to feed the local production in my main base. I would advise to only use this for high tier / low volume items.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3356602163
For example: I have one large super computer factory and ship them all the my central storage. From there I distribute them to the local production chains using super computers. Everything that requires super computers is built in my main base.