Any idea why machines keep going "Idle"?

[SinkSankSunk]

I have a few production machines, like a blender making encased uranium cells, that keep going idle for no apparent reason. They're receiving full input of req. materials, the output is clear, I'm meeting power requirements, but they just produced a few items and then idle again. I can force them to run by changing the recipe to something else and then back, but they'll ultimately go back to being idle after a few seconds of running again.

[Jack-o-Lantern]

when idle you can clearly see if on the right the stack is full and or if on the left there isn't enought of input items

[Jack-o-Lantern]

may be you can made a video clip of details of machine switching from production to idle so we can tell you better

[RadioIesbian Fluid]

Watch the machines over time and see what actually happens. Spot checks often doesn't show all info. Spontaneous guess is the sulphuric acid byproduct is the culprit.

[SinkSankSunk]

Originally posted by RadioIesbian Fluid:

Watch the machines over time and see what actually happens. Spot checks often doesn't show all info. Spontaneous guess is the sulphuric acid byproduct is the culprit.

Thank you for this suggestion. I followed the line to see that, for whatever reason, a flat level pipe was not flowing at a junction. I deleted and rebuilt it and it's running like normal now.

[Firebombmc]

I had an issue like that before with my iron frame production line. I was giving adequate input and power however it was idle and the power pole was yellow. I fixed my issue by deleting and replacing the machine. I don't know quite how it happened but it think it was because I overclocked it then set it to idle and then change the clock and then un-idled it if thats how you did it then try my fix.

[RadioIesbian Fluid]

Originally posted by SinkSankSunk:

Originally posted by RadioIesbian Fluid:

Watch the machines over time and see what actually happens. Spot checks often doesn't show all info. Spontaneous guess is the sulphuric acid byproduct is the culprit.

Thank you for this suggestion. I followed the line to see that, for whatever reason, a flat level pipe was not flowing at a junction. I deleted and rebuilt it and it's running like normal now.

There is one thing with junctions i've noticed. I've no factual evidence of it, but when i started doing this more or less all issues i've had with pipe manifolds disappeared.

When placing junctions on existing pipes, it bisects the pipe inside the junction.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3377032121
You can see the pipe going halfway into the junction when highlighting it with dismantle.

Dismantling the section, then rebuilding it between junctions.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3377032319
It now connects to the junction more properly, doesnt go inside it.
You can also see pipe volume being less if you inspect the pipe segment, the pipe is shorter after rebuilding it, not sure if a shorter pipe has any impact or not tho. But junctions seem to work a lot better for me after rebuilding the sections between junctions after placing junctions on an existing pipe.

[GlowWorm]

Originally posted by RadioIesbian Fluid:

When placing junctions on existing pipes, it bisects the pipe inside the junction.

Yes, this seems to be a bug in the pipeline handling, where junctions placed on an existing pipe will create connections that don't properly distribute fluids.

We "shouldn't" need to worry about things like this, but this is just another example of how pipes will drive people insane.