Is there a simpler way to ensure that two inserters always fire at the same time?

Is there a simpler way to ensure that two inserters always fire at the same time? - Couples Hands By Fireplace

I have built a simple factory that produces construction and logistics robots. However, since these robots get made very quickly (they only take half a second), the bottleneck is currently my production of flying robot frames. I am totally okay with this—I don’t need to make new robots at maximum speed—but it does make me worry that one of the two kinds of robots will be favored—that is, one of the requester chests will get all the frames.

To try and mitigate this, I have built a small circuit alongside my robot production. It looks like this:

There are three decider combinators:

screenshot of circuit

  • The first two just check if there are flying robot frames in the chest, and if there are, they output 1.
  • The third checks if both of the first two combinators output 1—that is, it is functioning as an AND.

This third combinator is wired to the two smart inserters, which wait for a truthy signal before activating.

This design is not 100% perfect because of the inserter stack size bonus (one side might get more frames), but this could be corrected by just waiting until both chests have as much as the maximum movable stack size. I don’t care too much, though, as long as both sides get some frames.

It does seem a tad complicated for a relatively simple problem, though. Is there a simpler way to accomplish this goal? Are combinators even needed?



Best Answer

Since they are so close, you could have a single requester chest feed a splitter




Pictures about "Is there a simpler way to ensure that two inserters always fire at the same time?"

Is there a simpler way to ensure that two inserters always fire at the same time? - Silhouette Of Couple Looking At Each Other
Is there a simpler way to ensure that two inserters always fire at the same time? - Shabby red and white metal fire hydrant with rusty chain located on city street in daytime
Is there a simpler way to ensure that two inserters always fire at the same time? - Close-up of aFire



How many inserters does it take to empty a belt?

A fully upgraded stack inserter will move up to 12 items per 52 ticks, or 13.85 items per second, from chest to express belt. With the maximal throughput of an express belt at 45 items/second this means that three inserters will almost saturate a single express belt.

What does an inserter do Factorio?

Inserters are devices which are used to move items over short distances. When placed, they have a fixed direction. They can move items from behind and place them in front of them.



Factorio: 10 TIPS FOR INSERTERS - Tutorial, Guide




More answers regarding is there a simpler way to ensure that two inserters always fire at the same time?

Answer 2

If you want to make sure they're made at the same rate, I recommend lock-stepping the output.

Make your assembly machines each output to a buffer chest, and then conditionally output from the buffer only when both chests have a bot. (You'll want to override stack size to 1 on the exit inserters if you have stack research)

Here's an example:

Each decider outputs 1 to the same channel when there are any bots. The exit inserters are only enabled if that channel is greater than 1. (Each '1' signal from the deciders are added together)

You can see in this example that there are logistic bots in the left chest, but the exit inserters aren't firing. If I added a construction bot or the machine makes one, then both the top inserters will fire.

example

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Mikhail Nilov, Mikhail Nilov, Brett Sayles, Nikita Korchagin