Automatically refueling your car - is it possible?

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Yes-Man
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Automatically refueling your car - is it possible?

Post by Yes-Man »

The topic, more or less, says it all.

I'm looking for ways to refuel my car and NOT flood my trunk with logs/coal/...
In other words, I want to fill up the tank of my car, not the inventory. I want it to be done without my help, besides parking the car and preferably not down to a millimeter tolerance.

PS: I came up with two solutions today, but I don't like them too much. I'll do screenshots next and explain them, as soon as I find the time.

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DaveMcW
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Re: Automatically refueling your car - is it possible?

Post by DaveMcW »

Use a filter inserter to empty the car as fast as it is filled. Inserters will not empty the tank.

Sadly, there are no long-handed filter inserters, so it is rather tricky to drive to the correct position.

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tclack
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Re: Automatically refueling your car - is it possible?

Post by tclack »

I usually just filter the car's contents and then you can use long handed inserter.

Yes-Man
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Re: Automatically refueling your car - is it possible?

Post by Yes-Man »

gas station.jpg
gas station.jpg (200.78 KiB) Viewed 4513 times
So what are we looking at? A normal belt (and wall) to park the car on, to get taken away on the red belt.
The second connected belt part will stop the car and 'the machine' will start to work. How, you ask? Like this. (in-game video)

In lamest terms my contraption will cycle one stack of fuel through the car. All that goes to the tank, stays there.
Everything that ends up in the trunk, gets taken out by a filter inserter and ends up in the second chest.
The moment the first chest is empty, the return mechanism jumps into action and the fuel is brought back to the first chest.
At any point in time, the requestor chest is refilling the cycle. Of the two red belt tiles only one is running at the same time to avoid a second car messing up the refueling or 'machine resetting' process.

Details:
  • A - this combinator is counting all the fuel (logs/coal/solid..) in the system (except the ones in the requestor chest)
  • B - is changing the signal from 'fuel' to something else (to be able to compare it to a 'fuel' signal)
  • C - is counting the 'fuel' in the lower chest and lower inserter in G (refueling part)
  • D - is checking whether the lower chest is empty
  • E - is checking whether all the 'fuel' is in the lower chest and/or inserter (that's why the signal needed to be changed by B)
  • F - a requestor chest and inserter to keep the system above 100 fuel
  • G - two inserters, one filling the car, one taking out 'fuel' that's in the trunk (because the one taking out is last in line in respect to the belt, there will be no left overs)
gas station improved.jpg
gas station improved.jpg (153.19 KiB) Viewed 4513 times
After some tinkering I was able to remove one of the combinator (by using the power pole) and managed to fit it on a 5x4 footprint.
Blueprint

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