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I started a new Factori after not playing for a while and i am trying to recreate a a circuit setup but cant even remember the name. I used it as Backup Power system and it worked like this.

If my accumulators fell under 20% charge, my steam engines kicked in until the accumulator charge is back to 100%. It was a quite easy setup with i think just two combinators, but i cant remember it.

Never mind, i found it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEOXGBYR6oM&t=302s

For reference, the name for the basic circuit you're referring to is a Set-Reset (SR) latch.

Some people call that the "bad latch". I recommend finding ways not to use it, it is more trouble than it's worth most of the time due the tendency of that construct to go "berzerk," flickering like crazy forever.

golfmiketango wrote:Some people call that the "bad latch". I recommend finding ways not to use it, it is more trouble than it's worth most of the time due the tendency of that construct to go "berzerk," flickering like crazy forever.

Never had a problem with it yet. Do you have any recommendations fr alternatives?

Yo mojojo

I got an alternative which I found because I couldn't wrap my head around it proper or something. Can't even remember.

Anyways, referring to pic, you build a small belt loop. Connect top left quadrant with bottom right quadrant with green wire going to ypur input condition, eg accumulator. Then you take a red wire or can also make green, whatevs, and connect that to your power switch or object to be controlled.
Signals/settings work like this: top left to deactivate when full so A>99 or A=100. Bottom right would be the activator so thus when accu A <25. So the top right is the signal provider or reader or whatever will keep your power switch on condition true. So the setting can basically be anything, but first: so you have to drop one item on this little guy youve constructed., preferrably placed on the inside lanes. I use a rail signal. Si top right setting is read, hold mode and output rail signal if rail signal is >0.

This gives me trouble however when having lots of power banks that power levels change so quickly that consitions change whilst the rail signal is still moving on the belt and can get trapped in the deactivator block. However, once my stuff is setup proper (power and batteries) it seems that it runs good forever.

I found this one to be the most intuitive and easy to build without a blueprint:
https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Circ ... er_version
But instead of a power switch, switch the water pumps. The boilers will quickly use up the rest of the water

I did the one with the arithmetic combinators and it worked fine for me. I just don't like how the limits are set

Mojo wrote:

golfmiketango wrote:Some people call that the "bad latch". I recommend finding ways not to use it, it is more trouble than it's worth most of the time due the tendency of that construct to go "berzerk," flickering like crazy forever.

Never had a problem with it yet. Do you have any recommendations fr alternatives?

Serenity wrote:I found this one to be the most intuitive and easy to build without a blueprint:
https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Circ ... er_version
But instead of a power switch, switch the water pumps. The boilers will quickly use up the rest of the water

I did the one with the arithmetic combinators and it worked fine for me. I just don't like how the limits are set

This one is excellent and I find it more intuitively understandable.

The "bad" SR latch has a couple of different ways to make it flicker like crazy. One is to provide a one-tick pulse to it; that is, to turn the reset signal on and then off in an instant. You'll never do it by hand but if you try to put this latch in the middle of a complex circuit, it can easily happen.

The other, and more damning problem, has to do with robots building it. I'm pretty sure (but not positive) that if you stamp down a blueprint of that SR latch, it may or may not decide to freak out, depending on the order robots happen to build it in. But for sure, it can freak out if you build it the middle of a more complex circuit where the S and R signals may be in a random configuration during construction.

Also if I recall it will additionally freak out if you turn both set and reset on and then turn them off at the same time (or something like that).

Once it's in "blinkey" mode it will stay that way forever until you disconnect one of the crossover wires and reconnect it.

And that's why it's a "bad latch." It works almost all the time -- maybe forever. But eventually the rare circumstance will arise that results in a one-tick pulse to the inputs. And then, it's bye bye combinator build until you discover your base is freaking out for some reason...