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Bots keep getting stuck at my loading stations resulting in annoying "Not enough logistic network storage space available" alerts: The furnaces insert into active provider chests (limited to one stack of e.g. stone bricks), the loading station has requester chests requesting a full chest of e.g. stone bricks. Does anyone know how to resolve this issue? Am I using the correct types of chests (this is my first time building a bot-base)?

funkygerbil wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 08, 2019 8:38 am

Bots keep getting stuck at my loading stations resulting in annoying "Not enough logistic network storage space available"

This sounds like you are mixing up cause and effect.

funkygerbil wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 08, 2019 8:38 am

The furnaces insert into active provider chests (limited to one stack of e.g. stone bricks), the loading station has requester chests requesting a full chest of e.g. stone bricks. Does anyone know how to resolve this issue? Am I using the correct types of chests (this is my first time building a bot-base)?

For that type of setup I would have the furnaces inserting into normal provider chests. There are very few situations where an active provider is better than a normal provider chest.

Zavian wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:40 am

For that type of setup I would have the furnaces inserting into normal provider chests. There are very few situations where an active provider is better than a normal provider chest.

Thank you for your suggestion. I've replaced the active provider chests with passive provider chests. Unfortunately the issue remains ...
Do you request a 'full chest' in your setup as well?

Did you replace also the active provider chests at the ore-delivery?
Remove some of plates/ores and the problem should go away then.
As soon as all bots have delivered their stuff, the system should run smoothly with just passive providers and requester chests. No need for storage boxes, either.

BTW, requesting full chests builds up huge buffers. There are only very few situations in which this makes sense. Ore smelting isn't one.Think about mining productivity getting better and better with research (and modules). If you have large buffers, all the stuff in the supply chain won't profit from any upgrade (but could have had it if you didn't have the buffers in the first place). Also, your reaction time to demand changes is hugely delayed (if you don't monitor your buffers constantly) because your buffers will fulfil the increased demand for a long while. By the time the buffer is empty, the demand will have increased even more, leaving you with a massive undersupply problem. In summary, buffers are easily set up, but no elegant solution to any problem.

Put a storage chest in the network, as a test. see what gets delivered there.

funkygerbil wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:13 pm

Do you request a 'full chest' in your setup as well?

No. As Bauer says, typically you just don't need that many items buffered. Even one passive provider/requester chest holds more than a cargo wagon. For most situations I only request one to two stacks. (I also try to have small isolated logistics networks. If the source is a long way away, you might need to request larger quantities). For requester chests that are designed to load trains, I'll set the request size so that I'm requesting about a full trainload in total. So if there are four requester chests per wagon, then I'll request about 10 stacks per chest. If there are 12 requester chests per wagon, then I will request about 4 stacks per chest. (Just limit the request, don't limit the number of stacks the chest can hold. You always want some free slots in a requester chest).

What I think you are now running into is a bot being despatched to grab one plate from a provider chest, but when he gets to the provider chest he grabs as much as he can carry eg 3 plates. (This is normally what you want, as it reduces the number of trips your bots take. The dispatcher will only consider the number of plates that are in the provider chest at the moment of dispatch. It won't 'look into the future' and foresee that an inserter will deposit more plates before the bot gets there). Some of the other bots might also be bringing back more plates than the dispatcher expected. Now when they get back to the requester chest, it suddenly doesn't have space for all the bots to unload. If no other requester chests have unsatisfied requests for that item, then there is nowhere they can unload. Hence I recommend never requesting a full chest. Assuming a decent stack size, one or two spare slots is probably enough. (If the requester chest is requesting multiple different items, I allow at least one spare slot per item). Alternatively you can add a storage chest.