Balance train unload

[WinterWonder83]

Hi.

I'm trying to balance the contens off 4 warehouses, so the train unload efficiently.

I have 4 Warehouses with inserter inn betwen. How can I get them to start when the contens in 1 is lower than another?
I have tried to understand how to do it with the circuit network, without luck.
My unload setup is like the picture


Thanks in advance!

[WinterWonder83]

NB! I have removed some of the inserters betwen the warehouses in the picture.

[DaleStan]

It'll take some careful wiring. Start with an "each * -1 goes to each" combinator on alternate warehouses (either 1 and 3 or 2 and 4), and then wire up three networks (the two outside ones the same color and the middle one the other color) so each network is connected to the output of one combinator and to one of the neighboring warehouses.

Each network will now contain the difference between the corresponding pair of warehouses. Enable the cross-warehouse inserters that will move that difference closer to zero.
If it's not working properly, wire each of the three networks up to three temporary power poles so you can see the signal on the network.


If you really need it to be count-perfect, you can do that with the "set hand size" signal, but I'm guessing logic that disables the inserters if the two warehouses are within 100 will be good enough.

[Nikola1801]

Same question, how to balance ores in my warehoses? I have different design with loaders.

[mrvn]

There is a little trick you can do:

- Wire up all all warehouses with a green wire and connect it to an arithmetic combinator "each / -N = each" where N is the number of warehouses. This gives you the negative average of the warehouses.
- Wire up the output of the arithmetic combinator with every inserter or belt going out of the warehouses again with green wires.
- Wire up every inserter or belt going out of each warehouse with the respective warehouse.

Each inserter or belt now has as circuit signal the difference between the contents of the warehouse and the average. If it is negative the warehouse is below average. If it is positive the warehouse is above average. For perfect balance enable the inserters or belts when "copper >= 0". But I find that stutters and limits throughput. A small inbalance between the warehouses is OK. So I usually use "coper > -10".

PS: Same idea works for fluids tanks too. But there is use "water > -100" given the higher throughput of pumps.
PPS: For loading warehouses balances use "copper <= 0", or for less stutter "copper < 10" or "water < 100".
PPPS: With LTN set your requester/provider limits a bit higher to cope with the slight imbalance. E.g. 41 stacks instead of 40.

[Honktown]

If you're not averse to mods, you could try Merging Chests. It makes the game take longer to load (and probably more gpu memory), but you can make NxM super big chests that are made from a rectangle of steel chests. The author made it for 1x6 train unloading chests, but you can make them up to like 40x40 on the default setting.

[orzelek]

If you're not averse to mods, you could try Merging Chests. It makes the game take longer to load (and probably more gpu memory), but you can make NxM super big chests that are made from a rectangle of steel chests. The author made it for 1x6 train unloading chests, but you can make them up to like 40x40 on the default setting.

You can limit amount of created prototypes heavily in mod settings and that would be recommended. Also limiting slots on those chests to something sensible is recommended - game doesn't like entites with 100's of slots.
And using 14x1 chest for train unload is really useful. No need for any other tricks (in case of 2 wagon trains).

[mrvn]

If you're not averse to mods, you could try Merging Chests. It makes the game take longer to load (and probably more gpu memory), but you can make NxM super big chests that are made from a rectangle of steel chests. The author made it for 1x6 train unloading chests, but you can make them up to like 40x40 on the default setting.

You can limit amount of created prototypes heavily in mod settings and that would be recommended. Also limiting slots on those chests to something sensible is recommended - game doesn't like entites with 100's of slots.
And using 14x1 chest for train unload is really useful. No need for any other tricks (in case of 2 wagon trains).

I would go with 14x2 to allow for train-to-train transfers.

[astroshak]

13x2. Wagons are 6 long, with a separation of 1. That leads to oddball lengths of 6, 13, 20, 27, etc. Basically, (CWx7)-1 for the overall length. Assuming, of course, the mod supports long enough chests for your trains ..