Help with combining logistics and circuitry

[MissingInAction]

Hi all. I'm looking for a bit of assistance regarding combining logistics with circuitry. I have a train station that unloads what I tell it to via a constant combinator. Its a design i saw from KatherineOfSky a long time ago. The problem I have with it, is that it only unloads more inserters (for example), when the chest has none. Since it only unloads 6 at a time, it takes a long time for bots to construct a large blueprint. I know logistics can unload a train past the required number, since it takes into consideration the items bots are coming to pick up. My question is this. How do I get that feature from logistics and combine it with the input i give a constant combinator?
Here is my current blueprint https://pastebin.com/Y6P9jra0
and here is a screenshot of what it currently looks like


Another example of the above:
If a constant combinator says there must be 5 inserters in the chest, but the blueprint requires 200, then essentially the inserter must unload 205 inserters without waiting for the chest to go from 5 to 0 every time. Currently it waits for the chest to be empty (or less than what is stated in the constant combinator) before it starts unloading again.

Thank you in advance.

[astroshak]

What I do for my nuclear train, or a solar train (depending on which power source I’m going for in any given game) is fairly simple.

I determine, and slot lock it in, what the train is carrying in each of the cargo wagon’s 40 slots. For my nuclear BP, I need 263 Heat Pipes, so I lock 6 slots on the cargo wagon for Heat Pipes, and the requestor chest filling the train only calls for 300 Heat Pipes. Knowing what I want the train to carry, I set up the requestor chests and the cargo wagons appropriately. 110 Steam Turbines, as another example, would have 11 slots in the Cargo Wagon.

At the receiving station, I have a Stack Filter Inserter set to Heat Pipes, and have it pull all it can to put into one Passive Provider. That PP is slot locked to only allow 6 slots. The Steam Turbine PP is locked to 11 slots. Sometimes, I’ll double that, so the Heat Pipe PP is locked to 12 slots and the Steam Turbine PP is locked to 22 slots.

I wire all the chests together, and connect them to a Constant Combinator set to the negative amount of the items I want. -300 Heat Pipes, -110 Steam Turbines, etc. The Train Station is set to Enable if Anything < 0. This gets the train to come when the station turns on, unloads what the station is lacking, and the train then runs back after a few seconds of inactivity to be reloaded and to wait for the station to turn back on.

This setup works for a One->Many approach, not just a One->One approach, as well. A good example is defense bases. Run a train with some walls, some replacement bots, repair packs, turrets, maybe (if using that kind of turret) some ammo or artillery shells. Have each defense station set to come on whenever the item level in the chests drops below the amount specified by the Constant Combinator.

Now, I’m not entirely sure that this would work for what you are trying to do. This approach maintains a stockpile of building supplies by train, that the bots are then able to use. This approach does not really permit bots to say “ok, I need X, get a train coming with that X I need”. But if it sounds like what you are trying to do, if you want to maintain a stockpile of 100 Inserters in a chest for bots to use when building a BP, forcing you to leave that 100 Inserters at that location in perpetuity, try adjusting your approach to be more in line with what I’ve outlined here.

EDIT - re-reading your post, it sounds like you might just have your Constant Combinator set too low. Try setting it based upon the number of items in a stack. Rather than limiting your chest to 5 Inserters, try limiting it to 50 (one stack) or, perhaps more useful to you immediately, 200 (four stacks). It does little to have a train bring a stack of Inserters out to the station, only to head back with 90% of that stack remaining.

[MissingInAction]

This setup works for a One->Many approach, not just a One->One approach, as well. A good example is defense bases. Run a train with some walls, some replacement bots, repair packs, turrets, maybe (if using that kind of turret) some ammo or artillery shells. Have each defense station set to come on whenever the item level in the chests drops below the amount specified by the Constant Combinator.

This is basically what I do as well. The station of my building train has constant combinators which sends signals I hand pick for each outpost. These signals are the machines/parts I need to construct the outpost.

EDIT - re-reading your post, it sounds like you might just have your Constant Combinator set too low. Try setting it based upon the number of items in a stack. Rather than limiting your chest to 5 Inserters, try limiting it to 50 (one stack) or, perhaps more useful to you immediately, 200 (four stacks). It does little to have a train bring a stack of Inserters out to the station, only to head back with 90% of that stack remaining.

I guess that would work as well, I was hoping for a more "complicated/fancy" way of doing it. I intend to deconstruct the building station once its done anyway, since the building train will not need to go back to that outpost once it is finished constructing.
I also set the train to only leave after 10 seconds of inactivity, so that it does not leave with lots of goods unloaded just cause my bots are slow. Thinking on it, that 10 seconds can be reduced to 5 if I increase the stack sizes.

[Optera]

If a constant combinator says there must be 5 inserters in the chest, but the blueprint requires 200, then essentially the inserter must unload 205 inserters without waiting for the chest to go from 5 to 0 every time. Currently it waits for the chest to be empty (or less than what is stated in the constant combinator) before it starts unloading again.

Things like that would be nice to do if Roboports reported items missing for construction.
Sadly the only way to get items missing for construction is by using mods like Ghost Scanner.

In pure Vanilla I'd set the combinator to unload stack size - inserter capacity so it never overflows stacks.

[MissingInAction]

Thank you. Yes I figured it is a limitation currently in the game. I wonder if the devs would be interested in adding such a feature.
I have SR latches for individual items on my perimeter defense train. It activates the train station when repair packs gets low (for example). When the train arrives I have an inserter set to unload a certain amount of items using the logistics setting.

However, this means I have a SR latch for every single item in the train, which isn't much of an issue, since the perimeter defense train only have like 5 different items. My building train however, has 40'ish different items. Setting a SR latch for each of those is a bit tedious and over the top.

[astroshak]

I guess that would work as well, I was hoping for a more "complicated/fancy" way of doing it. I intend to deconstruct the building station once its done anyway, since the building train will not need to go back to that outpost once it is finished constructing.
I also set the train to only leave after 10 seconds of inactivity, so that it does not leave with lots of goods unloaded just cause my bots are slow. Thinking on it, that 10 seconds can be reduced to 5 if I increase the stack sizes.

Ok then, how’s this?

Make the modification to go by stacks rather than by a small number (multiples of 50 inserters, rather than just 5, for example). Add in (assuming you left enough space) a Garbage Train Station, for a train that comes whenever there is waste to be removed - you might already have something like this to remove the stone/coal/wood right? Such a Garbage station would be set to enable whenever Anything > 0, and be fed by Storage Chests.

Since you want to remove the Building station after the BP is done, either deconstructing the entire station, or all but the Passive Providers (replacing them with Active Providers) will clear everything out and call your Garbage train to come and haul the stuff away for recycling and/or processing.

(I personally started adding that Garbage station when I started to use the mod concreep. That mod clears out rocks and trees in the areas it expands the stone brick/concrete out around the roboports, so I had to do something to get rid of the stuff. It also works for automatically removing dead miners with the autodeconstruct mod.)

[MissingInAction]

I have a storage chest that gets unloaded into the last wagon of my build train. As for clearing out trees, etc., I have a "personal build train" with just the essential stuff to build the Auto Build Train station. It has a 2 or 3 empty wagons just for rubbish.
Short version, I still clear the build site manually. And for my gigabase I'm planning, I'm not adding any mods other than some quality of life things.

[astroshak]

I was not suggesting you add mods to your game; I was pointing out a couple of mods that provide an additional use-case for a Garbage train.

That said, why not have the bots clear everything for you? Make your unloading station (and any other train stations you need), plop down the BP, and use a deconstruction planner set to trees/rocks to mark all the stuff in the area for removal by the base bots rather than your own? Just an idea.

[MissingInAction]

I was not suggesting you add mods to your game; I was pointing out a couple of mods that provide an additional use-case for a Garbage train.

That said, why not have the bots clear everything for you? Make your unloading station (and any other train stations you need), plop down the BP, and use a deconstruction planner set to trees/rocks to mark all the stuff in the area for removal by the base bots rather than your own? Just an idea.

Hmm, that is an option as well. It'll be faster since the robo network has more bots than my power armor.