Bots vs balancers

[varundevan]

Hi,

I have been looking for an answer for this, but not yet clarified.

I need to load and unload trains, the thing is that as you all know , we need to balance all the wagons so that the whole train won't be waiting for a single wagon. so we need to balance all the wagons.

what is the best (ups friendly) way to achieve this?

I am trying to build a big base, and need ways to optimize for ups and your help is appreciated.

[astroshak]

I am not sure about UPS. One thing I do know is that balancers will draw evenly upon all the cargo wagons. Bots, not quite so much.

Bots delivering to, or picking up from, nearer chests will finish any one trip faster. Thus, it can be sent on a repeat trip that much sooner, which results in that nearer chest being filled (or emptied) faster. There are ways to try to circumvent this (more bots; use of Active Providers instead of Passive Providers, which causes its own issues; careful positioning of the supply and destination chests) but all they can do is slow this down, eventually you will have the first cargo wagon empty long before the final one to empty gets emptied.

OF course, using bots reduces the number of inserters needed to move the item from train (to chest to chest) to destination machine. Wagon->Chest->Belt->destination machine, as opposed to Wagon->Provider Chest...Requestor Chest->destination machine.

[varundevan]

I am not sure about UPS. One thing I do know is that balancers will draw evenly upon all the cargo wagons. Bots, not quite so much.

Bots delivering to, or picking up from, nearer chests will finish any one trip faster. Thus, it can be sent on a repeat trip that much sooner, which results in that nearer chest being filled (or emptied) faster. There are ways to try to circumvent this (more bots; use of Active Providers instead of Passive Providers, which causes its own issues; careful positioning of the supply and destination chests) but all they can do is slow this down, eventually you will have the first cargo wagon empty long before the final one to empty gets emptied.

OF course, using bots reduces the number of inserters needed to move the item from train (to chest to chest) to destination machine. Wagon->Chest->Belt->destination machine, as opposed to Wagon->Provider Chest...Requestor Chest->destination machine.

Thanks for the message.

as you have said , using bots uses less entities... like inserters and balancers ...
my requirement is 21.5k iron per minute for a tile....
it requires about 8x8 balancer, if I intend to do it with bots , it takes about 100 -150 bots I guess ....
so , which one do you think is better for UPS ?

[varundevan]

I am not sure about UPS. One thing I do know is that balancers will draw evenly upon all the cargo wagons. Bots, not quite so much.

Bots delivering to, or picking up from, nearer chests will finish any one trip faster. Thus, it can be sent on a repeat trip that much sooner, which results in that nearer chest being filled (or emptied) faster. There are ways to try to circumvent this (more bots; use of Active Providers instead of Passive Providers, which causes its own issues; careful positioning of the supply and destination chests) but all they can do is slow this down, eventually you will have the first cargo wagon empty long before the final one to empty gets emptied.

OF course, using bots reduces the number of inserters needed to move the item from train (to chest to chest) to destination machine. Wagon->Chest->Belt->destination machine, as opposed to Wagon->Provider Chest...Requestor Chest->destination machine.

Thanks for the message.

as you have said , using bots uses less entities... like inserters and balancers ...
my requirement is 21.5k iron per minute for a tile.... (for a mini base , which i intend to repeat )
it requires about 8x8 balancer, if I intend to do it with bots , it takes about 100 -150 bots I guess ....
so , which one do you think is better for UPS ?

[DaveMcW]

as you all know , we need to balance all the wagons so that the whole train won't be waiting for a single wagon.

Only if you use the "full cargo inventory" wait condition. Try setting "time passed" instead if you don't want to wait.

[varundevan]

as you all know , we need to balance all the wagons so that the whole train won't be waiting for a single wagon.

Only if you use the "full cargo inventory" wait condition. Try setting "time passed" instead if you don't want to wait.

Thanks for the message.
yes , that can be done ,but
that might result in in efficient train schedules, the train will be running continuously, and that takes UPS